Saturday, July 23, 2022

Art Questions from the deCordova Sculpture Park

  Hi everyone Happy Saturday to you.

I hope you're having a nice start to the weekend. We're still in the heat as many of you are also. I want some of that beautiful 80 degree (F), low humidity weather we had back in June and earlier this month. Until it returns I'll be hunkering down inside the house and hoping my electric bill won't be too ridiculous next month from running the AC. Smile.

  Today I'm taking you back to the deCordova Sculpture Park  with some sculpture photos. I often require an explanation for what a piece of modern sculpture means, but I do enjoy the questions looking at modern sculpture makes me think of. 

This next piece is a good example of that. Sculpture or just a dead tree? I had a hard time deciding.


And the view and my thoughts changed  from every angle I looked at it.





Definitely a sculpture. I couldn't get close enough (it stood in a garden) to determine if it was made from branches or if it was just made to look like old branches.


I was  very fascinated by that piece. Maybe because I never quite knew exactly how to answer my questions.

And is this 1 sculpture reflected in the glass, or is it 2, one on each side of the glass? 


It was actually 2.

This painting was in the museum at the park. The questions from me were, what exactly makes something museum quality versus something any artist (or anyone even non-artists) could paint? Is it the art, or is it what the piece represents that makes something a museum would hang on the wall.


And this little piece was called the Otter. It is an otter's body with a human face, ear and hand.


How do I interpret this? Is this man's view of the rest of the animal kingdom, biased by seeing the human like qualities of those living things?

Is it that the artist thinks that animals are intelligent, and we should respect them more?
Or perhaps it is something else.



And this large glass flower had a number 5 hanging from it. Why 5?


 
I think 5 petals, or 5 stamen. Or it blooms for 5 days? Maybe my questions are strictly too botanical.

And finally, a statue that had no explanation or name from what we could find. (I later tracked down the name from the  statue, and it was called Tower.)


This stack of cinder blocks means...
Any guesses?

I think it shows the development of cities over man's history.  But what do I know?

Have a nice summer weekend and stay cool.









14 comments:

Angie's Recipes said...

The image in the middle of the post looks like a professional dancer! I don't understand art much, but I appreciate the beautiful natural things.

Iris Flavia said...

All these pieces are very great art!
I remember 2019 - Cottesloe, Sculpture by the sea. Felloe blogger Grace and I wandered around and had no clue what the art "means".
Her Hubby went and got the leaflet somehow (we were a day early as we had to leave to Germany the next day).

Sometimes it´s better to just make up your own mind on art.
I´m not even sure the artist wants us to understand what it´s about?

#5... may it mean what you want!

No ide if you can see this, I got it from FB. I´m no dog-person, but this sure melted my heart!
Hugs and to dogs, cats and a nice weekend (way too cold here).

kathyinozarks said...

good morning Erika, this was an interesting post and I enjoyed reading it. when it comes to art there are no answers unless the artist gives us one.
I do shake my head at times though at pieces that are called art

R's Rue said...

So beautiful

CJ Kennedy said...

The interpretation of art is up to the viewer which makes art so subjective. As to museum quality that would be money driven. A museum wouldn't procure a piece unless there was some monetary value to the piece and/or artist. Stay cool today

DVArtist said...

Your questions are all valid. As we know art is supposed to stir emotions, evoke some deeper instinct that draws us to a certain piece of art, to make us think. Anyway that's what the so called experts say. LOL I love modern sculpture. Like you I wonder what the heck was the artist thinking, what brought them to this point? What does it mean? We either walk away bewildered or come to a conclusion. Choosing art for gallery is a whole different subject. Either way I love venturing with you through these parks and seeing art I would not otherwise see. Thank you.

Divers and Sundry said...

Cool! We can each approach each different piece from our own personal perspective. It's nice to have the opportunity to spend enough time with the art to engage it and ponder.

Aimeslee Winans said...

LOLOL, I got such a kick out of reading your commentary! Most definitely, you should docent groups for these! Epic! LOL, yeah, I know, but still! That sunset, wut? Well, I so hope you are enjoying your refrigerated sequester. When I heard it was moving east, I thought oh no Erika's gonna get it. We're getting another one but next week but not quite as bad, more like regular August for us. Thanks for the chuckles, you are SO RIGHT, so we can just see what we want to. xoxo

Anne (cornucopia) said...

Wow, I especially love the first tree statue type art. Everything else is nice, too. Great place to get to visit.

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

For some reason, I was unable to leave a comment on your blog yesterday. I hope that's not the case today.

I usually like modern art, but there is something disturbing about these. I was not especially fond of any of these, even though I loved the ones you shared in earlier posts.

Jeanie said...

Sometimes art leaves you with questions that are thought provoking and stick with you. Sometimes it leaves me with questions for the curator as in "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?????" I will say the rainbow/cave/sunset/whatever painting was much butter than the piece I saw at our contemporary art museum of a badly painted white rabbit on a pink background that looked as though it was done by a talented first grader or an average third grader. I wish I'd taken a photo of it but I didn't want to waste the battery on it. I suppose some could argue so does Jackson Pollock. But he, at least, innovated. In the end it's what you like and don't like and I'm sure the artist's mother liked it very much.

NGS said...

My mom and I were recently at a sculpture park (Frederik Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan) and while I appreciated the sculptures that were clearly a thing, I liked the ones that were left open to interpretation. I thought my mom and I had the best conversations about the ones that were a little bit more ambiguous. I like it when the art leaves me with more questions than answers.

craftytrog said...

An interesting selection of sculptures and art. I love the first one!

Mae Travels said...

I find that thinking up an explanation for the exact meaning of each work of art in an exhibit doesn’t help me. When I have looked at an ensemble of art in a gallery or sculpture garden, I feel as if I have a new general insight about the whole (unless it totally turns me off). I think I would enjoy the garden in your photos. I agree with NGS about the Meier gardens in Grand Rapids — one of the ones I’ve very much enjoyed. The indoor exhibit when I was there was At Wei Wei, whose work is very abstract and wonderful to me.

best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com