Visiting The NSU Art Museum

     If you've read the last few blog posts, then you would know that I've been pretty sick recently, to a point where I haven't left the house in DAYS.  That sort of isolation isn't really healthy, mentally anyways. So naturally, I've been itching to get out of the house and do things, go places, and see people. And seeing as how my sickness has been dying down lately, I figured I would shoot my friend Isa to go check out an art exhibit (since the rest of my friends are uncultured swines). Since I'm not the most artsy person, I asked Isa which museum nearby would be interesting to visit, and once he suggested the NSU Art Museum at Fort Lauderdale, we just arranged a time to meet up and explore the art exhibitions together!

That, Kenneth Noland (1958)

    I should probably mention that the main exhibition that we checked out, "Glory of The World: Color Field Painting" was there for a limited time only, and so if you do end up going to the museum, it's unlikely that you'll see any of the same art pieces that I did. So what I'm going to do for this blog post is just share some pictures of art pieces that I found particularly interesting, give you my thoughts on them, and call it a day. I know my limits- I'm no art critic, so don't expect a stimulating critique of their technique. With that out of the way, let's go!

    The first piece we saw upon entering the exhibit was Kenneth Noland's "This" and "That". Beyond simply having names that I found kind of funny, I was drawn to this piece by the bright colors and the cleanliness of the circular shapes within, while being surrounded by a messier gray mass that was clearly painted with a brush.  I only got a picture of "That", because I had already seen "This" stuff before (stupid joke).

Alpha Pi, Morris Louis (1960)

    After "That", we walked into another room where I was immediately attracted to the far side of the room by "Alpha Pi", which was made by the artist Morris Louis. I thought it was interesting how the actual "art" was forced into the edges of the piece, but despite that, my eyes remained fixed on the negative space between either side of the cascading colors. Maybe it's just me, but something about how each stream of color is dragged down and to the center of the frame reminds me of the perspective of staring down the edge of a waterfall, with the water moving to the edges of the person as they stand in the center, looking down. I had such a strange attachment to this piece that I actually took a picture with it, which ended up looking pretty funny because I filled the negative space, and the effect of the painting felt lost because of it. I guess it was cool understanding the idea of implied space/perspective through the use of almost only negative space composed between either end of the frame!

To Speak, Larry Poons (1987)

    Stepping into another room, both Isa and I gravitated to this piece by Larry Poons, "To Speak".  Aside from standing out from other artwork simply because of its 3-dimensionality and texture, it also really reminded me of Isa's own artwork, since they often experiment with more tangible shapes and textures. Otherwise, I'd be lying if I said that I understood the piece. I just thought the textures looked really cool...

   

     Regrettably I couldn't quite make out the little plaque besides this piece so I could name and credit the artist (damn you Android camera) but I did really quickly want to mention that I liked the perception of motion and passion that the body positioning of the two figures invoke. Also the one on the left kind of looked like the Spot villain from the Spiderman movies, so I guess that's also interesting.

    I wanted to end with my favorite piece that I saw during our visit to the museum. Tragically, I once again forgot to take note of the piece's name or the artist, so I guess I can't credit this one either :(. 

    I'm not sure what made me like this piece so much. Maybe its the colors and how it feels like each splash, stroke, and blob seems to be battling for the focus of the image? When we were looking at it, I remember mentioning that I saw an angel made of a light blue head and wings, wearing a robe of light, which has a weird effect on its edges. Do you see it?

    I'm very happy with my little art museum field trip! Besides being a nice excuse to go outside and hang out with a friend, I unironically really enjoyed walking around and looking at art! Call me Mr. Cultured....