I visited the Cantor Center for Visual Arts on the Stanford University campus for my assignment.
The three pieces of art that I chose to review are:
Slab Man is a vinyl resin and fiberglass sculpture of a cement worker leaning against a wall. This sculpture is a very realistic piece of art. The first time I saw it I thought the man was a live model posing in a living "still life." The proportions are very accurate. The man stands approximately 5 feet 9 inches tall. He has real hair, including on his bare arm, and realistic variations and imperfections of his skin tone. He even has dirt underneath his fingernails. He is also a little overweight, especially around his mid-section.
This sculpture is descriptive - it tells a story. The cement worker is wearing dirty work clothes and muddy boots. You can tell from the way he is leaning against the wall and looking down at the ground that he is very weary and beaten down by his life. His name, David, is stenciled on his work shirt. Supposedly this is a pun intended on the idealized male nude, David by Michelangelo.
Three Machines is an oil on canvas depicting three nearly identical gumball machines side-by-side on a white background. This painting is an example of modern art. I have no idea what the point of this painting is. I chose to review it because I liked the way the bright colors of the gumballs contrasted with the white negative area. I also liked the painting for its simplicity and economy.
The painting appears balanced because the gumball machines are positioned horizontally in the bottom third of the frame. Harmony is achieved by the repetition of the gumball machines. Although the machines appear to be identical, the shadows they cast are of slightly different sizes. The shadows are the only source of visual linking in the painting, thus adding to the feeling of harmony. At the same time, the shadows provide variety.
The Gates of Hell is one of my favorite pieces of art in the Cantor Museum. Rodin has skillfully combined subject, form, and content to create organic unity with this sculpture. It is truly a masterpiece!
Rodin used a small portion of Dante's poem, Divine Comedy, for his subject. He uses all the principles of organization in his interpretation.
The sheer size of this bronze sculpture makes it dominant - it is a approximately 20 feet high, 13 feet wide and 3 feet deep. The sculpture uses approximate symmetry to achieve balance. The two gates are symmetrical but the details inside and surrounding the gates are not.
Rodin uses many components of harmony in this sculpture: repetition, where identical body parts reappear on different bodies; a very active rhythm; shared edges, where bodies are touching and overlapping; and interpenetration, where bodies appear to have partially passed through the gates.
This scupture has a strong sense of movement. Bodies are in various angles and orientations, but there is no doubt that they are all trying to avoid passing through the gates.
