Art and Identity: The Museum of Modern Art.

     So about two weeks ago, I had my first class field trip to the Museum of Modern Art (Moma). It was actually my first experience there as well, so I was a little entertained by the works of art I saw. While I was there, my class and I were assigned to pick three separate paintings. Each painting is to fall under the category of either personal identity, historical identity, and cultural identity.

 

 A painting I chose to represent historical identity is the Gare Montparnasse (The Melancholy of Departure) by Giorgio de Chirico. Gare Montparnasse is a train station in Paris and this painting was painted in 1914 just months before World War I. As you can see the two figures on the right, it appears to be two people that seem to be walking towards the train to make their departure from Paris. For what reason? Maybe to flee prior to the happening of WWI, one of the world's major historical events. In my perspective, as I look at this painting, I can feel the idea of the fear that some civilians had at the time knowing that a war could happen at any time.

The painting I chose to represent personal identity is Andrew Wyeth's "Christina's World" which happened to have caught my eye as I walked around the Moma. The woman in the photo was Wyeth's neighbor who happened to be crippled by polio, a fatal crippling disease. He was inspired to create the painting when he saw Christina crawling the fields of grass. "She was limited physically, but by no means spiritually" stated Wyeth. He wanted to do justice to her extraordinary conquest of a life which most people would have considered hopeless. 

 Lastly, what I chose to represent for cultural identity is Philip-Lorca diCorcia's photograph titled "Major Tom; Kansas City, Kansas; $20". diCorcia took pictures of men who had moved to Hollywood to follow their dreams, only to be found on the streets for prostitution. He paid the men to simply pose in the streets. Each photo is titled with the man's name, where he was from, and how much the man was paid for the photo. I feel that his photo strongly represents culture because in today's economy, many people struggle to make a decent living in cities and such.

As I browsed through the Moma, I learned that there were many different forms of art. To be honest, many forms that do not interest me. But three main forms are Paintings, photographs, and sculptures. Photography is where my interest lies the most in today's art world.

Artworks used:

Giorgio de Chricio

" Gare Montparnasse (The Melancholy of Departure)"

Oil on Canvas

1914

Andrew Wyeth

"Christina's World"

Tempera on panel

1948

Philip-Lorca diCorcia

"Major Tom; Kansas City, Kansas; $20"

Chromogenic color print

1990-1992