The Minneapolis Institue of Arts

I cannot believe I have never been to this museum, it is amazing! I got lost many times as I went form one room to another. There were so many different thing to see it was impossible to lose interest in anything. Everything was beautiful and I learned so much history. I love artwork that teaches me something about the past and people interpretations of history.

The first piece of artwork I liked was an Enshrined Buddha, circa 1800 from Burma. It is wooden with decorated with gold leaf and mirrors. The Buddha is sitting cross-legged as the didactic states he is in meditation underneath a fig tree. A tour-guide of a group studying religion mentioned that one hand is touching the ground signifying Buddhas as coming to earth. And his bun on top of his head is an extension to heaven. I choose this piece because it is beautiful and because of the deep meaning and religious purposes behind it. To Buddhists this is their ultimate meaning in life, that is a significant piece of artwork.

The second piece of artwork I liked was Portrait of a Boy painted by James B. Read in 1856 in America. I choose to comment about this piece because I liked learning a part of American history. In 19th century mourning rituals were held to remember the dead by viewing a portrait of the dead. The painting is an oil on canvas and depicts a boy, about 5 years old, standing on his porch at home. The withering flowers winding on vine on the porch resemble life is temporary. The painting depicts mourning from the use of the black, red, and white coloring (typical mourning colors) and a stormy sky.

The third piece I liked was Cartonnage of Lady Tashat an Egyptian pine coffin about 710 B.C elaborately painted with hieroglyphs. I choose this piece because its amazing the craftsmanship put into a coffin and learning the history of ancient Egyptians views on afterlife. I like how the hieroglyphs explain the story of the person's life. In this case Teshat, just in her mid-late teens, was daughter of the treasurer of the Temple of Amon at Thebes. Her higher status allowed her to be buried in such elaboration. Her tomb was also actually robbed of jewels from grave-robbers. Its amazing how something so old has survived through time.

The fourth piece of artwork I liked is a crown made in 1920 by an Yoruba tribe from Nigeria. I choose it because I would never think of a crown to look like this. It's an elaborate crown of glass beads, leather, canvas and wicker. The top of the crown is like a funnel. The base is of a face with birds climbing up to the top. Strands of beads come down that would cover the neck to top of the torso of the person wearing it. This crown would be worn by a king, priest or priestesses, and herbalist-deviners, known because they are the only ones that would wear a crown of beads. The face of the person is blocked out from the ordinary people and the birds represent royalty.

The fifth piece of artwork that I liked was Power figure from the Kongo made in the 19th century out of wood, metal, glass, plant fiber, grourd, clay and undetermined materials. It is a dark brown figurine about one foot high the torso and feet are in box shapes. The face is of a man with his mouth open and two different colored eyes widely opened. I am guessing around a hundred nails are driven into the figurine into all parts of the body. I choose this figurine just because it was interesting to see a real voodoo doll. And I thought voodoo was to bring harm on people, but this one was actually used for healing powers and given powers by a ritual healer. A mirror on the figurine "refers to the gateway to the spiritual other world".

The Day of the Dead Alters in the education corridor were very interesting to see and read about. Students from El Colegio, "an urban-based magnet school in Minneapolis made the alters to show honor their past loved ones. I find it amazing when people are given the same assignment, how people interpret it and change it into such different styles of art and make it their own; this is their own form of their artistic impression.

Michael Graves was a featured artist at the museum, exhibiting his building and and consumer product designs. His designs are "classical forms and modern composition with a sophisticated wit." I would describe his designs very modern, straight clean lines, with a cartoony look to some.

Vincent Van Gogh is one of my favorite artists. I was amazing to see such well known artist work in real life. One of the rooms I really enjoyed was the Impressionism room. It included artists such as Philip Little and Theodore Wendid. I like how beautiful all the impression paintings are from a distance and as you get closer you can see all the fine lines of colors with little brush strokes. As seen in Blessing of the Tuna Fleet at Groix by the french artist Paul Signac painted with oil on canvas in 1923. It shows about 20 ships all tightly packed into a harbor in the clear blueish green waters waters. Each boat is brightly painted in primary colors with lots of pright flags on top of the masts and hanging down. In the back ground is buildings and a large hill that blend up into the blue sky. I just love looking closely at all the small brush strokes of colors that almost make you dizzy when you stand to close to move back and see the full painting.