Art Critique

Name: Tashnia Ahmed
Course: Art Appreciation
Instructor: Ms. A. Miller
Date: 04/01/13

Julie Mehretu’s Stadia II

Julie Mehretu was born in 1970 in Ethiopia. The University Cheikh Anta Diop is where she was a student and she got her MFA from Rhode Island School of Design in the year of 1997. Renegade Delirium, another famous artwork by Julie Mehretu displays the fact that she is an abstract artist. In 2004, Mehretu articulately created the painting that was named “Stadia II”. As soon as my eyes set upon her art, I had the instant thought of “Wow, look at the balance of colors and design!” Mehretu’s brush seemed to be dancing on the canvas in this piece as she splashes colors of yellow, blue, red, black, grey, orange, white and aquamarine. Looking at the art from the bottom up, the hue altered from a softer yellow to a bolder dark blue and green. Line plays a huge role in the painting because you can see various curves and diagonal lines taking place. I also noticed Mehretu using the intaglio technique in the upper portions of her art. There are several shapes in her artwork that can be identified looking at the piece once such as the diamond, the circle and rectangle. A viewer might notice the layer that Mehretu uses in her art which might cause some disturbance to the eye, because it did to me; if you look at it too long. The artist used mixed media when she uses the new generation technology of computer design to achieve some of the depth along with paint on canvas. The form of this work gives the viewer a 3-dimensional feel primarily due to the way she textured the layers of work. You might just describe the art almost “in the air”. The support that the 2-demensional shapes give off to the rest of the work makes the 3-demensional shapes represent the piece in a more uncompromising manner. The bottom of her canvas seemingly shows achromatic design because you only see a few strokes and lines with a couple drops of color here and there. The intensity increases as we go into depth in the upper left corner of her work. There is somewhat a rhythm when you see a tornado-like vortex taking place while all the layers come together no matter if the audience views it bottom-to-top or top-to-bottom, she has a harmony going for the entire piece. Hints of shading are taking place in the lower back portion of the canvas with a tint of empty white on the canvas. Dashes, lines and swirls are unusually bright but I feel she did that as an illusion to the art but somehow she kept the canvas glowing and somewhat spacious. Stadia II’s center of interest definitely has taken place in the upper portion of the painting because of the colors amidst the many shapes and lines that texture it’s way to building up into one amazing piece. Overall I feel this artist used this piece as a representational art because though abstract, I sensed a feminine touch and emotion to the way she designed every angle of the design. Her painting captures social realism but I wasn’t sure if it was intentional or not.