Baltimore Art Museum

On October 15th 2016, my family and I decided to visit the Baltimore Art Museum (BMA) which is located in the heart of Baltimore. I was fascinated with the diversity and beauty of the arts in this gallery. According to the Baltimore Art Museum website, ” Today the Museum boasts a collection of 95,000 works of art that range broadly in terms of geography, culture, chronology, and medium”(Baltimore Art Museum). The museum is housed in a massive building which consists of three floors. Each floor contains many big halls devided into sections. The BMA has one of the most original and important collections of African art, contemporary art, modern art, Asian art, American and Native American art, European art, and the Antioch Mosaics. The Baltimore
Museum of Art does not only exhibiting paintings but also displays large collections of masks, jewelry, sculptures, pottery, and many royal pieces. These collections are classified into a number of departments within the museum’s buildings, depending on their region of origin, the culture they symbolize, and the time period from which they came. It was a challenge to select which pieces of art to analyze among the astonishing collection displayed in this museum. However, the three works of art that I found to be outstanding are The dancer at Pigalle’s, a painting by Gino Servini, Butterfly Kid (girl), a sculpture by Yinka Schonibare, and Paysage (A Winter Day in Brittany), a landscape by William Lamb Picknell. Gino Servini’s painting entitled The Dancer At Pigalle’s was painted in 1912.
The artist utilized oil and multiple layers of gesso on canvas to create his three dimensional piece of art. The Dancer At Pigalle’s represents a woman who dances in the spotlight on a stage. Her dress is spinning around in a circular flow. In this work, Servini is using a futurist style of painting. I have a feeling that I am inside the stage watching this woman performing ballet dancing. The canvas is developed with layers of plaster to be able to represent the dancer’s motion and dress by projecting them out into the viewer’s land. Light and environment act concurrently on the forms of movement. The work is a colorful representation of the body and the cloth of the woman as depicted. Her dress is pink and is printed with brown hearts. Her shoes are brown. She has black hair. While the painting does not reflect the real mood of the dancer, the bright colors and the gestures that the artist used on this painting reveals the happiness of this
character.
Butterfly Kid(girl), a sculpture by Ynka Shonibare, is another piece of art that captured my eyes while walking through the museum. This sculpture was created in 2015. The artist utilized an assortment of diverse three-dimensional material including a fiberglass mannequin, dutch wax- printed cotton textile, silk, metal, globe, and steel base-plate. The head of the sculpture is a celestial black globe. The figurine is freestanding, and a person can walk around it. It represents a butterfly girl ready to take off flying in the middle of the Baltimore Art Museum. The girl is wearing a children’s dress fabricated out of lively African material that also can be found in the majority of the pieces of art developed by Shonibare. The fabric may represent for Shonibare rich symbolic and historical links to the African culture. Regardless of the serious undertone, the overall message reflects a positive attribution. There is a noticeable inspiring idea about the skyward pose of the sculpture, the color and the position of the butterfly wings which may represent a positive attribute, peace, growth and tranquility.
The painting entitled Paysage (A Winter Day in Brittany) by William Lamb Picknell is located in the center of the gallery on the east side of the American section in the Baltimore Art Museum. This oil painted landscape was created in 1881. This piece is another arresting painting displayed in this museum. First, this piece of art is enormous. The more time you spend staring at it, the further it becomes abstract and fascinating. The Paysage (A Winter Day in Brittany) painting shows a man riding a horse who makes his way down a damp road in the landscape. The road has puddles and wet on both sides of the road due to current rain. Also, on the left side of the road, there are some tall trees that become smaller as he goes further. The colors in this painting are full of life; they reflect the colors of earth. The grass on either side of the road remains green but mixed with mud. The path to go back home seems long. The artist used wet brown as well as white clouds and grey sky to reflect the current rainy season. The rider, wearing a black coat, is riding a brownish horse. The rider looks exhausted and cannot wait to get back to his family. If you further gaze in this piece of art, you will notice that the texture is unique, and that the surface of the painting is rugged. In fact, the artist used the pallet knife technique to master this unique piece of art. I felt myself part of this beautiful landscape. I could smell the wet earth and listen to the horse trot. I felt relaxed while enjoying nature and my journey. It is amazing!!! It made me eager to take a vacation in a similar environment.
My family’s visit to the Baltimore Art Museum was incredible and memorable.
This field trip was educational and at the same time entertaining for the entire family. I learned a lot of things from history, others’ cultures, science and old arts. I was amazed by the diversity of the collections exhibited in this museum including masks, jewelry, sculptures, pottery, paintings and many royal pieces. The pieces of art that I selected were just part of many that captured my heart and attention. These pieces were The dancer at Pigalle’s, a painting by Gino Servini representing a women dancing and spinning around happily in a stage. Butterfly Kid (girl), a sculpture by Yinka Schonibare, that relates art with culture and environment and, the Paysage (A Winter Day in Brittany), a landscape by William Lamb Picknell representing a traveler going back home enjoying the nature after a long
journey.