SAS07: A Field Trip To New York City

ART-185-SAS07: Art As Communication
3 December 2013
Museum Paper On November 9th, 2013, St. Josephs College hosted a field trip into New York City. The purpose of this field trip was to transport us into the city, and have the students visit a major art museum. There were a few different choices, the students had, but most went straight to the Metropolitan Museum of Art because the admission to the museum was whatever you want to contribute. However, we took a different approach. My friend and I went straight to The Museum of Modern Art, also known as the MOMA. I looked briefly the night before at each museum to get a feel for what I wanted to see, and what I did not. Once I saw this artist was at the MOMA, that’s when I knew I wanted
I never knew who he was, or knew the style in which he painted. It was only a few classes before the trip that I truly learned to appreciate this artist. I have never seen an artist who has the patience and delicacy to place these dots on a canvas, sometimes smaller than a crumb, to create a work of art. George Seurat was a French Post-Impressionist painter who drew in a style called pointillism. Pointillism is “the theory or practice in art of applying small strokes or dots of color to a surface so that from a distance they blend together.” (Merriam-webster.com) This style of painting is consistent with his other works through this time period. The piece of art I chose for my paper is the “Port-en-Bessin, Entrance to the Harbor” by Seurat. This painting was made in France in 1888 and is roughly 21.65 inches by 25.59 inches. The painting is oil on canvas and describes a harbor in France. When I first saw this painting I didn’t realize it was a piece by Seurat. It looked as if it was work done in a different style than pointillism. I chose this one because, in my opinion, this style of painting deserves the most respect out of any of the artist. In this painting you can see how each little dot is done in order to create one
The first thing I noticed in this painting was the defining line between the shore and the water. Seurat uses different shades of green and a very pale color to illustrate the effect of grass and sand. For some reason that part of the painting kept me looking for a little bit and following the shore line up the painting. Next my eyes brought me to the water and the floating dock towards the middle ground slightly to the left of the painting. Here you can see he used two complementary colors to really attract your eyes to that point. The almost wood color of the dock and the light blue water really reinforce each other and keep you looking there for a brief second. The water had me confused at first. You can see within the harbor itself, there are three larger dark blue circles. I thought they were deeper parts of the water and Seurat was trying to create depth here, but I soon ruled that out. I later realized with the weather that is portrayed here, that those are clouds creating darker shades of the light blue color of the