Museum Visit

Norton Simon Museum is the museum i decided to blog about, and with so many different kinds of art to choose from i ultimately decided to focus on asian arts.



Satta Pass by Ando Utagawa Hiroshige is a japanese art work created in 1834. This picture depicts a scene from the mountains to the sea, as the boats sail off to the next islands where we can see a snow covered mountain. I've always admired many of the japanese's artwork, with its elegant simplicity it seems to be saying in a philosophical sense that artwork doesn't need to consist of high intense color or packed in frame with no room for white to look like art. Instead, japanese art allows a lot of white spaces for people to see contrast and find peace in its form.



Moon Viewing Point, also by Ando Utagawa Hiroshige in 1856 is one fine artwork that depicts the beautiful simplicity of a japanese life style. In the picture we can see that this house is built near the ocean or a large lake, with sliding doors and wooden floors. The view outside is rare, with a full moon and flocks of birds flying across the sky and boats on the water surface. We can see there is not a whole lot of materials in the room, a huge difference when compared to the average american standard of living. Instead of having a whole of junks in a house hold, most traditional japanese places simply have little which brings about tranquility and focus to its surroundings.



Minakuchi by Ando Utagawa Hiroshige in 1834 shows a japanese lady staring out of her house into the white painted town of japan. This artwork has a lot of white contrast color in its painting which perfectly portrays the winter snow season in japan and adds on to style while the white now falling from the deep black sky. With the young lady staring out into the darkness from her house, you can only wonder what she is thinking about, like; how is it possible with the night sky being so dark can produce falling snow that is pure of white?

Reflection

Far eastern arts are in the traditional sense usually has a lot of white and black contrasts with each other that makes up the artwork. The correct uses of these two colors can bring about magnificent piece of art, not only are they simple but they also have a very distinctive quality to them that asks its viewers to take a second look at.