Visit to University of California Riverside Museum (California Museum of Photography)

Not far form Riverside Art Museum there is another museum, UCR photograph museum. It is on one side of the street with other shops around but have a really modern look. Dark grey wall with the name on it as well as a fancy television playing artwork that is showing inside the museum.  Since there is a big show coming and artists still preparing for that, so there is not much art inside the main gallery that we can see. However, when you walk inside the museum, your eyes will be caught by a huge wall painting although it is not done yet. I was amazed by the wall painting even though it has not done yet. I saw five exactly same backs in front of me four on the wall and one is drawing it. On the whole wall, there are two bareheaded men coming from water with a naked beautiful back and a chain connected each other. It is a blue watercolor painting, you can even see the movement of the muscles with those two men rising of the water. The artist who is painting is Joe Biel; he is a current faculty at California State University Fullerton. He had some exhibited in galleries nationally and used to teach in University of Redlands. I asked him if this is his back since they look the same, as least with the shirt on, he said he wish( Haha…:) but he is drawing a twin coming from water and the art show will happen soon. We talked about his job as well as his drawing and I let him back to continue working on his artwork. Although we didn’t talk for a long time, this picture stocked in my head I can’t forget.

            On the other side of the museum is California Museum of Photography. On the second floor there are a set of photograph “blocked” by Roberto Fumagalli. Roberto was born in Monza, Italy in 197 and he moved to the LA area in 1999 and did some of the most renowned photographers in Hollywood. The photo in  “blocked” were taken itinerary through Iran, North Korea and Cuba in eleven years and multiple trips. The theme of this set of photo is to reflect multi-layered political and social landscapes of these states. His photo is challenging the western view point of Cuba ----terrorism. He showed us a different aspect of Cuba Iran and North Korean. They are the sufferer of the war too! Here is one picture that gave me the most impression. There is a gun with the American flag print on it that pointing at two Muslim women’s head.  What irony! The poster on the tall building also tells the same message. What did America do to the axis country? This is a peaceful world and no more war is needed! No one get benefit from nuclear weapon. All of the president of the country should look at it and think about how much a person’s life worth? What if the person who died in the war is their family?   

Visit to riverside art museum

            This is a gallery not as big as others that I’ve been to before but it made a big impress on me.  When you get to down town riverside you can find a lot of beautiful architectures from different time rage on the sides of the road. It’s a really cute downtown once you get off from I-15 it will not even take you ten minute to get there and the art museum is right on your left. There is a big “ART” sign in three-primary colours in front of the gallery that you can tell you are in the right place. When you walk inside, there are three different exhibition hall hanging different kinds of artworks. If you keep walking straight you can reach an outdoor like but actually indoor exhibition hall, there is a theme photo show is on. The artist Michael Nye put on a show about Hunger and Resilience.  The photo was really shocking. All of them are black and white photo and all the people who are in the picture look either tired, upset or unhappy. Why? Cause they are hungry. There are also a radio that is use to tell you the story of the main guy in the picture. The fifty portraits and audio stories show different people who have experienced hunger. In simple, eloquent detail, these voices and images draw you closer into their lives. The story is not intended to summary anyone’s life. My favorite photo out of all is a man who is sitting on top of a rock and behind him are some wood and box as well as trees.  He looks different than other people who are in the picture. He looks like he has some strength and from what he said I remember the most is  “when I don’t have food and hungry I will go drive to the garbage can sometimes hunger lead you that way but I will not beg for my food or pay a handle of my food, to me it is something about humiliate and never let yourself down no matter how beaten you are. Never let the world beat you down.” Michael said all the people in the picture are teachers and we are students to listen to their world and learn from it.

When you turnaround and walk to the second floor of the museum you can see another theme show is on which is called “52”. “She was born in 52, has 52 favorite trees, and took a 52-week art sabbatical…” she is Sue Mitchell, a printmaker mixed media artist.  It’s all about trees in a local park ----Fairmont Park. Sue is a local artist, she live in riverside for a long time and she said Fairmont park is the place that she always go and enjoy the cool in the shades of all those trees in her area until one day she realize how amazing the patterns on the trees are and she started to study them. She thought about doing this art show to show people the thing that she love and she promise she will show every little details that in the processes of 52 weeks of collecting. So there is another room connected to the exhibition room, which is her studio. She moved her studio from home to museum and does her work inside instead and visitor who wants to cheat with her can do that easily.  The whole room is full of her little detail colleting from 52 weeks which you can see on your left hand of you go inside she even has a memorial photo board for her animal friends that she found died in the park. 

The most interesting part of her studio is a board which she named it “birds poop art”. One day she was walking in the park trying to get some picture for her trees but suddenly she saw bird poops on the ground that have different shapes then she used them as one of her design elements. There is a guy flying a skit, a man smoking a cigarette, a monster and a lot of other amazing design based on the shape of the poops. She told me everywhere is art but you just have to have the eye to find it. She has her own business so she went to home school for he art classes and she told me those two different exhibition rooms just like the epitome of her life. Outside, the show case room is how people view her as a businesswoman, organized, perfect and orderly but actually inside her brain there is another world crazy, imaginative and fancy. Through out the whole 52 weeks she learnt a lot from the natural and enjoying her life at the same time. There are some important things that I leant from her:

1.     Always keep a notebook with you in case you have any inspiration you can write it done.

2.     Open your eyes to see the world, you will be amazed how fascinating and beautiful this world is from a different aspect.

3.      Be creative and use your imagination but the most important thing is to make some actions.

4.     Knowing how to marketing  is really important too.

Self-portrait of Rembrandt

Rembrandt harman pine van reinhard  (1606-1669) was one of the greatest painters of Europe in the 17th century as well as the greatest painter in Dutch history. Rembrandt early studied under P. Sterman’s home studio and he set up art studio in 1625 by himself. His painting genre was really wide and he was good at self-portrait, landscape, genre painting, religion and history painting, etc.

Rembrandt was born in Leiden, his father was a miller and mother was a daughter of a baker. They had totally nine children, and Rembrandt was the youngest one as well as the cleverest brothers in his family. Rembrandt enter Leiden University at the age of 14; when he was 17 years old, he went to Amsterdam to study under Sterman. In 1627, at the age of 21, he basically mastered the technique of painting, drawings and etchings with a new development of his own style. Further more, he opened a home studio and during that time, he paint a lot of self- portrayal. At that time when he left Leiden to Amsterdam in 1631, he became the main portrait painter of Amsterdam. After 1650 s, his painting getting more powerful and the wide use of overlapping color gave the image more stereo feeling. 1661 was the best year in his painting career.

Rembrandt has left more than 600 oil paintings, 300 eclipse and more than 2000 drawings, within that he almost drew more than 100 self-portrait, and almost all of his family member were in his paintings. In all Rembrandt’s portrait, self-portrait took up an important position. You almost can't find a second oil painter who has a larger amount of collection than him. According to the museum incomplete statistics, there are about 90 painting of his self-portrait, including 60 oil paintings, 20 pieces etchings and 10 sketches from all around the world. His self-portrait not only has large quantity, but the artistic quality also rises with age. Especially in the late age, the harsh reality honed him, which made him to know himself more profoundly. Around '60 s, his self-portrait showed a distinct personality. Painters pay great attention to the facial expression so that viewers can read things from it.

As you can see from the first picture, his self-portraits were full of faith, with tenacity and fortitude character. He did the second picture at age of 54. On the left hand, Rembrandt was holding the palette with brush and fork at the waist in his right hand. Unkempt appearance, showing his poverty and humble. Chubby body with scarves, only a pair of eyes can be seen. He seems thinking about something, without a smile on his face and standing in front of the easel deadly. Background was watered down, highlighting the painter's upper body, like a tower stand still.

Bust of Queen Nefertiti

            Nefertiti is Egypt's 18th dynasty pharaoh amon HuoTaiPu IV's wife, she had a short life which only for 30 years. She was not only the normal ancient Egyptian beautiful queen, but also had an equal power as her husband for her lifetime. She was a great ancient Egyptian politician who had big influence on economy, military, culture and religion. For researchers in the ancient Egyptian civilization, the name of Nefertiti is more outstanding than her husband's meng HuoTaiPu iv, she was as famous as Cleopatra VII, queen of Ptolemaic Egyp as well as the first woman Pharaoh of Egypt----Hatshepsut, and called the greatest three women of ancient Egypt.

            Nefertiti means beautiful, she was in about 1352 BC to 1352 BC, and helped her husband Meng HuoTaiPu IV ruled Egypt. There is enough evidence to show that, after her husband's death, she went on ruled Egypt for three more years, at the time when Nefertiti ruled Egypt, she ordered to build lots of trade routes and transport precious treasure from overseas to Egypt. At the time of her reign, the women and men enjoy equal rights, buy and sell items in bazaar, take part in the war as well as do the same work.

            Nefertiti is always has been the most Precious in Berlin museum. On December 6, 1912, Berlin archaeologist Ludwig Bogarde found this Nefertiti statue. The head of Nefertiti is over 3300 years and in 1913 it was shipped to Germany but the body parts were still in Egypt. Berlin museum did an exhibition on it in 1923, the beauty of head shocked the world but during the Second World War, the head is mysteriously disappeared in April 1945. Later, the American army found it in north of Frankfurt, Germany, in a 640 m deep salt mine. It was in a pocket and hidden by the Nazis. Over years, Egypt has been negotiating with German Berlin museum and striving for asking Nefertiti head back to Egypt.

Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso

             At the late nineteen century, there are two rising stars in art field came to people’s eyes they are Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. Pablo ruiz was a Spanish painter and sculptor. He was the founder of cubism, the main representative modern western painting. He is a Spanish who had a special artistic talent when he was a kid. His father was an art teacher, which I believe influenced him a lot plus he had a stricter training on painting in Academy of Fine Arts. So he had a solid modeling ability. Magara is his hometown, which is in Spain. As a communist party member, he was the most profound contemporary western, most creative and influential artist. He and his picture is the immortal status in the world of art. As for his artwork, people usually divided by different “Period”. They are: Blue Period, Rose Period, Cubism Period and Neoclassical Period. During 1900-1903 is the so-called “Blue Period”. At that time Picasso was under very poor living conditions, influenced by Degas and Jas seal’s style of painting. He was educated in Spain, where art is full of sadness, so in this period, his artwork is filled with gloomy and darkness. But in 1906 his artwork turned into a new era, which also was the time when Picasso met Matisse, we call it “Rose Period”. At this moment, he had a better and happier life than before, so his color choice transferred into use more light pink and warm colors. Painting object also changed from beggars, emaciated children and women to sorrow buskers, jugglers, and young women. Then on the basis of Cezanne's painting in structure, he discussed and researched more, so that his artwork shows a geometrical tendency. The “Avignon girls” in 1907 was he most famous one in this period. From then on, he started to thinking about create cubism. There is no one in the world can compare with Picasso of his freedom on painting. In his whole life, he had an honest heart and innocence of creativity to remake the world with complete freedom.

            As for Henri Matisse, he was the greatest painter who is good at use color in the 20th century and the representative of fauvism. Youth Matisse studied at art school in Paris academy of fine arts in 1895, following the established painter Morrow study and affected by post-impressionist as well as incorporate the representations of the Eastern art and African art, he formed a "comprehensive simplistic style", which uphold to use simple line to create artwork. After 1906, his work used simple line drawings and the combination of color piece, formed a decorative style. He was also an outstanding sculptor and one of the pioneers of modern sculpture.