Cultural Mapping Through Museums
Art cannot be confined to a Museums. It has many levels of depth pertaining to it. The message it is expressing to all is not always recognized, but is always received. This is what I am learning. Before this class, I thought that I did not know anything about Art, that Art was like every other subject that I have taken, where there is no room for your opinion. That it is either black or white, right or wrong, but this is not true. By questioning, you begin to understand what the artist is expressing. This is exactly what the title of our book, Believing is Seeing, has been trying to express. You reflect your beliefs into the Art. It is not the other way around, seeing is believing, because you already have opinions. If you were a blank chock board then it would be seeing is believing, but you are not like this, you already have opinions about everything. You have to unlearn everything you know in order to understand Art. You learn that even if you do not think you have an opinion about something, that actually you do, but you just do not know it.This semester we have been to the following museums in the following order: Long Beach Museum of Art (LBMA), Museum of Latin American Art (MoLAA), Watt's
What about LACMA? Los Angeles County covers quite a large area, yet does not addresses the language issue. They do a better job of addressing the cultural issue then the Getty, but they do not satisfactorily address the entire issue. You can say that a little is better than nothing, but you notice that it is not a priority. While looking at all the institution you can say that their choices define what they represent, and that if they were all alike then their would be no individuality, except in the Art. You can even go as far a saying that if you do have displays in dual languages; what is the other language that you are going to pick? The United States is a mixing bowl, and English is the most common language used; but is this right? This argument is a poor point, sided stepping the real issue of culturally making everyone equal. The most obviously dominant culture based institution is the Getty. It is mimicking the Acropolis. The Getty is made out of white Italian stone on top of a hill, similar to the Acropolis. The Acropolis was made out of white marble on top of a hill. The two basic structures are similar in structure size, and some content. The Getty displays many Greek artifacts, and obviously, the Acropolis had only Greek decorations of the time. The Getty wants very little to do with the marginal culture. They do have pamphlets and books for sale in other languages, but they do not have their display descriptions in other languages. They would not allow it although they have more then enough money to do so. This is based on the British standard, which the Getty is trying to copy exactly, because in England they do not have their display in any other language then English. They set their standard the same with their books and pamphlets as well. Even their organization of art is the same. What a surprise! Art has always been apart of the dominant culture; this is one way which they have tried to distinguish themselves from the marginal culture. Through this cultural mapping keeps its defined definition. Look at the point which Devin brought up at the Getty, there was only one statue of African Art in the entire place. If it was not there, the Getty could be compared to Nazi Germany, but since it is, it is causes it to be similar and not exactly alike because Hitler would not even allow one piece to be in his gallery. The first museum we visited was the Long Beach Museum of Art. It began the transformation of our thinking and understanding. Wherever there is a building that contains multiple room of Art, and that is open to the public, I now consider it a museum. Before I visited LBMA I had only been to large museums like t
Some common words found in the essay are:
English Spanish, Angeles County, South Africa, Acropolis Greek, Getty LACMA, Spanish C's, Art Graffiti, Believing Seeing, San Marino, Huntington Library, marginal culture, dominant culture, cultural mapping, museum art, display descriptions, latin american, los angeles county, believe art, english spanish, museum museum, los angeles, themselves marginal culture, beach museum art, display descriptions languages, seeing believing opinions,
Approximate Word count = 1808
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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