Pompidou

Day 9

Today we went to the Pompidou, and I honestly had no idea what that was until we got there. When I realized it was the contemporary museum at first I was a little skeptical because normally when someone says contemporary the things that are shown are something similar to what we saw at Palais de Tokyo, which I know a lot of people liked, so I mean no disrespect to them, I just don’t normally care for that sort of artwork. To put this into context ill talk about that first day we went to Palais de Tokyo. 

As I walked into the gallery nearest the strange music happening in the basement, I noticed what looked like torn pieces of cardboard boxes on the wall. Upon closer inspection it turned out that they were in fact torn cardboard boxes on the wall. Just... torn cardboard boxes. Granted I couldn’t read the description that went with it, but it’s just not the kind of work I can easily get into. It doesn’t seem to have an obvious purpose and I just didn’t get it. Things like that just don’t hold my attention.

Upon entering the Pompidou, and more particularly, the floor we had been on I felt more comfortable. It felt a little familiar and like home. My grandma had been an artist and much of her work had a similar aesthetic to some of the works in the gallery. Abstracted and more geometric representations of regular objects was something she quite enjoyed. I realized that I liked it too, and this was the museum I would have liked to have spent much more time in. 

For my assignment I chose 2 pieces that I now realize are reminiscent of the sort of abstraction that my grandma liked so much. 

Vassily Kandinsky’s “Bleu de ciel” (Sky Blue) and a piece that I think it is made my someone names César called “Esturgeon” (Sturgeon). 

What initially attracted me to the Kandinsky painting was that from a distance you see the painting and you think that it’s a painting of tiny little creatures. As you approach the painting you realize that “Oh” it’s just a bunch of abstract pattern blobs. But then...as you stand there and look at it, the creatures start to re-emerge and you realize that the blobs are actually abstracted versions of animals!

I was able to find a fish, jellyfish, duck, and turtle. The rest are a little too abstracted to figure out. This got me thinking and I wanted to find another animal in the museum which was also abstracted but in a much more representational way to compare them. 

This is how I ended up finding “Estugeon”.

Which is an enormous sculpture of a sturgeon fish made of rusty, welded metal pieces. The piece is however much more recognizable as a fish, than any of the animals in the previous painting. 

I think what ended up tying these two together for me was that though the Kandinsky painting was of animals associated with the water those animals were out of their element and put into the sky. The same is true of the sturgeon fish. It was literally a fish out of water. I think between the two there is a theme of displacement or change and moving from one space that is comfortable to another. 

Overall, it was a very good experience but I was very sad that I didn’t have more time to spend in the museum. I spent most of the time on my assignment and couldn’t truly experience the museum to it’s fullest extent which seemed so full of pieces that I would have loved. 

NOTE: I would also like to clarify that I had both this blog and the next blog done before today but refrained from posting it because we had yet to do the presentations.

Also I added the conclusion today after thinking more about it.