Trip to the BMA

Gino Severini | Italian, 1883 - 1966
Dancer at Pigalle's, 1912

 I chose this piece as my number one because the longer I look it, the more that I am able to take away from it. The piece is supposed to show the movements of a dancer in motion and I think it does a wonderful job of that. Initially, I did not realize what the picture was trying to portray, but now when I look at it, that is all I can see. It is interesting how my perception changed after I was opened up to a new way of thinking. I liked the colors and excitement of the painting. It reminds me of confetti at a celebration. I think the composition of this picture is probably centered around a focal point. There is an implied circle and then lines that lead you to the center of the piece. You can see a head of the dancer near the top, but it is in very subtle colors. I think we are more called to look at the piece from the center out to get the bigger picture.

Matta | Chilean, 1911 - 2002
Rocks, 1940

This piece struck me because of its ambiguity. I
am not really sure what it is supposed to be, or the story behind it. The piece is titled Rocks and if I look hard enough, it is almost as if there is another painting going on in the background through the melted wholes. That is the first place my eye went and pretty much stayed, trying to figure out what was being shown between the cracks. I think the composition of this piece is hard to pinpoint, but I can see a clear distinction between the landscape in the picture and the sky. It may be thirds because of this distinction, but looking across the painting horizontally it is hard to break it up.

Susan Rothenberg | American, born 1945
Siena dos Equis, 1975

I selected this final piece because I was attracted to its simplicity and symmetry. The painting shows a horse in the middle and 3 lines crisscrossing across the canvas. The painting itself is huge. If you look at the picture that I took, I purposely left a person in the shot just so you could get a better idea of its actual size. That is something that I am glad I got to experience in person because it definitely changes the impact of the piece. One other thing that was much easier to tell in person is the distinction of the lines. They all seem to be rope tying the piece down to the page. Where the lines lay there was almost an imprint like a rope tied to a bed or a sponge. I thought that was very interesting. The composition of this piece is simply thirds. It is broken up clearly.