MOMA essay

            Last Sunday, I went to MOMA. I actually went to MOMA several times. However, I never got to see everything and I was excited. As soon as I got to the 2^nd floor where the exhibition starts, I saw screens of a map. There was a headphone connected to the screen. I picked up the headphone and listened. The men was explaining which places he went illegally. 

This project of a video was about people who were had to go to journey illegally due to political and economic circumstances. It was interesting how someone’s journey could turn into an art piece. After looking at the video, I went to the 4^th floor where I’ve never got to explore. There were many modern arts that attracted me. One of them was an art named Checkmate by an American artist named Richard Lindner that was created in 1966.

            I looked at the art for around a few minutes and took notes to tell my partner about the art. This art is a drawing by the watercolor, pencil, crayon and ink with the prints that are cut and pasted. The painted background of this art was the first thing that I noticed. It had a patterns of a checker board. The colors that were used for the background was different from the checkers. There is a colors of black, white, purple, and orange and etc. The pattern is created with a shape of squares like a chess board. Also, the pattern is created through repeated colors of black, white, purple and blue mostly. You can find monochromatic of purple, and blue. (Some dark and some are light colored) Most of the parts are positive space with the prints and painting. However, there are negative space with an empty space of a white squares on the background. In the center, prints that are cut is pasted.

 Through the way the prints are cut and pasted in the center, there is definitely an outline. The shape of a triangle is implied through a figure in the center of the art. The center of the art seems to show a sculpture of a men wearing a hat. It is interesting how it shows a sculpture of a man like a 3D through a value. You can see a rages from light to dark in the men’s hat, his face and his cloth.

Overall, there seems to be a lot of different colors used in this art. Not only primary colors but you can also find warm colors like red, yellow and orange. Cool colors like blue, purple and green can be found as well. On the two circles on top, left and right, you can see that colors of red and yellow is used which is an analogous. However, it is interesting how the color of purple is used in the center of the circle which makes it complementary with the color yellow.

I mostly looked at the art in formal analysis by looking at the details and each element of the art. 

Explaining what I have analyzed by the details in the art to my partner was easy. However, the part where I didn’t understood what the artist was trying to show and convey wasn’t easy. My partner and I had a discussion of wondering what the artist is trying to tell us through his work. My partner said, the artist might put some small prints of some guys next to the sculpture of a man to show that the chess mate can be anyone and they can be someone who’s smart. We also looked at the face of a men in the center. He is smiling. Through the face that he has, the partner can’t really examine what the men is thinking and his concerns. It seems as if the men is really enjoying the chess if he makes that face while playing a game.