This past Thursday, I went to the Johnson Museum to attend the reception for the new collection of artwork they’ve displayed. While the exhibit had a modern flare (pun intended: much of the work was symbolically burned. A picture is attached below), it showed a lot of refinement. The set was painted a wispy, light blue and the burn marks gave off this charred, rigid feel; however the feeling I got was not one of destruction, but rather one of freedom. I took the exhibit to represent the act of breaking free from the confined nature of beauty in elegance in order to discover a new beauty in the chaos of fire. The wild nature is more exciting and more liberating than the social norms to which we, as a society, blindly abide. However, I’m not much of an art critic so I’m not sure how accurate my interpretation is; this is just a reflection of the feeling I got from the collection.
An image from the new exhibit and the inspiration for the title of this post.
However, my eye was drawn to the ancient artifacts room–the beauty and functionality in such simple objects was breathtaking. My favorite was this rather large assortment of elegant, porcelain, *what looked to be* perfume bottles.
Guess what these really are before reading the below text:
However, upon further research apparently these were intended to be snuff bottles for tobacco usage. I just find it interesting that each culture has its own standards of beauty, of acceptance, and of cultural values. When they are all placed in the same room together, one can really contrast the needs of each culture with the artistic representation they have created.
My absolute favorite art display of the day: a haunting image really.
An African mancala board (the marbles game) shaped like a crocodile!
A tea set because I can’t help myself. I’m a tea fanatic.