Guggenheim museum review

Gabriela Caceres

Art and Society

4/19/14

Guggenheim Museum review

Once I entered the Guggenheim Museum I was instantly impressed by the interior of the building. Although I’ve visited the museum in my early childhood, I don’t accurately remember how curvaceous and well – proportioned the building was. The spiral structure was remarkable. From my perspective the structure made my experience there more enjoyable. As I was wandering throughout the museum, I felt like I was hiking up a hill considering the walkthrough ascends and is relatively high. Moving upwards in the museum, I observed different artworks and recognized a few artists that I’ve studied before such as Wassily Kandinsky and Claude Monet. Moreover, I was exposed to the Italian futurism exhibition, which was colorful and peculiar. Walking inside the Futuristic theatre, I paused to look at the flooring because it had an extraordinary geometric pattern. Russian artist Igor Stravinsky named the installation “Fireworks”. The shapes were formulated by white lights and scattered throughout the floor while you enter the theatre. Correspondingly, The Metropolitan Museum of Art was immense and it felt never-ending as well. But I had a great experience considering that it was my first time and that’s what made me interested.

Our class trip to the Guggenheim was essentially to focus on American artist Carrie Mae Weems exhibition. The exhibition mainly consisted of her photography, videos, audio recordings and written texts. It was difficult to choose from because quite a few of her artworks appealed to me. “Family pictures and Stories” was a montage of Weems’s own large family and there was caption below each photo. This montage was Weems’s first major body of work. The photos depicted her parents, her older sister, her brother and herself. She described the relationship they had with one another. Her older sister Alice took care of the entire family; she cooked, cleaned the house and took care of everybody. The father and brother had a tight relationship but they often would argue when they would drink and the argument would escalate into a physical fight that would upset her. This represents how African American families lived ages ago. One of Weems’s series, “From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried” (1995-96) displays four red tinted images of black slaves and a written text that flay racial and gender stereotypes on top of the image. The written texts show the different duties of the slaves. They were the field, yard, kitchen and house. The image of the black woman transmits the housewife stereotype and the kitchen is the main characteristic of a housewife ages ago. The men had different duties such as being in the field and in the yard. This particular series depicts the harsh lifestyle black slaves endured in the late 1980s. The “Ain’t Jokin” series (1987-1988) also depicts the racial stereotypes of African Americans. The “Blackman” holding the watermelon is a mainstream stereotype and the message of the image is easy to perceive and is quite obvious. In addition, the message is crystal clear and image

A brief film in the exhibition immediately appealed to me. It was part of a series named: “Constructing history: A requiem to Mark the Moment” (2008). Weems taught students from the Savannah College of Art and Design. The video present staged re-enactments of important historical moments. The assassinations of Ghandi, JFK, Martin Luther K. Jr and of millions of Jews for their religious beliefs. Weems believes that Obama stood on the ashes and the spirit of these individuals. Weems used appropriation in this particular video when she created the re-enactments of the significant historical moments. My impression of this exhibition was different and eye opening. I learned a great deal about Carrie Mae Weems’s life and her style of photography. I understood all the messages depicted in her images. 

In my perception, Weems used photography as her main medium because she’s trying to demonstrate a vivid message to the viewer related to racial and gender stereotypes. In photography she can be more conceptual and narrative. In photography she used informal examples for instance, the black slaves and the “Blackman with the watermelon”. It’s easy and comprehensible for Weems to expose all of the African American stereotypes.