Hunter Museum of American Art
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Arts Humanities
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Nov 24, 2024
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ONLINE MUSEUM ART ASSIGNMENT
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Hunter Museum of American Art https://www.huntermuseum.org/
1.The hunter Museum of American Art is an art Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Museum collects, preserves and presents American art as well as connects the community via
inspiring educational and visitor-focused experiences for all. a.
The museum is open for 10 hours (10 AM – 8 PM)
b.
A ticket to visit the museum goes for $20 with seniors paying a discount fee of $18. No fee is charged for children and teens. It is important to note that members visit free, they need no reservation. c.
The hunter Museum offers free admission to permanent collection on Throwback Thursdays, the first Thursday of each month from 4-8 PM. d.
The Hunter Museum of American Art features paintings, sculpture, photography, drawings, prints, new media and video from the 1700s to the present. 2. The Hunter Museum presents an exciting array of exhibitions that illustrate the diversity of
the American story as well as the creativity of the American spirit. For instance, the current exhibit Amy Pleasant: Passing through on view from July 30, 2022 – July 20, 2023 overtakes
the walls of the museum stairwell, welcoming guests to the early American galleries. b. To view special exhibitions, admission of $5 per adult is required.
Part One: Objective Description
Gateway to September
by Charles Burchfield https://huntermuseum.org/charles-burchfield
One of the greatest innovative American landscape artists of the 20
th
century, Charles Burchfield, developed a unique stylized form that displayed a powerful bond with land and nature.
Gateway to September is one of Charles’ masterpieces. The artwork depicts the culmination of the aspiration of the artist to completely embrace two seasons within a single
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painting. His magnificent use of color shows that August is dominant at the forefront of the masterwork, and a calmer glimpse at the quiet landscape of the month of September is visible
via a glowing portal. Charles filled the art with thistles, asters, and flowers- some of favorites- all that seem to vibrate with energy. In this painting Burchfield incorporates movement and sound. He uses ‘agitrons’ to indicate movement, ‘squeans’ (asterisks with empty centers) for shafts of sunlight, and ‘blurgits’ for the sounds and crickets. The masterpiece is made of shapes as it is a two-
dimensional. Most of the shapes are formed by shifts in color. For instance, the warm September season highlighted by the yellow color flow smoothly into the quiet landscape of the month of September visible via a glowing portal. The source of light is at the center of the
painting as the artist use curved lines and color to create a portal through which the September season is visible. Also, the warm colors of flowers, asters and thistles against the black background give the gateway to September an ethereal quality. Part two: Subjective Reaction
I first came across Charles Burchfield’s work at a retrospective on view at the Hunter Museum of American Art. I was at the time wrapped in academia and absorbed in the study of classical paintings and discussions on post-modernist conceptual work. Looking at Charles
Burchfield’s paintings it was as if something clicked into place or perhaps a pressure valve had opened as I stared at the
gateway to September for its simultaneous playfulness and complexity. From the artwork one would see a painter who lived via his work and wasn’t defined by the time in which he lived. The playful and exuberance utilization of color in Burchfield’s masterpiece belies his skills as a draftsman. In his painting I saw a kindred spirit, using paper and pen to develop a perspective that can only generate from practiced looking.
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In Burchfield’s Gateway to September, there’s no inkling of complacency. To be sincere, I am still in amazed by this work. The compositions of the paintings grow from smaller works to magnificent images. The painting is well-worked, patched and taped, the watercolor is used directly and/or allowed to mix in sometimes ungainly ways. Light, sound, temperature and life are given physicality in the form of energy that emanated from well-
known shapes of buildings and trees. Mediating on this painting, I feel a sense of humility in the face of the sublime. In conclusion, the result of this artwork that conveys a near spiritual ecstasy, a state that I am very sure was shared by Charles himself during the making. Part three: Objective Comparison of Formal Elements
Bartholomew Dandridge by John Trumbull (1756- 1843) http://emuseum.huntermuseum.org/objects/1472/bartholomew-dandridge?ctx=cbd16906-
b028-4b73-84e9-8bc76a0cebbb&idx=0
The painting depicts a half-length portrait of a young man. His hands are hidden. It is positioned somewhat to the right of center on the canvas, his eyes and head turned slightly upwards, his head three-quarters to the left side. He puts on a dark brown, double-breasted coat, white neckcloth and white shirt. The character is bald on the top of his head, and his dark hair forms the short side burns. The background is light brown. The work is basically a colorful representation of Bartholomew Dandridge. Unlike Charles Burchfield who uses shifts in color to create the subject matter, John Trumbull uses implied lines to direct the eyes of the viewers around his painting. The implied
lines are the strands of Dandridge’s coat that direct the eyes of the viewers to the right bottom. John also uses color to create variety and unity. His utilization of warm colors throughout the work and his utilization of one solid-colored background tend to create unity in the painting. However, John Trumbull painting of Bartholomew Dandridge lacks the light
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source. In general sense, Gateway to September stand outs more than Dandridge painting. The overall effect is expressionist rather than cartoonish. Burchfield unlike John Trumbull was a completely original watercolorist. In comparison however, the use of color gives both paintings a modern look instead of the ancient black and white color used in numerous paintings.