Assignment #3 - Art Critism

Visit to McMaster Art Gallery

     After class this last Wednesday, I visited the McMaster Art Gallery and viewed the show Delineate. This show consisted of about twenty pieces of art, manly drawings and paintings. If I were to describe what the curator wanted the viewer to see or what tied all the artwork together, I would say that the idea of human thoughts and ideas "delineated" the show. Unfortunately I didn't record names of all the pieces, but I clearly remember five or so that all had resembled one another with human thoughts, ideas, or fantasies. These five included the large portraits of a distressed woman, the contorted fairies on the back wall, the two pieces with two black spots with neuron looking lines, the dancer resembling an Indian woman, and the one I chose to critique, Zach Mory's Boxes.

Art Critique

Describe: The artist Zach Mory uses pencil on paper to create his drawing named Boxes. The drawing is approximately two square feet in size. This artwork is comprised of hundreds of boxes with each being a square millimeter. The are more like cubes, with shading and positions. The entire art is different shades of gray creating positive space, and a negative space of white. The boxes create form with a cluster beginning at the bottom left hand corner and dispersing into the upper right hand corner. There is no definite pattern of the boxes, but with a few areas, patterns begin to form then dissipate. 

Analyze: The contrast of the white and gray is clearly defined with the a sharp line, outlining the form of the individual boxes. The art has major depth exhibited by the shading of the boxes and presenting a three dimensional idea. The artwork flows from bottom left to upper right. The cluster of boxes at the bottom left are balanced with the individual boxes dispersed in the open space. I believe the viewer's mood would happen in two stages (at least it did for me). Morose was the first mood I gathered in viewing Boxes. The somber colors and the glance from far away did not give suggest tine boxes. But when looking close, the art almost presents a contemplative mood as it is studied closer.

Interpret: The artist's statement of Boxes displayed next to the drawing helps understand the meaning of this particular artwork. As he states, "my work focuses on simple beginnings not only in terms of materials, but in terms of the marks I choose to use for each piece as well." I think that he wants to send the message of intricacy. Maybe each intricate box is a metaphor for the intricate ideas and thoughts of the human mind and how quickly they can disperse. This artwork gives me the feeling of admiration. How can such a simple, everyday form, be used with rhythm, pattern and repetition to create such a wonderful, emotion evoking drawing? This drawing may present the social issue of conformity in society and how hard it is for an individual (box) to branch off, dare to be different, and thrive - alone.

Evaluate: I like this artwork! I think it is absolutely genius to take multiple boxes to create a giant, interesting image. I appreciate the time invested in Boxes as well. Also, I think that the viewer can correlate these boxes with many things in life as I did. In fact, I enjoyed this artwork so much, I researched Zach Mory and browsed his website. Along with Boxes I viewed about 30 of his drawings. And through this viewing I found the reoccurring theme of intricacy. I will definitely be bookmarking his website!