Every Thursday, as part of my personal “enriched environment” initiative, I post a piece of art, usually from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which recently released online some 400,000 high-resolution images of its collection. I won’t name the piece or the artist, but instead invite you to study the image and write a comment about what you see or what it makes you think of. All images will have a sun (or sunlight) in them somewhere.
So study the picture, and leave your reflections below!
Note: To examine the picture in full size, click on the image, then click again on the words “full resolution.”
Startling photo. A shock to see this, it’s not your usual Thursday art. What is interesting for me is that we’re seeing a shadow of a blue glass vase on the paper, and the shadow is two unusual things — bigger than the original object, and lighter in color than the darker blue vase. Shadows are meant to be darker. As in ” shade.”
My grandson thinks the paper is a map of the north pole. I suggested that the blue wash from the glass is the ocean, when and if the ice caps melt !
I remember my great aunt had two blue glass vases like this, a aquamarine blue, and she kept them in the windowsill in her kitchen. The sun would shine through them in the morning and it always put me in a good mood. I loved stayingn with my great aunt.
She also had a dark purple one which I thought was the evil sister. (I had an evil sister).
Everything is on a slant in this photo; the shaft of light, the paper, the blue glass object. Which gives the overall feeling of being unsettling.
Even tho the color is pretty.
Hmmm. This is one of those art works (paintings, photography, mostly) where you see it and think, I wouldn’t have thought about making this picture myself, but now that I see it I think, OK. I mean, when you see a landscape painting you accept it right away I guess because you have seen landscapes so often in your life, including on museum walls. The same goes for portraits. It is no surprise to see a portrait painting on the walls of a museum. We’re used to that.
But who would have thought to take a picture of a blue glass object lying on it’s side with light shining through it leaving funny patterns on the paper./ And what about the rest of the composition. The paper is lying folded over on itself. There is a black triangular void in the upper left corner, and opposite that, in the lower right corner, you have gray paper in shadow, also somewhat triangular.
Black void. Blue glass. Light squiggles in the blue shine-through on the paper. The word “pole” written on the paper. Curves and straight lines. Gray shaded paper, bright sunshiny paper. A lot going on overall, even though it “appears” simple !
Also I wonder if the blue object is a vase and which end is the top and which the bottom. And is it important to know who created the vase? And what the paper thing is that its lying on?
Looks to me like the front of a greeting card you’d find in a large suburban supermarket or a card store in the city.
This picture makes me think I should write a story about it, to explain it. Maybe 100 years ago a man who was an explorer was mapping out an expedition to the north pole. He would be gone for months and might never return. He had an argument with his wife, who didn’t want him to go. They knocked over a glass vase then went into the bedroom. The morning sun came up hours later and the man by then had decided too call off the trip.
Something like that !