Summer 2018: Konner Ross

              I was granted 2,000 dollars to use to fund my first trip to New York City, as well as to aid in my expenses of the Panhellenic Greece field study that I attended after my trip to New York through Rollins. These two trips were two amazing trips of my lifetime, and it is because of the art history department and Rollins that I was able to do them. In New York, I was able to visit 5 art museums, a museum of natural history, and a museum of a national event—9/11. I spent time in the MoMA and the Met, where I saw amazing art from some of the most famous artists. These curations solidified my love for Jackson Pollock and his work, as well as see in person works painted by Picasso and Van Gogh. I studied the display and lighting of the works in all of these museums to learn more about curation. This trip was a way for me to see some of the most significant curation in our country, and to learn a little from one of the art capitals of the world. I felt the most interesting curation came from the Whitney. Their building in general has a lot of floors, with small floor space on each floor. The current exhibition was American Gothic, and I found the curation of this exhibition really cool. It started with Grant Woods most famous piece, American Gothic, and then it moved on in adjacent rooms with a fraction of the rest of his works. Alongside this set up, his works were displayed by the viewer first seeing one of his studies for that painting, and then looking next at the actual painting. This served to see his idea before the official work, and it was really cool to see how Wood’s ideas changed over time.

            One of the Whitney’s other exhibitions was “An Incomplete History of Protest.” This collection was displayed in a way that was completely overwhelming. It wasn’t a typical curation style. Different means of protest, with videos and posters included, were piled next to each other, covering the entire walls. There were different topics within five feet of each other, and art
displayed in the middle of the room on the floor. This curation showed the viewer both the amazing and terrifying aspects of protest in America.

             My trip to Greece was completely amazing and filled with so much art from ancient architecture to ancient pottery and statues. The most amazing art I saw in Greece was the statue of Hermes and the child Dionysus by the ancient sculptor Praxiteles. This sculpture is the only large sculpture we can accredit to being made by Praxiteles’ hand. The other sculptures made by Praxiteles are mostly seen by Roman copies, so it was truly amazing to see this original. Another amazing art piece was the Charioteer of Delphi, which is beautiful bronze sculpture of a charioteer, and was anciently connected to a chariot and horses. All that is left if the charioteer himself.

           
Both of these trips were amazing opportunities for me, and I was truly able to use my art historical eye to its fullest, and to learn things by seeing art in person.


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