Arts Explorer # 3: Art Critique

Art Word of the Week: Color

            As part of my creative art’s class I had the opportunity to visit the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) located in Toronto. As a young child, I did have the opportunity to visit the ago, however found this visit to be much more knowledgeable as I was given a guided tour by my professor who also works at the art galley of Ontario. While visiting the art gallery of Ontario, I was required to find a piece of art to critique and was very intrigued when I came across Sigmund Christian Hubert Goetze’s painting titled Ever Open Door. 

         The piece of art is a painting which incorporates many aspects of life such as childhood, innocence, adulthood, corruption and the concept of religion or God. In the painting, there are images of children, adults, angels that perhaps represent the religious aspect of the picture, and various objects such as flowers and wings. Looking at this piece of art, it instantly reminds me of the romantic image of the child which was popular amongst the 1700’s and amongst philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Thus, I believe that this artist is trying to bring back this image of the child or childhood back into the eyes of the public. Since the romantic image of the child was one which saw children “in need of protection and innocent beings” (Wolfe, 2002, p. 49), I believe that this painting is telling the viewer about this message. The painting is telling viewers that children are innocent beings in a world full or corruption, and thus need to be protected by adult figures from the corrupted society. Since this romantic view of children was apparent in the 17^th century, I believe that this painting is a portrait of that image and time. 

       When I look at this piece of art I the art element that I see applied to this painting is “color”. Color is “based upon the passage of light and makes each of us respond with feeling” (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p. 136). Since the first impression that stood out to me about this painting, was the mixed emotions that were portrayed in this picture. The artist used various elements of color such as “thermal qualities of warm and cool” and “tint” (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p. 137) to portray the various feelings to the viewers. At first glance, the use of both bright colors such as the red, orange and pink help to bring about more positive and bright emotions amongst the viewer. On the other hand, the artist also uses “hues”, “shades” and “tint” of darker colors in the background to bring out the more heavy and dark emotions. This is seen in the backdrop of the painting as various tints of the color black are used to perhaps show the more darker side of childhood. In addition, the back drop of the painting also incorporates various “shades” of the color black to make various objects and texture apparent in the background. Overall, looking at this painting, I begin to realize how color can effectively be used to express various emotions apart from many other things. 

      I really like the way that the painter used color in this picture to show the happiness of childhood through the use of the more vibrant colors and the incorporation of the flowers in the forefront of the picture, against the backdrop of the more dull colors which represent the more gloomy side of childhood. In addition, I also really like the way that the painter was able to capture the image of the child in that century in one painting. It is effective as I was able to draw the various meanings that this painting was portraying in just one simple glance. Overall, I believe that this painting made great use of color to capture the image of the child in the 17^th century. 

       Going to the art gallery of Ontario and getting a guided tour by our professor Patricia Gora who also works at the art gallery, I was able to view the various child friendly spaces around the art gallery. In addition,  I also learned ways in which I as a future educator can ask children questions to get the thinking about the art work. Since I believe that children learn best when they are able to actively explore, discover and see things first hand, the art gallery is a great place to bring children for a field trip.

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children (6^th Ed.).

            Belmont, CA: Delmar. 
 

Wolfe, J. (2002). Learning from the past: historical voices in early childhood education. Mayerthrope, Alberta: Piney Branch Press.