Artists know where to draw the line.: Museum Visit One: Indianapolis Museum of Art

Entrance to the Indianapolis Museum by Jordan Hubbert

Last week I had the opportunity to drag my dad to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. While walking around looking at each piece a million thoughts were popping into my head. I was being bombarded by thoughts about artist I recognized or styles I had seen before, concepts I remembered learning and even some pieces I had dreaded being tested on. As we entered the African Art section, I turned to tell my dad about Sande Society and all the reasons why Mende Helmet Masks look the way they do and I realized three things.

The first thing I realized was that I am a total nerd. I have been to a lot of art museums in my life, however I never thought I would be walking around telling people about different pieces without completely making stuff up. The second thing I realized was that museums are a lot more exciting when you know stuff about the objects inside. And the third thing I realized was that even though art museums are not made for everyone, my dad included, there really is some kind of art to appeal to everyone (A lot of Asian art and Julianne Swartz's current exhibit: http://www.imamuseum.org/exhibition/julianne-swartz-how-deep-your in my father's case).

I saw a lot of interesting works at the museum and only took mediocre photos but I hope you enjoy. One thing that was particularly interesting to me this time around was their African and Asian art exhibits because I took an African and Asian Art History course this past year. I also was in love with their glass section and all of the amazing sculptures in there.

One of the most current exhibitions is by artist Julianne Swartz (her exhibition is linked above) she did a lot of works that played with sound, magnets and lighting. Some of her works were really interesting and I especially liked her piece titled How Deep is Your which is a long tube with a funnel at the end that wraps around the entire museum and has little points throughout where you can hear music coming through.

Another work that I thought was really neat was Sopheap Pich's A Room. This work was directly in front of me when I entered the museum and stood 40 feet from the ceiling to the floor. This piece was made of real and artificial bamboo strips of different colors. The most interesting part about this work to me though was that the viewer was able to enter into the center of the piece. I personally stood in the middle and looked directly upwards and I wish I could have snapped a photo because it was almost like it was raining everywhere expect in the middle of the circle.

There were many other works that I enjoyed a lot so instead of talking about every single one I will post some of my favorites. The museum has many pieces from famous artists across history and although I do not feel like uploading 500 images, I will encourage you to go check out some of the work there yourself or at http://www.imamuseum.org/.