Photography and arts essays

It was September 1998. At age 14, playwright-to-be Branden Jacobs-Jenkins was taken by his parents to see Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot at the Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C. The production, conceived and directed by Studio founder and artistic director Joy Zinoman, featured two African-American actors––Thomas W. Jones and Donald Griffin––as Vladimir and Estragon. The … Read more

Art Deco is the of the ‘modern’ 20th-century style which was a movement in the decorative arts and architecture. The style came to Worldwide during the inter-war years, in the 1920s and developed into to the main style in Western Europe and the United States during the 1930s. Art Deco included all types art, from … Read more

For the past few weeks, in Non-Western Art class, we have discussed later Japanese artworks and how it relates to the theme of social justice. Out of the many featured artworks, we have covered, An Exiled Emperor on Okinoshima intrigued to me the most and thus motivated me to do an extensive research on it. … Read more

1) What is your date of birth and where were you born? Can you explain any significant events in your early life? I was born in Murrumbeena, Melbourne, on the 24th of July 1920. My parents (Merric and Doris Boyd) were both successful painters and ceramicists in their time, and my four siblings also have … Read more

India is home to an abundance of a variety of art forms. Its wildly divergent geographical areas, its complex history, its rich literary traditions and its cultural diversity not only make the different styles of art strikingly different, but they also make them astonishingly similar. Despite the plethora of art in India, there is a … Read more

Historical Context Marius Ivanovich Petipa was a French and Russian ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer. Petipa is considered to be one of the most influential ballet master and choreographer in ballet history. The choreography ‘Giselle’ was first performed June 28, 1841 and the on-stage performances are performed to this day. ‘Giselle’ is considered one of … Read more

My father being a documentary filmmaker, I’ve grown up seeing the variety of work that the job can entail. Covering everything from museums to full blown narratives, documentaries perennially teeter on the fine line between the subject and the director. I always disregarded those environmentally cautionary “nature documentaries” you find at any wildlife reserve as … Read more

Andrew S. Yang’s, Stella’s Stoichiometry, is a chemistry-based artwork with measured out quantities of chemical elements and compounds that make up 99% of the artist’s daughter’s being at her birth. Not only do these elements and compounds equate to her birth weight but also are exact proportions of each. Upon first glance, both the name … Read more

Interactions between men and landscape are a common subject matter throughout art history allowing artists to explore the several different aspects of this theme as seen in Claude Monet’s Garden at Sainte-Adresse, 1867, oil on canvas and Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The Harvesters, 1565, oil on wood. Both works are on view at the Metropolitan … Read more

Since the time of the Renaissance until Modernism, art, design and media have changed from being religious and symbolic to abstract paintings attempting new ways to see the world and contemporary ideas about a variety of components and new objectives of art. Characters like Vincent van Gogh and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, were crucial for the … Read more

Within this essay I will explore and discuss the history of collage and how it is an art form that visually communicates with its viewers. I will also be pointing out the important moments in this part of history and its practitioners. I will also be referencing  a named contemporary illustrator. I then will share … Read more

Imagine walking down the streets of Mexico as a child, staring at the fresco artwork plastered on the walls of old colorful buildings, and wondering who they belonged to. Mexico has always been my favorite place to travel to. Some say it’s dangerous and that I have to appreciate what I have here in America, but … Read more

The Torso of Aphrodite that stands in the National Gallery of Art is representative of the drastic changes that took place in society around the time of Late Classical Greek Art, and how it affected the world’s perception of portraying goddesses. By the time that this marble statue was sculpted — sometime between 200 B.C. … Read more

For years, poverty has sunk its teeth into the lives of people across the globe. Poverty in itself, in my eyes allows for a new mentality and opportunity. People who don’t have as much as another individual tend to be more appreciative of the little things in life and value things differently. For example, for … Read more