The LACMA is a museum in Los Angeles that is known for its modern architectural art forms. The dozens of rows of lights are the museum's main attraction reside right outside of the museum. This museum is not the only attraction in its vicinity, the La Brea Tar Pits are located adjacent to the LACMA. The interior is very modern and simple, but depending on what exhibit is explored, the energy of the art makes gives it its own personality. The interior correlates directly to the permanent artwork that resides in it, modern and contemporary. This type of facility is my favorite style of architecture, which also connects to the futuristic structures in Los Angeles. The attendees include various ages as well as diverse races, but on a Sunday, there weren't very many people in general. Although this visit was in mid-August, the exhibits at the time coordinated every aspect to its designated area, the Teotihuacan exhibit had neutral colors as the background and had its high relief sculptures in the middle. The exhibit was divided into different art within a fixed timeline.
With some prior knowledge to the introduction of Art History, I decided to look at the Olmec sculptures first, knowing their medium and names. I have always been interested in these the most because of their significance to our understanding before there was a written record. Although simple, to think that this was one of the first forms of self-expression and observation puts human creativity into perspective. The first specific sculpture was one familiar to me, with a nonspecific but distinctive face and personality, with an attitude-filled expression. The sculpture is clearly Jade and has the body of a human. The sculpture itself looks as if it has been through stress that causes it to chip and probably lost some vibrance in color since jade is usually a noticeable green.
The sculpture is carved Jade, and although my prior consensus was that it was too dark to be pure jade, the label states that it is a Jade and dark nephrite, making the sculpture darker. The mini sculpture is covered with a glass case to avoid any more preventable damages. The color, looking very close is still dull but smooth, which was my initial reaction. The sculpture is a low relief and 3 dimensional. From the beginning of communicating and artistic expression, the sculptures always, for the most part, stayed true to the human body. The body is symmetrical with its body parts and their size, and although the face is vague, it has the normal ratio of facial parts. There are no hands or feet, but it is obvious that this was the most these people were able to achieve with the education they had. The eyes are slanted and the nose is straight and long, fulfilling the Olmec determined beauty ideals, as we see more visible and apparent sculpture within years of this era. The sculpture is about 5 inches, which was to be expected of this era, the Olmecs were the first ones to self-introduce a place in history with this art. Art and other forms of replicas similar to this are what we have to determine and imagine their lifestyles since language and other forms of communication were never recorded. With the sculpture being so small, it was difficult to see the full detail without squinting. Nonetheless, the artwork is so interesting to reminisce on past societies, in my opinion.
As stated before, the Olmecs had zero records of them having a written form of language and communication. Like this sculpture, every Olmec art piece is unfortunately labeled as “Unknown Artist”. We can assume that, like every society, art is very important and vital to a community, which makes these artists possibly powerful or at the least very well known. The Jade sculpture was made in the humid and hot lowlands near the Gulf of Mexico, what is now southern Veracruz, Mexico. The time that this sculpture has stayed intact is so bizarre and captivating, however, it is difficult to imagine their life since there are hardly any known living patterns within this society. The viewer, with no given explanation to this sculpture, can do very little in order to correctly interpret this. I see it as the beginning of advancing in art and technology as well as the traditional facial patterns during that time. Despite many advanced groups of people, the Olmecs never had a certain religion that archeologists know of. We predict that there were many androgynous deities with their own notable characteristics and functions to their faith. To summarize, there is the Maize deity and the werejaguar were very important in their culture. The Maize deity was taken very seriously, since the beginning of agriculture, corn has been a prominent component of a stable lifestyle with the desire to inhabit one designated area. The Olmec people praised the Maize deity for their bounty and were inspired by the color green. Jade was also a resource within their reach, which is the main reason for their obsession with using Jade as a medium for their sculptures, The werejaguar dealt with death and the underworld, an analogy can be an angel taking a dead person to heaven. Their “underworld” was a place the Olmecs wanted to go to, their version of a heaven for most people in this era. By knowing their gratefulness to these gods, it is easy to infer that this sculpture could be used for a sign of sacrifice or praise, it is important to stay open-minded to any ideas of a culture with no written record such as the Olmecs.
The subject is the most realistic to a human man could be with the creative process that the Olmecs were able to curate at the time. It is obvious that the artist tried to be as genuine to a human as possible, however, the lack of hands, fingers, feet, and toes throw the authenticity off. This style is very similar to one of the first Jade sculptures studied in class, down to the lack of body parts. The artist may have used this type of medium because of the connection of colors from Maize to Jade. Although there are no wrong answers when interpretation is the subject, I believe the artist was trying to show praise to their faith, because even without a written record, every society depends on a faith practice.
This exhibition was very informative around the time I went to view the gallery, however, I don't remember the specific art pieces next to this sculpture, there were more advanced sculptures and pieces of artwork all along the walls, each interesting in their own way. It was an experience that was interesting and new for me because this was the first time I was at a museum and I had a real connection with these pieces of art and knew more than my mom did about our culture, it made me realize that my culture is full of history even before it was able to be recorded, and the rich history we have had pertaining to our advances in art. I selected this work because of its medium, which now that I have an understanding of their faith, has connected with us as a modern society. For centuries the most famous pieces of art have to do with either someone's faith practice, their morals, or something that means the world to them. It is important to see the patterns of every human society and that we all have the same basic needs for a good moral compass. The work was not as captivating as the huge sculptures that seemed to get many peoples attention. The size and general fact that there were many similarities to it was probably the reason many people weren't directly surrounding it. I also chose this one because of this end result, it would be a hassle to feel like I am blocking everyone to see the small 6-inch sculpture.