Formalism is a fundamental theory of aesthetics (the study of art and its values) emphasizing the overall appearance of a work of art. The appearance is judged for how well the formal arrangement of elements within a painting, sculpture, etc., manages to convey a successful “internal logic.” All formal elements must work together to convey […]
Formalism and Symbolic Content Read More »
We celebrate the return of John Kearney’s Bull from conservation restoration with an esoteric collage from the History of the Bull. Picasso is well known for his adoption of the Bull as his alter-ego or avatar. As a young boy, his first drawings were of bulls and bullfights. Bullfighting in Spain is over 2,000 years old and may have
Mythology of The Bull Read More »
Space has long been explored as a metaphor for the transcendental, the mystical, and the entity we call by various names, the spiritual. It would difficult to find a better metaphor for all those subjects, because as we’ve longed known, science determined outer space to be infinite, it never ends. Space shows up, no pun
The Spiritual in Art Read More »
Midwestern cultural identity is explored through two of its most widely cherished national figures and the art form, Regionalism, which helped link local community values to an American identity. When Bob Dylan was asked why he left (the Midwest): “There’s no place I feel closer to now, or get the feeling that I’m part of,
The art world can be and is a microcosm of the world-at-large. Peter Schjeldahl wrote recently in The New Yorker, October 19, 2020, a piece titled “Us Cosmopolitans” questioning the postponement of the Philip Guston retrospective. (Written in all caps, the title becomes a telling double entendre.) Schjeldahl, now 78, born Fargo, North Dakota,
Schjeldahl on the Guston Affair Read More »
The raging world-wide pandemic has revealed many realities but key among them is the fragility of the market. The market must be fed everyday or it falls apart. Museums though in essence are not “of the market” they must function as if they were, or fail. With nothing to sell per se, museums, like newspapers
Monetization: Digital Entertainment or Visual Analysis Read More »
The personification of Woman began when we looked to the sky and named a planet, Venus. Woman as allegory can stand for a variety of conceptualizations. The Ideal of Woman as quintessential Other has been appropriated endlessly to personify conceptions: Nature, Nations, Ships…, as well as the promise of Democracy and Freedom. Today, “Goddess” does
The Allegory of Freedom Read More »
Allegories are stories where a sociological, historical, religious, or political theme is seen through the primary theme or story which provides an aesthetic presentation for the secondary theme. One theme does not equal the other; there must be an analogous structure of ideas and events paralleled in both. The parallel and analogous structures of storyline
Themes of Allegory Read More »
Iowa born Grant Wood (1892-1941) is one of the major artists in American history and Midwest history. Wood set out to portray the essential identity of the rural Midwest. As art historian John Wilmerding has noted, Wood developed his own style after studying in Europe the German, Flemish, and French primitives of the Northern Renaissance.
Grant Wood and Midwestern Art Read More »
TUES – SAT 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
SUN 1:00 – 5:00 pm
grounds & gate close daily at 5 pm
CLOSED:
each Monday and National Holidays
Cedarhurst Center for the Arts
2600 Richview Road
P.O. Box 923
Mount Vernon, IL 62864
(618) 242-1236
mitchellmuseum@cedarhurst.org
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