Confederate Boot Analysis

For my first art critique, I visited the Ormond Memorial Art Museum & Gardens. Much of the artwork presented at this museum focused towards war and veteran exhibits. The work I chose to critique was a C-print with the title Confederate Boot by Jeff Beekman. Analyzing this work of art first objectively, your eyes are immediately drawn to a figure in the photo; a torn, brown, worn leather confederate boot with three bright white ribbons evenly tied around it. The ground of the two-dimensional C-print, also could be thought as what the confederate boot is laying on, is a low blue piece of paper just big enough for the boot to completely lay on the paper. On the upper right corner of the paper, there is a three-dimensional shadow, suggesting the paper is lifted slightly revealing
The sculpture portrays a chair with a war helmet sitting on it, a cloak hanging on the side, and boots on the floor placed as if someone was sitting on the chair. When comparing this work to the C-print Confederate Boot, the theme of war is present in both as well as showing boots of the soldiers. Like Confederate Boot, this sculpture has a focal point. The entire sculpture has a consistent metallic gray color until you look at the cloak. Hanging from the cloak is two bright gold dog tags with the engravings unreadable. The 3-D visible texture from the various lines in all elements of the sculpture helps accentuate the “real life” feel compared to the 2-D print that did not have many lines contributing to its overall message. With the visible texture, this sculpture is freestanding, allowing for a 360 degree view whereas the 2-D print can only be seen from the one shot. Both works of art evoked my emotion towards sorrow and remembrance and most importantly, both works of art portrayed what the author strived for them