Art Critique

Journal 1, Humanities, Museum/Fine Art Gallery Visit The Saint Louis Art Museum’s architecture is beautiful. There are many roman influences to the outside of the building including round arches, tall stone columns and roman statues of persons in robes and sandals. The building itself is very inviting and enjoyable to view just from the outside. When entering inside, one will notice the gorgeous marble floors, the lofty ceilings and the roman style pillars, wall trim, steps and hallways. The dominant feature when entering is the vast open central hall. The ceiling is towering overhead and accented on both sides with semi-circle stain glass windows. The doorways to the left and right wings of the museum are dressed with high, rounded arches. This was my first visit to the Saint Louis Art Museum and definitely will not be my last. I was very impressed with the building’s architecture, layout and the variety of art work being displayed at the time. Speaking of artwork, there were two painting in particular that made an impression on me. One was named “Sadak in Search of the Waters of Oblivion” painted in 1812 by a British artist named John Martin and the other was named “Jolly Flatboat Men in Port” painted in 1857 by an American named George Caleb Bingham. The subject of Sadak is a man hanging from a rock cliff near the bottom of the painting and the rest of the painting portraying the long and treacherous climb that is ahead of him with only a few rays of light guiding him towards the waters of oblivion at the top. The subject of Jolly Flatboat Men is men dancing, playing music and relaxing on a docked flatboat late in the afternoon. The artistic elements in both paintings are very intriguing. Sadak contains many sharp, jagged and irregular lines and shapes seen in the cliffs. The texture is very smooth and reflective which is magnified in the rock faces and the water. The color and value are very vibrant. There is an overall crimson red tone as well as many