Daniel Hicks
Dr. Julie Hicks
LBST 1105
September 26th, 2014
Response to Uptown UNC Charlotte Gallery
The Uptown UNC Charlotte Art gallery is in a small, but beautiful location.
The room itself is full of natural light coming from the large windows filling the wall
on the far side of the room. Also, the floor is made of red bricks, giving it a certain
vintage look and texture, along with a nice symmetry, that contrasted and
highlighted the free and undulating lines in the art. The gallery had a couple dozen
paintings, all with the theme “CHROMA: lyrical lines and compulsive color”. The
gallery space had white walls, with most of the art hanging on them, but with some
art on “islands” in the middle of the room. The room itself was somewhat tucked
away and, if I remember correctly, almost under a set of stairs. The ceiling was
sloping upward, giving me the impression that the gallery was somewhat like an
attic. It was as though the art was hidden away in an afterthought of a room needing
to be discovered. For these reasons, I felt that the gallery space was beautiful and
conducive to effective viewing.
The piece that I chose was the painting called “Desert”. This piece is
multifaceted and beautiful, with layers upon layers of nuance and meaning.
Compared to the other pieces in the room, I felt that this one in particular spoke to
me. Upon first glance, I wasn’t sure what I saw in the painting. But, as I read the title
and began to look more closely, I saw a meaningful scene that was highly interesting
and thought provoking. This is not to say, however, that a piece’s value can be
summed up solely by what it resembles. On the contrary, abstract art is often just as
much about the process the artist used to make the piece. Meaning, in essence, that
the journey that is taken with the piece is more important than the final destination
of it. I feel that this piece derives beauty from both sources. While it does resemble a
real- life scene, it also seems to highlight the movements of the artist’s brush, and
the creativity that was undoubtedly necessary to create it. I chose “Desert” based
upon a single criterion: could I live with it. Students were asked to select a piece
based on whether or not we would buy the piece to put up in our homes and be
willing to see it every day. From my perspective, “Desert” was the only piece in the
gallery that I felt I could live with because of its depth of meaning. To me, the
painting resembles a windowsill. It
is the perspective of someone
looking out on what lies beyond his
or her own comfortable life.
Directly in front of the window is a
dry and barren landscape,
complete with spiny shrubs that
have long been withering away.
Beyond the barren landscape,
there is beautiful, sunny green land
that contrasts with it. The green
land seems to call out the viewer, embodying the timeless “grass is greener…” adage.
Personally, this piece represents the way that circumstance can often put us in a
lonely and desolate place that seems hopeless. Usually that place truly is hopeless,
but the beautiful thing about life, and this painting, is that beyond the hopelessness
and desolation, there is something more that be clung to. Despite any circumstances,
time marches ceaselessly on, and, if nothing else, tomorrow will still come.
Culturally, I feel that this painting speaks to the idea that people in our
society are often content to stay within their comfort zone and never improve
themselves. The person behind the windowsill is sitting in his or her house simply
looking out, he or she sees the green land in the distance and probably thinks, “If
only it wasn’t for that huge desert I’d go right over there”. The painting relates to a
problem people often face. Many of us are not up for the challenge that stands
between our goals and ourselves. If we are never willing to face the challenge, then
those goals will go unreached. By extension, the painting seems to hint at the reality
that most goals that come without any significant challenge or obstacle may not
even be worth pursuing.
In conclusion, “Desert” is certainly a painting of “brilliant gestures of vibrant
color and subtle markings”. It is full of meaning, beauty, and life. This type of
painting is important because of its depth of meaning and the way that it can make a
viewer have a real reaction and response to art.
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