HOTEL MONTURIOL
Zoe Millbern, Nov. 2, 2014
This piece of art from the Contemporary Art Museum that I chose to analyse was the Hotel Monturial. It was created in 1974 by Jorge Mendez Blake in Mexico. This was a moderately sized wall piece that consisted of a variety of pieces, all but one framed on the wall. According to the wall label, the piece consists of two piezographies with colored pencil, six piezographies, one collage on paper, three colored pencil on paper, and a bronze sculpture. Piezoelectricity is electric polarization in a substance that results from the application of mechanical stress. Piezoelectric substances are able to convert mechanical signals (for example, sound waves) into electric signals and visa verse, and they're used in microphones and phonograph pickups.
Beginning in the late 1950's and 60's, many Mexican artists began to move away from the traditional social realism and nationalism and more towards the surrealistic, visual paradoxes, and old style artistic technique in the Rupture Movement. After this movement, a majority of the future Mexican artists were not influenced so much by murals and Mexican folk art. Neo-expressionist art became a lot more prominent during the 60's to 80's, consisting of a great deal of color and contrast as well as non-figurative and abstract design.
The piece appears to be the plan for a hotel that did not end up being built. It contains abstract art, landscape, and patterns that probably served as inspiration for or elements of the intended design for the hotel. There are also a couple of floor plans and one sketch of a room. Some elements of this piece use the piezoelectricity, which has been used for a number of older technological objects. It uses this technology in a new way to help portray this artists image. The subject of all the abstract and isolated objects is the hotel that was never built.
A variety of different colors and textures are represented in this piece, different light sources and the general color scheme dark silver and black makes many of the inspirational images seen relatively cold and empty. The piece is arranged in all separate pieces, arranged in separate, simple black frames with each side touching at least on of the others. The sculpture is down the left of the piece as a whole on a small mounted wall shelf. The separated pieces appear to be just snapshots of this idea, and that it ended up being little more than an idea is supported by this fragmented presentation and generally duller set of colors. I believe that this piece is possibly representative of all of the lost ideas and broken dreams as well as a darker representation of the creative process. I think the most likely purpose would be to symbolize all of the unfinished possibilities and lost opportunities. The interesting abstract pieces, some with color and some without, are not only aesthetically pleasing, but also symbolic of the creative process and the complex and interesting aspects of human ingenuity.
This piece was probably chosen by the curator to include in the exhibit because the theme of the exhibit was that something was missing. In this case, the piece of art has all of the pieces, but nothing holding it together, so the main picture is missing. I don't think that this piece's meaning has changed since it was created, but I think that today it could also be representative of the difficulty of bring a idea, no matter how good, to life nowadays. The content of some of the pictures, the abstract and the interestingly colored pieces, has given me a new manner of thinking about physical representations of ideas and thoughts. This begins to work into the idea I tried to think about in Theory of Knowledge, about whether or not thoughts and emotions can properly, entirely, or universally be communicated through art and how limiting language can be.
Beginning in the late 1950's and 60's, many Mexican artists began to move away from the traditional social realism and nationalism and more towards the surrealistic, visual paradoxes, and old style artistic technique in the Rupture Movement. After this movement, a majority of the future Mexican artists were not influenced so much by murals and Mexican folk art. Neo-expressionist art became a lot more prominent during the 60's to 80's, consisting of a great deal of color and contrast as well as non-figurative and abstract design.
The piece appears to be the plan for a hotel that did not end up being built. It contains abstract art, landscape, and patterns that probably served as inspiration for or elements of the intended design for the hotel. There are also a couple of floor plans and one sketch of a room. Some elements of this piece use the piezoelectricity, which has been used for a number of older technological objects. It uses this technology in a new way to help portray this artists image. The subject of all the abstract and isolated objects is the hotel that was never built.
A variety of different colors and textures are represented in this piece, different light sources and the general color scheme dark silver and black makes many of the inspirational images seen relatively cold and empty. The piece is arranged in all separate pieces, arranged in separate, simple black frames with each side touching at least on of the others. The sculpture is down the left of the piece as a whole on a small mounted wall shelf. The separated pieces appear to be just snapshots of this idea, and that it ended up being little more than an idea is supported by this fragmented presentation and generally duller set of colors. I believe that this piece is possibly representative of all of the lost ideas and broken dreams as well as a darker representation of the creative process. I think the most likely purpose would be to symbolize all of the unfinished possibilities and lost opportunities. The interesting abstract pieces, some with color and some without, are not only aesthetically pleasing, but also symbolic of the creative process and the complex and interesting aspects of human ingenuity.
This piece was probably chosen by the curator to include in the exhibit because the theme of the exhibit was that something was missing. In this case, the piece of art has all of the pieces, but nothing holding it together, so the main picture is missing. I don't think that this piece's meaning has changed since it was created, but I think that today it could also be representative of the difficulty of bring a idea, no matter how good, to life nowadays. The content of some of the pictures, the abstract and the interestingly colored pieces, has given me a new manner of thinking about physical representations of ideas and thoughts. This begins to work into the idea I tried to think about in Theory of Knowledge, about whether or not thoughts and emotions can properly, entirely, or universally be communicated through art and how limiting language can be.
PERFECT response- this was spot on, and I'm glad you selected this piece as well.
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