Art Appreciation: Gallery Review

prepared for; Rose Guastella prepared by; David Doolittle 2/7/2014 Gallery Review Friday February 7th 2014
I visited the Seattle Art Museum located in Seattle Washington to do my gallery review for Art Appreciation class (ART 100) at Olympic College. Upon searching the Museum for a piece to do my review on I wandered around examining each piece thoroughly to find something that appealed to my senses. Everything stood out to me so vividly, all the artistic endeavors so many renowned artists had accomplished that was on display. Eventually I made my way through to the European art section, particularly the Light in The Darkness exhibition room captured my imagination. It was in this room I decided to review the piece The Burning City by Egbert Lievensz van der Poel. The original, viewable at the Seattle Art Museum, is an oil on panel painting done in 1654, its approximate dimensions are 18 inches tall by 24 inches wide. LIevensz painted a series of paintings during the 1600s entitled The Burning City as a realistic depiction of a large fire that swept over a dutch town of Delft he lived in during that time. The tragedy was the entire city burned and thousands lost their lives, but the beauty came in these pieces Lievensz produced which showed a graphic raw humanity. The Light in The Darkness room contains several paintings which have used light in curious manners to contrast the imagery to create an effect. Back lighting was the only light in the room and through this the Seattle Art Museum brought out the most accentuated affects the artists intended in using light in their paintings. Lievensz paintings focus was on the fire streaming above a village house. The movement is created by people, colorfully juxtaposed in primary bright colors, fleeing down the side of the house away from the fireball. Rhythm is created by the use of apexing lines of the roof of the village house visually directing one to the fire behind the house then down away from the fire to the people attempting their escape. Eerily he creates leveled value from the focus of the painting using an ethereal glow emanating from the fireball. THe glow casts the only light available for the viewers eyes, to see the chaos ensuing from the fire consuming the town. Everything beyond the scope of the glow is shrouded in darkness, tangible to the viewer, but none the less covered in blanket of night. As mentioned before the figures within the glow are lively, contorting twisting their bodies in an effort to escape the disaster at hand. Eventually the figures overlap each other at the base of the house, body crawling over body, fleeing into the darkness out of the reach of the fires glow. Each person provides a unique visual. Their clothes are bright contrasting colors to the darkness surrounding them. Movement away from the glow becomes directional movement towards the right side of the painting as the darkness encroaches. Cattle barely visible in the shadows run from the left side of the village house, at the center, along the bottom of the painting towards the right. Almost corralling the light colored figures from entering the space associated with the bottom left of the painting. Being able to add description to this painting does not give it justice. Only in viewing it in a accent lit exhibit room can one truly understand the genius behind Lievenszs work. Tragedy can come in many forms; earthquakes, floods, fires, etc. Lievenszs extraterrestrial glow brings
peace among the chaos to his setting. The figures are stuck in a perpetual state of disorder but the peace becomes apparent with this heavenly glow cast over them. Their actions disregard any form of calm manner as they act independently within the larger group for self preservation. Then as the glow sets over them calm comes not to the figures but to myself knowing that despite the circumstance producing the glow, these people are coming out of this situation alive. Before that point though terror is at heightened sense when viewing The Burning city. I highly recommend going to see this painting and other exhibits in the Light in The Darkness exhibit room at the Seattle Art Museum. I would like to eventually own some of Lievenszs work for personal display. The ideal setting for display would be a dimly lit study with contemporary backlighting, a aspect to my future dream house that will be incorporated into the design. Whenever I get a chance to view more of Egbert Lievensz van der Poels work I will be sure to take that opportunity.
*I did not take this photo its from a Google search of the name of the painting. I realize taking photos of paintings in a Museum is strictly forbidden. I provided it solely for reflection on the review I have given. Then again like mentioned in the review simply seeing this painting as an image without the environ present, does not give it the attention it deserves.

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prepared for; Rose Guastella prepared by; David Doolittle 2/7/2014 Gallery Review Friday February 7th 2014

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