LACMA

by Mindy

I’ve been to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, also called the LACMA museum. I really appreciate the artwork there and there were two pieces of artwork caught my attention. Then, I started to search for some information online in order to know the artist better and the symbolization for the piece of artwork.

“Cliff Dwellers,” which captured the view of the Lower East Side in New York, was painted by George Bellows in 1913. As George Bellows was famous for his bold portraits of life in New York City, this artwork definitely froze the street scene with a result from a flood of immigration. As you can see, the street was full of people and it was so crowded that the bus was stuck in the crowd. To me, when I first looked at this artwork, first thing to get in my mind is that the place was so crowded and their house might be really small that didn’t have a place hang their cloth.

“History As A Planter” was made by Edward Kienholz, who was an American installation artist and assemblage sculptor, in 1961. Most of Kienholz’s work highly critical of modern life and this artwork was no exception. There was lots of symbolization in this artwork and it was especially about history of Jewish struggle. The oven symbolized the Holocaust, which was genocide that German killed many Jews; the mannequin feet, placed in the oven, were symbolic for Jews that were incinerated in the Concentration Camps; the plants on the top of the oven were a kind special species called “Wandering Jew,” which can still be alive with nearly no attention. It represented Jews’ abilities to survive and it was placed above the oven maybe was a symbolization that Jewish people overcame the World War II. I felt really uncomfortable when I first looked at the artwork, but after these searching online, I am able to know what the artist want to show the audience and think that he was such a great artist that he had hidden so many thoughts in the piece of art work. 

Also, I was wondering why didn’t he paint it at first, but I suddenly realized the reason after knowing these symbolization. The door can be closed or opened, in my opinion, while the door is open, meaning that the Jews remember their history and all the persecution they been through; while the door is closed, meaning that the Jews have already overcame their tragedy.

Visiting the LACMA museum is a really great experience and I learned a lot from this visit. Next time, when I am visiting another museum, I will try to learn more deeply about an artwork.