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Meet Yvonne! |
Tell us a little bit about yourself—school, background,
major, reasons for taking this trip, anything else interesting you want to
share.
My name is Yvonne Lee, and I have lived in Canada all my
life. I have visited the United States several times, a few times to Hong Kong,
and have been to Japan once. After hearing about the possibility about this
trip from my teacher Dorothy, I realized I had to be in this class. I have
never been to Europe before, and I always wanted to go. I wanted to go to see
the artworks I have been learning about from art history in person, and this
field trip was the perfect opportunity for me. I am in my 4th year at Kwantlen
Polytechnic University, and I am aiming for the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. I
often work in digital media and paintings. I have always been intrigued by the
traditional paintings and artwork, but I also keep an open mind towards
contemporary art. What I wanted to get out of this trip is a better understanding
of traditional art within the context of contemporary art. I also wanted to get
inspiration, or at the very least some ideas of what I want to do next for my
artwork.
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Yvonne and other students had fun with the task of photographing Kwantlen's mascot Quentin against Parisian backdrops (photo courtesy: Kyubo Yun) |
What has met or exceeded your expectations or surprised you
about Paris so far?
In the beginning, what surprised me about this trip was how much I enjoyed some
of the exhibits. The Orsay and Pompidou museums were quite interesting for me
since there were many art movements represented that spoke to me. In the Orsay,
I discovered Symbolism, which was an anti-realistic and anti-naturalist
movement, and focused on imagination and spirituality. What I found interesting
about this movement was how similar it is to the fantasy and sci-fi art I also
enjoy. The Symbolists painters used mythology and dream imagery for their
works, but painted paintings that were more personal to them. They would use
symbols they would only understand themselves. I am really grateful for being
able to see this exhibit, and my only regret is not spending more time at the
Orsay to absorb more of it. The other exhibit featuring Gerhard Richter at the Pompidou was
amazing as well and gives me hope to keep pursuing digital work. His paintings
were hyper realistic, but each one had their own narrative. What I found interesting
about his work was how he made the painting look blurry or show a motion blur. Something
else that surprised me was some of the artwork looked smaller or bigger then I
have imagined and there were some details that I had never noticed before when
I looked closely at them in person. There was this Byzantine art piece called
Cenni di Pepe, which had patterns in the back of the painting and portraits of
people in the frame. There were also several large paintings where we
discovered something new about them, because we were able to see the details of
the painting instead of looking at it through a slide. I would love to come
back to Paris to visit the other museums I have missed. I think being in Paris
is a good opportunity if you are an artist. Even if you do not like the
traditional art, there are other artworks to fit every genre and approach.
Give us some insight into your assigned art work from the
Musee d’ Orsay. After seeing the work in person, what struck you most about it
and/or how did the art work’s form, content, and context shift for you when
seeing it?
Paul Gauguin, Artist with a Hat (1893-4) |
Paul Gauguin, Portrait of the Artist (1896) |
There were no other self-portraits like this on display, so it made me wonder why he painted himself like this. Perhaps it was because he no longer wanted himself to look at the audience, or perhaps he was commenting on how others look at him. It is difficult to tell if he used a photograph or not, since it is possible to draw a side-view of yourself with a lot of mirrors. This does go back to the question of why he did this. Since this was originally created after his Tahiti show was rejected by art critics, the painting could reflect the kind of emotions he wanted to convey at that time. He was disappointed with how the art critics did not like his work, and perhaps he wanted to document himself like this.
Today’s activity was at the Pere Lachaise cemetery. What
were your impressions? What will you
take away of the experience?
What, if any are the memorable moments for you?
Today we entered the cemetery in Pere-Lachaise. What I first noticed was how crowded the graves were in comparison to the ones I have seen in Vancouver. There were several graves that were an inch apart from each other. I first visited the artist Daumier to pay my respects to him, and it took some time to find. To my surprise, Daumier’s grave was nothing spectacular like some of the other graves. His grave was simple and undecorated. Daumier died poor so his family must have not been able to afford much for the funeral. Although, it looks like the top part of the grave was recently added. The bottom part of the grave had lots of moss, yet the block above it was clean. It was interesting to see Daumier’s grave amongst the other graves, since his was plain in comparison. What surprised me even more then Daumier’s grave was Max Ernst’s grave. There was no tombstone or sculptures to remember him by, instead it was a plaque, just a plaque on the wall just like everyone else. There was nothing special about it, and I had almost missed it because I assumed the grave was going to be special. All there was on his plaque was his name and when he died. It shocked to me that an artist who helped create a famous movement was treated this way. I then realized that perhaps this also shows how insignificant Ernst may have been during his time. I saw several new graves of people who died in 2000-2012 with large tombstones who I did not know, while a man who was trying to make a difference in his community was given a plaque.
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Plaques along walls at Pere Lachaise mark death in a less grandiose way than the large gravestones (photo courtesy: Kyubo Yun) |
The group dinner was a special night for us all! |
We happened upon Paris's famous Le Diner en Blanc in front of the Notre Dame cathedral on the way home from our special group dinner. At first, it looked like a massive flash mob! (photo courtesy: Dorothy Barenscott) |