Houston Museum two art pieces

More than 65000 works of art created from all over the world, dating from antiquity to the present, are housed in the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. The Year of the Drowned Dog by Eric Fischl and Woman drying her Herself by Edgar Degas will be the major subjects of this study.
Eric Fischl, an American who was born in 1948, produced the film The Year of the Drowned Dog. The 1983 painting was part of a historic portfolio that included two three-part sections. When combines they work as a pictorial game which gives glamour to the artwork. The first component is a panorama triptych beach while the second component is the involves three smaller sheets. The smaller sheets have a mother and child, a walking man and three sailors who overlap the panorama. There are irregular segments which transform the tranquil Caribbean beach scene and make a complex narrative (Dumas n.p). The mother and the child are looking at the boy and the dog of the title, while the other figures have no relationship. Each of the sheets in the picture depicts varying times of the day as illustrated by the figures in the shadows, with the underscores being independent. There is a non-linear creation of imagery in the artwork.

Having grown up in a background of alcoholism, with a culture obsessed with imagery more than the content, the artist has emphasized on the disparity between expression and experience as illustrated in the painting. The Year of the Drowned Dog was the first attempt by Fischl to create a complex, multicomponent artistic work of etching. It is an indication of the content as he explores the negative impact of the American tourism on the islands and the idyllic beaches which had most recently been developed in the resort industry.

Woman drying herself

The painting was made by Edgar Degas, who was a French artist. The artwork was produced in 1905 and the medium used to make the artwork was charcoal and pastel on tracing paper, put on the wove paper by the artist. Woman Drying Herself has the undeveloped background, made up of a large anthropomorphic object, mostly a towel or a servant, with a basin on the right. The background appears to have a chain of toiletries put on the shelf. It was one of the masterly work of Edgar Degas produced in his late years of his career, with a female bather drying her hair.

Edgar was one of the most accomplished draftsmen in the art with this artwork made when he was about seventy years old. He made more than 200 pastel and charcoal drawings of female bathers and also a couple of sculptures, oil paintings, and lithographs. This drawing is made from a set of five similar compositions on a tracing paper, which was the favorite support for Edgar as his life came to an end (Young & Marie, 46). When compared to the rest of the series of art, the artwork appears slightly finished and leaves out some critical components. The pictures of the mundane bathers are highly unconventional from their historical perspective of art. They take part in a genre which is historically dominated by classicized and erotic illustrations of naked females.

Personal opinion on the artworks

In Year of the Drowned Dog, the painting is impressive and represents a rare painting, with the creativity of the artist demonstrated with the artwork. The artist has succeeded in putting together six drawings into one painting, with the theme of the painting being life at the coastal line. The selection of the colors attracted me in choosing this art as well as the integration of many ideas put on the same paper. The artist may have tried to communicate a particular message with his impressive work since the mother and the child and also the sailors are all focused on the sea. The attention of the three men on the shores of the sea have their minds far from the sea and are glued to their own business along the shoreline (Foltz & Sarah, 8). It is difficult to interpret the meaning from the perspective of the artist, though it is an illustration of the modern artwork and life at the coast. The mother and the child are tourists and are impressed by the waters, while the work of the sailors is attached mainly to the sea. The men on the sea appear to be a fisherman, tour guide, and a trader respectively with all of them glued to their work. If I made the artwork, I would eliminate the man working along the shoreline since it is not clear why he is on the drawing as well as add boats or dhows to complete the purpose of the sailors in the painting. The artist was successful in presenting the artwork due to the environment and the creativity of putting the pieces together into one painting.

The artistic work, Woman Drying Herself, is unique in the modern day and age. It attracted me since the world has revolutionized and many changes have been experienced in the world, but the artwork has clung to its meaning. The artist's impressions may have been focused on the physical features of humans and their private life, which is a road very few artists take. Most ladies like being clean and it was right for the artist to make an impression of a lady rather than a man. Moreover, women have curvy bodies and carry an aesthetic value when compared to women. The choice of color of the artist is also attractive and carries the theme of hygiene, as there are toiletries beside the woman (Dumas n.p). The artwork is simple and impressive, which makes the artist successful in his work. If I would change anything in the painting, it would be the environment. I would make the surrounding bigger in order to have a better view of the image and make it more attractive. The first thing which crossed my mind was, why a woman bathing, and I was interested to know the intentions of the artist.



























Works cited

Dumas, Ann. Degas and America: the early collectors. Rizzoli International Publications, 2000.

Foltz, Sarah Elizabeth. Aligning regional and Pan-American visions in the 1950s: Exhibitions of Latin American art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Dallas Museum of Art. Diss. Southern Methodist University, 2013.

Young, Kathleen Marie. "From private collection to public exhibit: designing a Native American Exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science." (2014).