Yale Art Museum Visual Analysis

First Visual Analysis

My first reaction to the piece is that I do know what I see. The artwork is in my opinion very simple, a black and white sketch that utilizes little of the white space for drawing. It appears to be done by a fine point hand instrument like pencil rather than a larger block of charcoal and shows very little signs of rubbing techniques. The focal point of the piece is twofold. First, there is a centralized and somewhat raised concentration of design which is accompanied by a much smaller and separated area of design, or color, in the bottom left hand region. There are only two honestly distinguishable every-day-items that I could make sense of as being represented in the piece: a string or wire and some kind of board or platform.

The remaining make up of the piece are representations that I am inexperienced with throughout both geometric study and life experience. They are found to appear hanging off of the “platform” and appear to be ten in count. Also, the bottom-left located drawing looks to be more of a design than a representation of an actual physical body that is found in reality. Were I to try and guess what these ten “hanging” things are, my first inclination would be that they resemble feathers of some sort. The artists’ emphasis on the texture of these, as opposed to the “platform” which is basic and appears smooth, would support this theory. The long divided strokes that make up the patterns on these ten items is easily comparable to the varying color contrasts and patterns that can be found in the feathers of many birds.

As I continue to formulate my opinions on the piece, I have developed a couple good guesses as to what exactly I am looking at. The image in the upper part of the piece bears a striking resemblance to a wind chime or a mobile that would hang above the heads of babies. Two other and more obscure ideas lead me to wonder if, first, the image is of these ten items hanging off of this platform...