Art Modern Perspective

James McCann

A Modern Perspective

Modern and abstract art is not something I would usually appreciate, or even pay any attention to; but on my recent visit to San Jose Museum of Art, a few exhibitions changed my mentality on unconventional art. In my mind, good art has always been big classical paintings like, School of Athens, by Rafael, and I would scoff at any piece that did not make immediate sense to me. I needed to look into the odd paintings and let my mind go, hold no judgments. At the museum, two pieces in particular caught my eye: Thesis/Antithesis by Enrique Chagoya was appealing to the eye and told a story. Also, My Imaginary Garden, by Patssi Valdez caught my attention from across the room. The paintings I saw opened my eyes and changed the way I thought about art.

The painting Thesis/Antithesis by Enrique Chagoya was drawn in 1998. It is pastel on paper with a finish of charcoal. Chagoya’s painting shows a man in black shoes stepping on another pair of red feet below him. On the side there is also a red and black finger pointed at each other, and the background looks like hot fire at the bottom and just plain white the rest. This picture caught my eye at first because of the way that white, red and black looked together, but also because of the balance of the piece. The contrasting feet and fingers made me think about the two sides to every argument and the way they are always pointing out each other. And that the arguments are similar, but one is masked: the foot with the shoe. At first this picture was nothing but nice color and figures on a page, but upon further analysis it sent a message. The fact that Chagoya can represent an idea with his art is very impressive and made admire this painting.

The other piece I really liked was Patssi Valdez’s, My Imaginary Garden (2003). The scene is full of hectic colors and flying branches, which is why I noticed it across the room. It is about 5 feet wide and 3 feet tall but gives...