2009 Q.17 - Art appreciation - Sample Answer

2009 paper

17. A visit to an exhibition is best judged by the quality of art work on display and by the

gallery space itself..

 - Discuss this statement with reference to any named exhibition you have

visited.

and

 - Discuss two specific works from this exhibition in detail.

Use sketches to illustrate your answer.

2009 Q17 Marking scheme

A Name of Gallery/Exhibition. 10

B Discussion of statement with reference to visited exhibition . 10

C Detailed discussion of work 1. 10

D Detailed discussion of work 2. 10

E Sketches 10

Total : 50

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Sample Answer:

  The gallery I have visited and will discuss in my answer is the National Gallery of Ireland.  The national gallery is just off Nassau street in the grounds of Leinster Lawn in Co.Dublin I had visited this gallery once before but on my most recent visit I had a better knowledge of art and the techniques used in its appreciation so I had a better awareness and understanding of the gallery structure and art work on display there, in particular the work of Irish artist Jack B.Yeats work displayed in the Yeats room which I will discuss in detail later.  

The paintings in the National gallery of Ireland belong to all the Irish public, everyone’s welcome to visit the gallery and entry is free.

  I noticed that the structure and layout of the building is well designed to display  all of the different works of art, as the gallery flows from room to room so that each room leads on to next.  This gallery is very well laid out and on arrival visitors receive a booklet with the floor plan so that they know the layout of the gallery and can find their way around easily, this is helpful as the gallery is very large and spacious and you could easily get lost.  All of the exhibition rooms in this gallery were named on the plan and the centuries that the paintings came from.  Each wing is colour coded  & the gallery has 4 wings.  We had a guide who showed us around the gallery and explained the different rooms & paintings to us.  The galleries paintings are all arranged by themes eg: still life / landscapes etc.  The overall atmosphere in this gallery is very calm and peaceful and the rooms are very large and spacious with lots of room for visitors to walk around and enjoy the Art work on display.  .

 

  I agree with the statement above that ‘a visit to an art exhibition is best judged by the quality of art work on display’ and one exhibition on display in particular caught my attention and I feel this is the reason I really enjoyed my visit to this gallery.  Before I visited the national gallery I thought it was only for wealthy artistic people but after my visit my opinion has changed.  I now know that an art gallery is a place where works of art are cared for and displayed for everyone to visit & enjoy.

   We visited the ‘Yeats room’ featuring the art work of the famous Irish painter Jack B Yeats.  This room is different from the rest of the gallery.  The lighting is low and it is like that to protect & preserve the paintings done in watercolor and oil.  There is also a glass barrier to protect the paintings. The low lighting makes the room very peaceful & creates a special atmosphere. And strong light may damage the paintings.  Because the oil paint is applied very thickly your natural reaction is to want to touch it (the texture) and the paint was applied with large brushes & palette knives.  Yeats loved to paint scenes from the west of Ireland.  His paintings in the gallery are arranged from his early simple life drawings to his heavily applied knife paintings.  The paintings are hung at eye level with info underneath it about each painting.

My two favourite paintings on exhibit in the national gallery of Ireland in te ‘Yeats room’ by Yeats are ‘The liffey swim’ &  ‘Grief’.

The liffey swim – the subject matter of this painting is a sporting event in Dublin.  We see a crowd cheering on swimmers as they swim up the liffey.  We feel that we are actually looking at the race from where the crowd was standing.  We can see a boy in a green hat trying to work his way into the crowd to sell papers.  Yeats paints himself into the painting (something the does quite often) along with his wife Cotty.  They are in the foreground, she wears a fancy hat and he wears a grey hat with a black band.

Grief – this painting is very emotional.  The subject matter (what the painting is about) is about war.  It is a painting about the civil war in Ireland.  In the centre there is a man on a horse with his arms raised.  He seems to be angry.  To the left of him I can see soldiers carrying rifles.  A person in green leaves the scene.  In the foreground Yeats shows the victims of war, a mother trying to comfort her dying baby, there is an old man on his knees with his hands in his face.  He is either praying or just in despair.  The gable of a house can be seen in the background with an explosion going off to the left.  In the distance I can see a background of the sun rising which maybe is a symbol of hope.

From his traditional period, ‘The Liffey Swim’ captures the excitement of this annual event in Dublin, but sporting events were always of interest to him.He painted with loose brush strokes in his later works and emotion became a stronger feature in his work. He felt that the paintings could speak for themselves, he said ‘It doesn’t matter who I am or what I am, people may think what they will of my pictures’.

  Another of Yeats most common images involved horses, and though he was never a horseman himself, he had a great affection for them.  ‘For the Road’ expresses the understanding between horse and rider and the light of hope and optimism at the end of the tunnel.  He died in March 1957 and has gained widespread international recognition as Irelands most renowned painter.

  

  In conclusion I really enjoyed my visit to the national gallery of Ireland & the Yeats room and I hope to return very soon to view all of the fantastic paintings from history.