Response to the Murals
First, I want to introduce the two Murals. They are called Development of Arts, and Development of Science. Those two murals were painted by Albert and Arthur Runquist in 1937 as part of WPA art project. It is original in the East and West stairwells that connect the lobby of the library to the special collections and university archives. Now, we can found it in Knight Library.
Before this project, I did never notice it in the library. They are beautiful. What’s more, they have special meaning for University of Oregon. I think that these two murals stand for the value of us. Students, staff, faculty are learning and studying art and science in University of Oregon. Based on the history of art and science, we can do a goog job here, University of Oregon.
For the development of the arts. There is a tree in the middle. I think it is life tree. There are eight single picture in the tree, which stands for eight time of period. In each time of period, it described the process which human beings made. For example, the first picture, it described the earliest primitive period. It told us the earliest art, which were cave painting, shaping of earthenware, sewing.
For the development of the science. There is a tree in the middle. I think it is life tree too. There are eight single picture in the tree, which stands for eight time of period. In each time of period, it described the process which human beings made. For example, the first picture, it described the earliest primitive period. It told us the stone age, which describe fire-making, use of nature weapons.
For me, these two murals are beautiful, meaningful, and great. In school, I believe there should have some work of art to make connection between the culture and students.
In the following, I will talk about some issues raised in the reading and my experience. People have different idea about public art. When we mention the words “public art” and we will get a variety of responses, “from a nod of recognition from those who identify with America’s many public tributes to its ancestors and histories to a shrug of disinterest from those who feel neglected in the national’s cultural landscape” (Doss, p.1) According this, we can understand there are some people can not see the art, and do not know why art is important for us, and do not know what is public art. According the he article, public art can be a sculpture, mural, manhole cover, paving pattern, lighting, seating, building façade, kiosk, gate, fountain, play equipment, engraving, carving, fresco, mobile, collage, mosaic, bas-relief, tapestry, photography, drawing, or earthwork” (Doss, p. 2). We can see this definition is more board than we know. Public art can help the cities to improve. It can make the city more beautiful. Besides, it can build the identity of city. Why public art is that important. According to the reading, Miwon Kwon explained that “public art has been charged with generating ‘place-bound identity’ and lending a sense of distinction and authenticity to the nation’s ever more homogenous public spaces” (Doss, p. 5). Meanwhile, critics and historians such as Ronald Lee Fleming and Renata von Tscharner argue that the majority of “today’s built environments; shopping malls, airports, office parks, and housing developments are so similar that it is hard to distinguish one from the other” and “public art is seen as a solution to the problem of placelessness” (Doss, p. 5). I pretty agree with his ideas. When we travel to famous cities, we can always attracted by the work of art rather than shopping malls, airport, and other normal stuffs. Therefore, public art are important to build the culture of the city, and make the city more beautiful.
Doss, E. (2006, October). Public art controversy: Cultural expression and civic debate. Retrieved from http://www.americansforthearts.org/pdf/networks/pan/doss_controversy.pdf
