At the Walker- Michelle Stolz

Donald Moffett

1995/2003

Paintings

20.125x16.125x2.25

Walker Art Center

www.artsconnected.org

As I was sitting in the binocular room at the Walker, I was immediately drawn to this particular piece, because I did not understand it. It also challenged my idea of art, because when it caught my eye from a distance, I thought it was a plain, grey canvas. After going home and researching more of his works, I began to understand his style more. He makes many paintings that focus on texture, using free-flowing organic shapes, as well as geometric shapes such as square boxes. He also has multiple pieces that deal with text incorporated with the human face, which I found to be the most intriguing.

After researching the piece and the artist, the subject matter is still very unclear to me. The piece is very organic and free-flowing in form, and texture is the most prominent feature of this piece. It is very uncertain and questionable as to what the content and the context of this piece relates to, but it was make in the 1990's. The genre of art that this most likely falls into is post-modernism.

After looking from a distance at the piece, I looked at it closer, and the pre-assumed plain grey canvas morphed into a texture-heavy, three-dimensional painting that confused me. I thought to myself, "what is the point of this piece? It is too simple and it honestly should not be classified as art. It is simply too simple." After going to the information screen located in the binoculars room, I got a closer digital image, and I started to accept the fact that it is indeed art, and that it is craft intensive, and the texture and the-dimensionality is simply amazing. From sitting down and looking at the piece for a good half an hour, it put me in a trance, trying to follow all the free-flowing, fluid lines that formed from the texture of the painting. After looking at it for the amount of time that I did, it started to look like a mangled mess of chains, layers of tiny chain links in a pile. From my observations, I believe the artist is trying to say something about how simplicity can be decieving at first, but after a while, the complexity of it all can become something beautiful. He can also be symbolizing beauty through distress. He shows this by using one simple color, and a complex organic texture.

This piece of art contributes to art history by showing that a piece of art does not have to be elaborate to portray a meaning, and it doesn't have to use fancy brush strokes or realistic figures such as animals or people, it is simply a painting with one color, and a complex pattern. It also defines modern art, and challenges how art is viewed today. Most modern art is more idea based than actually art based, meaning the idea of a great piece is there, but how it is portrayed and finished as an end result is questionable, and Moffett's pieces are certainly questionable at first, but then once the image is observed and researched, the viewer can grow a deeper meaning for it, and apprecaite it even more. Knowing about art pieces makes the viewer appreciate art more, than simply passing by knowing nothing about a piece that fustrates or confuses the viewer, and this is why I personally have developed a love for the Walker, because the more I learn about an artist or a piece of art, I can appreciate it more, or, if not appreciated, I can learn why something confuses me or fustrates me- and this is the beauty of art.