Every Thursday, as part of my personal “enriched environment” initiative, I post a piece of art, usually from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which recently released online some 400,000 high-resolution images of its collection. All artwork will show a sun (or sunlight) somewhere.
I won’t name the piece or the artist, but instead invite you to study the art and post a comment addressing one or more of these questions:
- What is going on in this picture?
- What do you see in the picture?
- What does it make you think of?
- What observations can you make?
Note: To embiggen the image, click on it!
I look at this and for some reason or other I think of chess. Two black pieces, one white piece. The white piece has two wheels so maybe its the castle (the piece that looks like a horse?).
The pavement has squares in it, which supports this viewpoint.
I like this piecture!
There are parallel lines and all sorts of odd angles. Two people, one person. Where was the photographer standing? On some roof?
I’ve seen many ” aerial ” shots like this, where the shadows of people are elongated and the people as seen from above mere dots. I see that here but also there appears to be some drama in the humans’ interactions. Bravo!
There’s fourth person. Why hasn’t anyone seen her? The shadows are not really perpendicular to the lines in the street, except the building shadow on the left, next to the man in white on the bicycle, kind of is. So, too, is the shadow right behind the “fourth” person walking at the topp of the frame.
The picture seems very cold and impersonal to me.
OK, so it’s probably early in the morning. The shadows are long and there aren’t too many people out on the streets. The man in black talking to the woman is trying to impress her with his gestures. The man on the bicycle is curious…he’s looking about and it seems his big basket is empty. The woman at the top of the screen looks old or depressed ; she appears hunched over, not standing upright. There is some kind of dust, or snow, on the ground because you can see tire tracks making U turns around the opening in the trolley tracks. It appears to be very quiet. The sun, as people seem to note in these discussions, is off to the left somewhere – the upper left.
I want spring . I want green. !!!
WHERE….IS…..PARKY????
(I think he must be riding in the basket.)
The three “main” people in the picture are all headed toward the sun, and the building shadows that reach into this main public square are funnel-shaped, narrowing down to the side street on the upper left.
The fourth person, that is, the woman at the top of the picture, is heading away from the sun. Maybe she’s given up! Maybe she knows there’s not much above the picture frame!
I wonder why some stretches of the roadway are brick, and others are flat concrete.
That lamp post at the bottom of the picture is sharp like a lance. Its narrowness and sharpness creates an unpleasant feeling. At least in me.