Transcript San Diego Museum of Art

Alexa Karpenske
Period 4
The San Diego Museum of Art is the region’s oldest,
largest and most visited art museum. It provides a rich
and diverse cultural experience for almost 250,000
visitors annually. It is located in the heart of Balboa Park,
the Museum’s nationally renowned permanent
collection includes Spanish and Italian old masters,
South Asian paintings, and 19th- and 20th-century
American paintings and sculptures.

The San Diego Museum of Art's
Permanent Collection reveals a gradual
movement away from European
traditions in painting toward the
formulation of a uniquely American art,
redefining man’s relationship to his
surroundings. It has paintings of
landscapes that depict the country’s
untamed wilderness and how powerful
and vulnerable nature is with humans
around. It also has introspective
portraits, humanistic works and work by
abstract expressionists.
Jules Tavernier, Kilauea Caldera,
Sandwich Islands. Oil on canvas, 1969
Roy Lichtenstein, Haystack #4.
Lithograph and screenprint, 1969
Mary Cassatt, Simone in a
Blue Bonnet (No.1). Oil on
canvas, ca. 1903
This carved quartzite sculpture was
purchased by the Museum in 1949 and
was displayed here for four decades.
The statue shows the pharaoh in the
classic striding pose and wearing the
typical pleated linen kilt and a striped,
folded head cloth. His name and royal
titles are inscribed in hieroglyphs on
his belt buckle and on the supporting
back pillar: “Ramesses, beloved of
Amun…The Victorious Bull…King of
Upper and Lower Egypt…The son of
Ra...”
Ramesses II, known as “Ramesses the
Great,” ruled Egypt for 67 years (12791212 BCE) and was responsible for an
extensive building program which
remade the face of Egypt and included
numerous temples at sites like Luxor,
Karnak, Abydos, Thebes, and others.
Ramesses II (front detail).
Egypt, 1279-1212 BC,
Quartzite.
Ramesses II (side detail).
Egypt, 1279-1212 BC,
Quartzite.
Ramesses II (back detail).
Egypt, 1279-1212 BC,
Quartzite.

Nagle has honed his approach to color
and form. With an architect’s attention
to detail and a graffiti writer’s
irreverence, he has crafted his
quintessentially Californian aesthetic.
Sunset chromatic contrasts and
linoleum-like splatters envelope vaguely
Deco vessels, while everyday forms
acquire multiple meanings, wrapped in
riddles and puns.
Ron Nagle, Centaur of
Attention, 2014.
Ron Nagle, Centaur of
Attention, 2014.
Ron Nagle, Trick Tracy,
1998.
I liked this museum because it had art exhibitions that
were different from ones that you usually see. The art
works were very interesting and it didn’t have an
overwhelming amount of exhibitions and artworks. It
was also very detailed when explaining the artworks and
what they represented. I have been to this museum but
have not seen the exhibitions I wrote about today so I
would like to go again.