Event #3, Hammer Museum

Recently, I went to the Hammer Museum. The museum itself was much bigger than I expected, I loved the architecture of the space and its interior design, especially the museum’s courtyard (“Hammer Museum”).

A beautiful sight of the museum's courtyard from the second floor

On the second floor of the museum, there is a bridge called the John V. Tunney Bridge. The bridge commemorates Tunney’s commitment and dedication to furthering the Hammer Museum’s goals and mission. The design of the bridge is simple yet unique. The bridge shows how math and physics can influence art.

The John V. Tunney Bridge

Also on the second floor of the museum, the Armand Hammer Collection boasts a selection of paintings and artworks from Western art history to the early twentieth century in the U.S. We learned in class how neuroscience could influence art. In my Neuroscience+Art blog post, I talked about how Vincent van Gogh, a highly celebrated artist with a neurological disorder, could produce such beautiful artworks (Bhattacharyya and Saurabh). His paintings at the Collection include a vivid depiction of the garden of the asylum where he spent the last few months of his life. There were a total three of his paintings on display at the Armand Hammer Collection, but my favorite is by far the painting called The Sower ("Sower, The").

Vincent van Gogh, The Sower, ca. 1888.

In class, we delved into hybrids. Another exhibition at the museum, one by Mary Reid Kelley, also included some aspects that could be related to what we learned in lecture (Rees). Kelley’s exhibition is a black-and-white video that tells a narrative story ("Mary Reid Kelley"). In the story, there are hybrid creatures such as the Minotaur, a cow-woman hybrid who is the product of her mother, a Queen, and her father, a bull. Another hybrid in the story is Priapus, a man-fish hybrid (Cahill).

The story was interesting but I found it quite odd and unusual.

All in all, I had a good time at the museum but I had wished that there were more exhibits. I learnt a lot at this museum, that sometimes we have to appreciate not just the exhibits but also the architecture and the structure of the museum itself.        

Me and my Hammer sticker!

Works Cited

Bhattacharyya, Kalyan, and Saurabh Rai. "The Neuropsychiatric Ailment of Vincent Van Gogh." Annals of Indian Academy of Neurology. Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd, 2015. Web. 5 June 2015.

Cahill, James. "A Wandering Will: Mary Reid Kelley Discusses Swinburne’s "Pasiphae"" The Los Angeles Review of Books. 25 May 2015. Web. 5 June 2015.

"Hammer Museum." The Hammer Museum. Web. 5 June 2015. http://hammer.ucla.edu/

"Mary Reid Kelley." Mary Reid Kelley. Web. 5 June 2015.

Rees, Allyson. "Mary Reid Kelley Reimagines Mythology from a Woman's POV." Los Angeles Confidential. Web. 5 June 2015.

"Sower, The." Vincent Van Gogh Gallery. Web. 5 June 2015.