National Gallery of Scotland-Casey Van Houtan

Today we had the opportunity to visit the National gallery of Scotland. I am very excited to write this blog for I am an art appreciator for I have absolutely no artistic ability but to be able to view different eras of art and how each was different was quite the experience. The gallery itself has a very specific place in Edinburgh which is on top of The Mound. The Mound is literally a hill of earth and can be found in the perfect spot right in between the Princes St. Gardens. Before the building was put here, a man had put up this panorama (which this man is said to invent this word and it is a Scottish invention) to view. You could come pay a pound to come into this tent like structure and get this picturesque view of the city of Edinburgh. The gallery not stands in its place and was created by William Henry. It was finally to be opened to the public in 1859, though it would not get its purchase grant until 1903 which is quite surprising. The gallery holds a printing and drawing collection of 30,000 works, which is considered small, but I considered quite huge. Every year they welcome over a million visitors from Scotland and the rest of the world just to view the building of art.
They hold not only portraits but also sculptures, which are strewn randomly over the building. They have certain rooms dedicated to each period of art. We started in the medieval times, moved on through Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and Scottish of course, and we then ended in the impressionist period which is my absolute favorite. They are more modernesque pictures in old flashy frames which is where you would find Romantic and Reneissance period types of art. My favorite piece from the impressionist period was a Van Gogh. He drew this from his window while he was kept in an asylum which I also find to relate to this course. He uses the impressionist form of art which uses less strict detail than any other time of art even found now. He did commit suicide only weeks after he painted this picture though which is quite ironic. Another art appreciator beside me was talking about the impressionistic period of art and said “What is so ironic about this time is they had the most use of colors and everything is so bright and not dark, but they almost all, committed suicide.” Which I find to be quite ironic as well and sad how can you draw these paintings and be so sad on the inside.
Another ironic piece of art that turns out to be one of my favorites is a photograph taken by Annie Leibovitz. It is of course of one of my main men John Lennon and his lover Yoko Ono. The caption that was by it is “In this comparatively simple portrait, Leibovitz relies on intimacy for effect. Her aim was to immortalise John and Yoko's deep love for one another. But within hours of taking this photograph John Lennon was shot dead. Distributed around the world as a 'Rolling Stone' magazine cover, the photograph was instantly transformed. It became a memorial to Lennon and a symbol of the vulnerability of human passion.” The great thing about art that it is ultimately up to the viewer to decide how to interpret it, sure the artist probably had their own idea but everyone is unique so who is to say who is right and who is wrong. One person may not understand what they see in front of them while another is totally drawn into the piece. For instance during the same period the Italians and Spanisher were more into drawing and trying to relieve the religion era. They were all Catholic so they had a different view on what art should look like, while at the same time the Dutch were drawing hunting scenes. Which only the rich could do in those times so it gave people hope to look at these painting and to have them in their houses as too think hey that could be me someday. I quite liked the Dutch painting, though the dead animals put a morbid touch on it. The thing I found interesting was that it looked like the man was on a windowsill and this vsat majority of land was behind him including on the side a sprig of Sunflowers which they thought to be magic. Who would of thought that today our state flower was magic because it followed the sun and was quite large.
I very much enjoyed the gallery and it opened my eyes to a lot of great art and older art I would have never got the chance to see in the states. I hope to go to many other places to view their collections.