Arts Critique

Emily Blumer
ED EL 3100

The piece that I chose for my art critique is titled The Golden Muse, and it is
a mural painted on a building in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. This was a very large
project that was not completed by one artist, but Tim Parsley was the project
manager. I do not know the exact date that this mural was painted, but I do know
that it was painted for the Taft Museum of Arts 80th Anniversary, which leads me to
believe it was painted in 2012.
The painting is of a woman in a dress staring into the distance. Swirling
papers that contain a piece of music surround her. The background is light blue with
white, fluffy clouds, which indicates that she is somewhere in the sky. Her
expression is blank and she is hard, almost as though she is made of stone or metal.
Everything on her body is some shade of gold, including her dress, hair and skin.
This artwork contains many Elements of Art and Principles of Design. It
achieves the illusion of form, although it is a two dimensional piece of artwork,

because the music wraps in front of and behind the woman. It gives the idea of a
deeper space, which is heightened by the background of the sky and clouds. The
paper appears to get larger or smaller in relation to location on the mural, which
leads the audience to feel that it is either closer or further away at different points.
There is shading on the womans dress to indicate wrinkles (texture) in which
certain parts of her dress are sticking out while others are bending in. This is also
true with the shading on her body, which appears to make things such as her nose
and cheekbones stick out in relation to her eyes or neck.
The artists used lines, color, and space to highlight the center of the piece.
For many reasons, the first thing the eye is drawn to when looking at the mural is
the woman in the center. She is very large in relation to all of the other objects in the
picture, and she is placed in the center. In addition to this, she is different shades of
gold, which create a large contrast between the light blue and white background. In
addition to this, there are many lines used that point attention to the muse. The
main swirl of paper that circles around her neck ends at a point in which it is
pointing back at her. This is also the case for the paper swirl at the bottom of the
piece and the gold swirl that wraps around the top left corner of the piece.
After doing research on this particular mural, I found some concrete
information on what the goal of the piece was. The woman is a music muse and the
musical notes that are surrounding her are those of Fanfare for the Common Man by
Aaron Copeland. The theme of the Taft Museum of Arts 80th Anniversary was Art
for All. This brings more depth to the piece because in some places, art is viewed as
something that is particularly aimed towards the upper class. In this piece, the

artists aim to convey the idea that art is for everyone, which is enhanced by
including notes from Fanfare for the Common Man. This is furthered by the fact that
the piece contains a muse, which is someone that inspires a piece of work. She is
also made of gold, which indicates prestige. The combination of all of these elements
communicates that all men and women can experience even the most creative and
high-end art, not just the upper portion of a society.
I feel that the artwork was successful in conveying this message to an extent.
I really appreciate that there is a deeper meaning behind it, but not everybody will
look up the reasoning. I feel that if an artist wants to convey a message, they should
make it possible for the audience to interpret the message without having to have
additional information. This could have been achieved by doing something as simple
as including the title of the musical work somewhere on the paper. However, once I
realized the title of the musical piece, the mural made a lot more sense to me.
I dont like the facial expression used for the muse. If the message that is
being conveyed is that art is for everyone, I feel that the facial expression should be
more inviting. The cold, blank expression on the muses face leads me to feel
excluded or uninvited. This is intensified by the texture of her skin, which appears to
be cold and hard, like that of metal. I even feel chilled when looking at the piece. I
feel that if it is a painting that is supposed to represent inclusion, it should feel
warm.
After analyzing the mural, I have completely changed my perspective on it. It
has always been difficult for me to interpret art or to understand that it can have a
message. What I have learned from this experience is that you just have to take the

time to really evaluate how a piece makes you feel. When I originally saw this piece
walking through Cincinnati, I was overwhelmed. I think that part of this may have
been because I dont know a lot about music and the presence of musical notes may
have turned me off on the painting. Whenever I turned my mind off and just let
myself experience the piece, I realized that the notes were only one aspect of the
piece of art. Although they are instrumental to conveying the message, I shouldnt
ignore a piece of artwork because I dont understand or feel comfortable with a
certain aspect of it. In taking in the rest of the piece, I was able to understand it a lot
better.
Once I started looking at the piece as a whole, I saw that it was a muse. I
knew that a muse is the point of inspiration for some sort of creative expression. In
this case, I could see that the muse was symbolically inspiring the music. In the
piece, the sheets of music circle around the muse. This helped me to understand that
she was the center of the music, and I feel was the inspiration of it. After this
realization, I felt much more comfortable with the piece. This was magnified even
more when I did research on the mural. Being able to see the context in which the
artists created the piece helped me to feel comfortable in understanding its purpose.
Overall, I think that the piece was successful. While I did mention some corrections
that I would have made to the piece in order to make the purpose more clear, I was
still able to understand what was being conveyed. In my opinion, if I can understand
the message being conveyed (no matter what it takes to get me there), it is effective
overall.

Proof of attendance:

Historical context of piece as well as another picture that shows the entire work:
http://www.artworkscincinnati.org/mural/the-golden-muse/