Amon Carter Museum of American Art

I thoroughly enjoyed our class trip to the Amon Carter museum. I had never been and was curious what it was like. The structure of the inside of the museum was smaller than I anticipated; however, I was impressed with how many paintings it houses. I understand Dr. Williams was unaware the museum was in a period of transitioning exhibits and that it no longer had the exhibit with landscape paintings. However, I was pleased with all the paintings we saw. I appreciated the opportunity to learn outside of the classroom. I am art illiterate, so it was interesting to learn more about paintings from reading the descriptions and listen to Dr. Williams and classmates discuss the art.

I took pictures of a few of my favorite paintings at the museum. My favorite painting was titled, “The Hunter’s Return.” It was painted in 1845 by Thomas Cole. The description of the painting at the museum described the scene as a “paradise-like, sun-filled valley, a family seems to live in harmony with nature.” The painting depicts a father and son’s arrival home after a successful hunt. However, the painting is not a complete celebration. In the foreground of the painting there are several fallen trees, which represents that civilization requires the destruction of nature.

Another one of the paintings that caught my eye was titled “The Caves” by Robert Seldon Duncanson. I learned this painting has multiple meanings. I was unaware that caves were major attractions for people in the mid-nineteenth century. They functioned as an escape from industrialized life. The visitation to caves were promoted as educational trips, so Duncanson’s painting shows a guide holding a lantern at the mouth of the cave in the painting. I also learned that caves could have had symbolic meanings as well, because they housed runaway slaves in the Civil War.

One painting that caught my attention was titled “Red Cannas” by Georgia O’Keeffe. It is not a landscape painting; however, it magnifies an aspect of nature, which I think is an interesting forced perspective. O’Keeffe explained her painting by saying “Everyone has many associations with a flower…. But one rarely takes the time to really see a flower. I have painted what each flower is to me and I have painted it big enough so that others would see what I see.”

Overall, I enjoyed our class trip to the modern art museum. The paintings were beautiful and I got the chance to learn something completely new and outside of my ordinary routine.