Course:SLUMA Questions

The Saint Louis University Museum of Art is hosting "The Dream", an exhibition of works from the collection of Richard Winter ("The Dreamer") who earned both his bachelors and masters degrees in mathematics at SLU.

Alicia LaChance will be at the museum for an in-gallery reception (with snacks!) Thursday September 4, 5pm-7pm and Friday September 5, 5pm-8pm.

You need to visit the exhibition, and then asnwer these questions during or after your visit.

During or after your visit to the museum, please answer these questions:

Alicia LaChance: Symmetry
1. Discuss the symmetry of LaChance's Aion A. What symmetry group describes this work the best, and why?
2. LaChance's work The Pines has a green pattern in the lower left corner. What is its symmetry group?
3. Consider the colored 'spokes' radiating outward in LaChance's New Village. Notice that some of the spokes are colored in the same ways.
   Do the identically colored spokes appear to be symmetrically arranged? Give some specific examples.
   Try to imagine how the artist created this work in layers.
4. Do the spokes in LaChance's Yantra appear to be symmetrically arranged?
5. Learn a bit about the classic book The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones.
   Why do you think LaChance titled her work The Ornament of Grammar?
Other Works (which will be more relevant later in the course)
6. Describe Victor Vasarely's Bika (The Bull). Compare with Escher's Balcony.
7. Artists use different techniques to indicate the third dimension, or depth, in a flat work of art. Compare the sense of depth you get from the three works:
   • Yuri Gorbachev, Autumn in Uglovka
   • Dasha Balashova, The Path
   • Bruno Vekemans, Howard Johnson

If you've enjoyed "The Dream", consider taking a look at the rest of the museum. I like many things on the second floor, including Bill Keating: Mother and Child, Jean Pierre Le Boulch: Il Faut Faire Vite, James Smith: Pretty Trap, Chuck Close: Self Portrait, and Claes Oldenburg: Arched Soft Screw as Building. The upper floors are intersting too - don't let the Jesuits of St. Stanislaus scare you.