The Arts- Birmingham Museum of Art

I recently made two different visits over a two week period to the Birmingham Museum of Art. When I arrived I wasn't certain what to expect other than the Asian fashion exhibit I read about in an email. To my surprise all three floors of the museum were filled with different visuals of cultures from all over the world. There was so much information that intrigued me it was hard to grasp with each new room I entered. The cultures consisted of the countries: Hati ,England, France, the continent Asia & so many others. I want to tell a visual story of my experience with each of these cultures, which may not include all that were actually shown. I want to express my takeaway of my experience.

To start my visual journey I thought it would be really cool to post a picture of myself wearing this beautiful red fashionable scarf. I think my scarf goes along with theme of the story I want to tell. It resembles a fabric known as ikats which I will write about below.

This is an actual photo of the Birmingham Museum of Art. It is actually one of my favorite parts of the building. The rainbow colors are really cool, I also love the unique patterns used. This is one of the most unique parts outside of the building.

Inside the Exhibits

"All The Colors of the Rainbow" is the Asian fashion exhibit I mentioned above. It was about this really cool fabric called "ikats" which is a form of  tie dying in Asia. It is made of silk and worn in bold colors such as red, yellow, orange or blue. The shape of the ikat distinguished if it was made for a male or female. Also the colors distinguished what social class the person/family were in. Many times people used ikats during the silk trades it was an expensive fabric. In the exhibit there were actual ikats on display along with jewelry, boots, and bridal hats that were worn during this period of time.

This beautiful piece is a portrait made of marble of an Italian young woman wearing a classical dress. The portrait only shows the top half of the woman's gown sorta like the profile pictures we take and post on the internet today. The portrait was taken in early Rome and later created by Mino da Fiesole. Her pearl veil was often considered a statement piece.

Furniture from Paris, France. Very well made and constructed with the finest wood, mostly owned by the wealthy.

Wedge wood ceramics of the 19th century
I loved this pottery. The pastel/nude colors are my favorite. You can observe that such fine pottery were purchased by the wealthy. Each shape of vase had a specific name and were used for different things.

This art piece was so striking to me! The use of  color was appealing along with the ship explosion on the water. The artist created this piece from inspiration of a War he'd studied. The black color behind the ship is an oil spill that contaminated the water.

(Myself standing in front of a contemporary art piece.)
I enjoyed myself at the museum, I learned new things and it was really cool to see the writings of history come to life! The visuals were amazing, looking forward to my next visit.
To learn more about the exhibits at the Birmingham Museum of Art you can follow them on twitter: @bhammuseum or check out their website: www.artsbma.org for updates!