Research in MoMA
When thinking about research, the first thing that come to my mind will be research papers. As a art school student, fortunately, i don’t have to take any tough math course, but i did have to learn academic research skill. Instead of school, research is also every common in daily life. Base on discussion we did in class, i think research is a way how people find the answer when they have a question, it could be other than academic area. For example, I want to eat sushi today, but I don’t know which restaurant will be good. I could ask my friend for suggestions, it will be a first time research (talked about in class, forgot name). I could also search on Yelp, then it will be a second data. In the practice, I use research to better explore and detailed my theme, basically, it help me to solve my questions and then explore more questions that I might want to know the answer. Since people always have questions, research is everywhere in our life.
The artwork i found related to my theme, Identity, is a oil on canvas painting called American People Series #20: Die, which was painted by Faith Ringgold in 1967. I first read the catalog (introduction on the side of painting in MOMA) of the painting. From the introduction, I learned that it was a response to racial violence and expressed painter’s worries. Later, i search Faith Ringgold in MOMA archives, and saw her photo, some of her exhibition. (I didn’t find any result by searching her painting)I also found a letter she wrote and a petitioning for a Martin Luther. King. From the letter, I learn that she was in a united of students and artists for Martin Luther. King. She was trying to help artists from the black ghetto: they have no chance to put their work in a white gallery. She believed that it will do something with the war. When I first saw this painting, I thought it is strong and coldblooded. But base on these research, my understanding of her work changed. Comparing with a fighter, she is more like a protecter, holding their right , protecting people from the war and racism. I utilized my research to figure out the background, and to better help me understand her purpose, or the theme of her work.
Toolkit:
Library(66 w 12th street second floor)
google scholar (many academic articles that are reliable)
museum digital archive page: MOMA(https://maid.moma.org/)
Leslie-Lohman museum (https://www.leslielohman.org) -LGBTQ
New York Times/ BBC (reliable)-News
Wikipedia (not reliable but it is a good place to start)
Survey- interview
Data: https://www.data.gov (government’s open data)
Self observation- empirical study
New school database: https://library.newschool.edu
digital books: https://books.google.com (Google Book)