THE ART OF FRAMING
Iowa State Rome Program
For this project, our professors challenged us to go into the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art (GNAM) and re-read the exhibition under a new set of associations between the works on display that we make.
The first main room we walked into, I was instantly a blinded by the crowded walls of gold. The light was bouncing off of each gold frame from painting to painting. As I tried to focus on the subject within each of these frames, I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful, intricate, and well designed each frame was. It stole my attention away from the painting instantly.
As I kept walking through the museum, I started to notice how much calmer, more open and modern the artworks began to look. I wasn’t blinded by any extravagant gold frames or crowds of people, but was rather left wondering where is the frame? Or what even is the frame? It’s here where I started to make the association between frames from the 1800-1900s vs. now.
I wanted to emphasize the juxtaposition between the Baroque, gilded, intense gold frames to the modern, contemporary ones we have now. Rather than adding images into my book of the paintings I observed in the museum, I made my book dedicated to the frames; making them the art.
Have we lost the drama and effort that goes into creating these beautiful gold frames? Or have we just readjusted our focus to make the artwork speak for itself without needing a crazy frame surrounding it? Is the emphasis supposed to be on the frame or the art?
DELIVERABLES
210 mm x 180 mm 32 Page Book
TOOLS
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP
ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR
ADOBE INDESIGN
