AP European History and Art History students visited the Houston Museum of Fine Arts on Dec. 7 to view in real life the works they had studied throughout the first semester.
Art history teacher Ms. Liz Chambers planned the museum visit to encourage her students to compare the motifs in modern art work to those found in famous classic pieces.
One of the exhibits her class visited was Kehinde Wiley’s traveling exhibit, home to sculpture and large paintings that take famous classical works and insert Black figures into them to comment on the Black experience in the US.
“The most show-stopping piece in the exhibition was a huge bronze horse with a man falling off; it takes the motif of a strong, gallant knight and turns it on its head,” senior Eshaan Mani said.
The second exhibit they visited was “Rembrandt to Van Gogh,” an exhibit filled with works by some of the most well-known names in classical art.
“I think there’s something about looking at art on a screen, and then there’s something about seeing in person. The brushstrokes. It’s just more intimate,” AP European History teacher Ms. Jessica Hawkes said.
Students greatly enjoyed the experience, which included lunch at the museum’s Italian-style café.
“Besides examining the work of artists like Titian, Rembrandt and Jean Antoine Watteau, many of whom I’ve created VoiceThread projects about, it was fun to enjoy pizza and gelato and socialize with friends in a new setting,” Mani said.
For many students, the field trip was a welcome change of scenery especially given the impending midterm exam season.
“I always enjoy museums, and this was fun to get our minds off of exams,” senior Wills Leighton said.
Students were given 45 minutes to wander around the galleries on their own before departing from the museum at 2 p.m.
The AP European History class plans to take another field trip in the spring semester to the Holocaust Museum.
