AT&T Knowledge Network Explorer Homepage KNE Homepage KNE Feedback Page KNE Search Page

San Buenaventura Activity
page 6 of 6

"Bent Tower "
Father Jerome Tupa
46 " x 38" / Oil on canvas
1998

"San Buenaventura"
Terry Ruscin
Selenium bromide on gelatin-silver fiber paper
1997
Compare Tupa's painting Bent Tower above with the photograph San Buenaventura by Terry Ruscin to the right. Notice that Tupa's focus seems to be on the interior of the Mission. He has chosen to leave out most of the Mission's walls so that the viewer can see through them to the interior space. Was Tupa more concerned with what happened inside the Mission than with the look and feeling of the exterior of the Mission and the Mission grounds?

Clearly Ruscin was interested in the setting or exterior environment in which the Mission is found. He has captured the Mission chapel and bell tower, but he also shows Mission San Buenaventura squarely situated between two sentry-like street lights and neighboring manicured gardens. Perhaps Ruscin was most interested in the solidity of the Mission itself. This is in contrast to the airy, almost floating, quality of Father Tupa's depiction of the same building

Notice the symbols or shapes that Tupa has incorporated on the side of the bell tower. What do you think they mean?

Terry Ruscin's photograph shows a view that is similar to Tupa's painting of Mission San Buenaventura. In Ruscins's photograph we see a view of the Mission from across a city street. In the foreground of the photograph is a fountain; however the fountain does not appear to be a part of the Mission grounds.

Notice the compositions the two artists have used while painting and photographing the same building. Tupa's composition is very circular; the main architectural elements of the building seem to lean inward taking the viewer's eye through a spiral-like shape. Ruscins' photograph is by contrast highly symmetrical in its composition. Thus Ruscins' composition looks very balanced. His photograph of the Mission shows the building centered in the photograph and he places the main arched doorway in the central focal point of the photograph.

Mervyn's Corporate Page SBC Corporate Page
Created by special agreement between Mervyn's and AT&T

First posted April, 2001.

© 2010 Copyright AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T and the AT&T logo are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property. This site contains links to public sites whose content and language do not fall under the jurisdiction of AT&T. The views and opinions expressed at these sites are not those of AT&T. Please read our Disclaimer.