Art = Creativity
Honestly, I was never a huge fan of art museums. When I’d walk up to the paintings I would feel a bit confused as to how certain pieces could be considered “art.” I always wondered if I was missing something- and why certain people were fascinated by art as it was some Holy object. Surprisingly when I visited the MOMA today I didn’t feel like a foreigner. I think this is because I have a new understanding of abstract expressionism and I really looked at the art- I wasn’t quick to dismiss it if I didn’t understand it at first.
The first piece of art I saw was “Untitled” by Mario Merz. It is a sequence of photographs that show an increasing amount of people in the same restaurant. The number of people in each photograph is written on top of each photo in a neon light. The really cool thing is that all the numbers are Fibonacci numbers! (when you add the previous two numbers you arrive at the current number) I got excited because it reminded me of my middle school and high school days when I did math fair and studied Fibonoci numbers. This is the first real time I have seen math directly applied in art. I think it’s amazing how they can co-exist together to make an interesting piece of art.
Another piece of art I saw was “Crumpled Map” by Sol Lewitt. The interesting thing about this was that the art piece wasn’t a painting, it was literally a map of Chicago crumpled up. The fact that it was 3 dimensional and colorful made it stand out to me. It reminded me of frustration. It reminded me of when I was on vacation reading a map of St Thomas. I got so frustrated to the point where I crumbled the map up and threw it away because I couldn’t read it.
When I rounded the corner of floor 4 I came across “Punch &Judy 2 Bith & Life & Sex & Death by Bruce Nauman. My mouth dropped at the sight of this drawing. It is the most provocative piece of art I have ever seen and I felt like I was doing something wrong by even looking at it. In the picture there are 6 people intertwined. One guy is shooting someone while getting a blow job from another guy. My first thought was “Is this allowed to be on display?” But then it hit me. Art is truth. Often times art portrays life naturally and there are no boundaries to what is appropriate if it represents aspects of reality.
When I saw “Acadamy” by CY Twombly my first thought was “My four year old sister Sophia could have done a better job.” This huge canvas is filled with pencil scribbles. Yes, pencil scribbles. It looked like the work of a toddler holding a pencil for the very first time. After looking at it some more I realized that maybe the true art was in the process of the artist making this drawing. Scribbling isn’t a structured art form- with scribbling you can literally draw out of the lines and do whatever you want. Maybe the artist wanted to feel freedom from confinement and thats what his work represents.
Another painting that really stood out to me was “Full Fathom 5” by Jackson Pollock. It was the first abstract expressionalist painting that spoke to me. I realized that the real art in the painting was in the process of the painting being made when Pollock used his drip technique. Pollock poured his emotions out with every splatter and color he used. Looking at the turqouise and silver painting masked with black, encrusted with buttons, nails and coins evoked the emotion of helplessness from me. It reminded me of being pulled into a tide that I couldn’t get out of. It reminded me of drowning, and death. Like something as beautiful as the ocean even has the dark power of destruction.
As i was headed out of the museum I saw “Mapa.” It is definitely my favorite thing that I saw today. It is a map of the world with every countries boundaries being filled with its ethnic flag. It portrays that the world is filled with so many different cultures, but when we all come together we make up a beautiful diverse world. Every country is a part of something bigger, but every part of the world is important and unique in its own way.
I really enjoyed myself at the museum today and I am happy Macaulay has given me the opportunity to visit the MOMA.
Posted: September 18th, 2012 under MoMA.
