The Arts in NYC Fall 2012

My visit to MoMA was planned, delayed, postponed, and then rushed. Safe to say, scheduling conflicts left me with less time to really let MoMA sink in. Also, going alone made the experience all the more difficult. I would have to come up with interpretations on my own. Having never been to MoMA before, at least not that I can remember, I was a little bit worried that I would not find anything to my liking, and I wouldn’t come up with any decent interpretations.

I decided to mix things up a little bit, find a way to keep myself entertained. I decided that I would not go and see any abstract expressionism from the period we talked about in class. I wanted to find something that I really liked that was something new and unexpected.

Mapps by Alehigro Boetti

It didn’t take long. Boetti’s Mapps immediately piqued my interest. I think that as a history and geography nerd, I was initially drawn to the representation of the landmasses of the Earth though the use of flags. However, when I looked at this for a longer period of time, I thought it had a real chance to make a political statement. What the artist does with just the map as seen here is alter our perception of the countries of the world. For example, a powerful country like Germany might get lost in the shuffle, dwarfed by bigger countries. Countries like Mongolia, Kazhakstan, Indonesia. Not the most powerful, but large in scale. It redirects your eyes. I was intrigued also by the possibility of warping the shapes of the countries and continents, maybe depicting countries’ contributions to pollution, or maybe a different social problem. Needless to say, I saw this idea as having very high potential for flexibility and adjustment. I really, really, REALLY liked it.

I’ll talk about one other piece that really caught my attention while I was there. I’m starting to think I’m  sucker for any type of art that makes a political statement. This piece really made me dig into my knowledge of history. When I saw this piece, like many others, the first thought that came into my mind was Vietnam. I thought about escalation of the war during LBJ’s presidency, the dividing of the nation, and the emergence of the counterculture and the hippie movement. I thought about the massive change in the country’s culture as many people turned against the idea of war and American dominance, and turned towards peace and equality. The sadness depicted in the portrayal of LBJ speaks volumes to the pressure and the suffering that he went through every day as he tried to balance the needs of the government with the desires of the people. Then also the artist depicts LBJ as, literally, a blockhead, which reminded me that this work was not unbiased. I thought about that as I walked around, the relationship between art and bias, but didn’t really make much of it.

I started to notice as I walked around EVERYONE focusing around on Van Gogh, Picasso, etc. It was interesting to see how some works got so much attention based on reputation when there is plenty of other unique and fascinating work in the museum. Maybe it’s just me, but I felt almost saddened by the congregation of people.

All in all, I really enjoyed my trip to MoMA. I came out happier than I thought I would be, despite the terrible weather. I managed to see all of floors 2, 4 and 5, and there were some really eye-catching pieces there. I still have a lot of problems drawing any kind of conclusions from Dada and abstract works! Hopefully that changes sooner rather than later. I won’t rule out a possible return to MoMA over a different weekend or a holiday. I think there’s a lot more to see.

-Ben C.