The Arts in NYC Fall 2012

This trip was my first trip to the MoMa.  I’ve been to the Met but from what I’ve heard, the art and the museum itself is completely different.  Immediately after walking into the lobby, I knew that it was true.  There is a section of the wall where you can write on slips what you did/ what happened on your trip to the MoMa.  The slips are scanned when you place the paper into the slot and is projected onto the wall.  This technology and immediate surroundings, full of children and noise, gives off a more relaxed and welcoming feeling.

While walking to the Abstract Expressionism exhibit in the MOMA, Derick and I got lost and tried walking around the floor to try and stumble onto the exhibit.  On our way there, I was able to see works of Geometric Abstraction.  Like Abstract Expressionism, the geometric version utilizes different colors and shapes.  I thought that it was extremely interesting how both types are considered abstract and yet look almost completely different.  For example, while Piet Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie shows sharp corners and straight lines, Jackson Pollack’s Number 1A shows curves and speckles of paint.  Since I didn’t bring a camera to my trip, I was able to instead find the paintings online on the MoMa site. 

If you were to look at the two paintings next to each other, you wouldn’t think that they were remotely similar.  Both Mondrian and Pollack painted these two paintings in the 1940’s and it’s so interesting to see how different they are.  Broadway Boogie Woogie seems so measured while Number 1A seems spastic and dynamic.  Pollack’s action painting really stands out when compared to Broadway Boogie Woogie, which seems still and rigid.  The flexible strokes of Number 1A completely contrasts the structured Broadway Boogie Woogie.  It really show you the wide range of art that “Abstraction” covers.

After my trip, I’m glad that I was able to see the sculpture garden at the end of my trip.  The colorful sculptures of German artist Katharina Fritsch and Aristide Maillol’s sculpture of a women over the water was a great way to end my trip.

Hello Everyone!

Besides Jed Pearl’s “Going to the Modern,” please take a look at this link from the Metropolitan Museum of Art for our discussion on Tuesday, September 11.

And here’s an Abstract Expressionist painting from Willem de Kooning:

Enjoy your weekend!