The Arts in NYC Fall 2012

This past Friday my friend convinced me to go with her to the MoMA to see the Goldfinger exhibit. At first I thought, “ugh MoMA on a Friday,” but I actually got excited cause I really like the 007 films; I think my friend’s excitement rubbed off on me too, she’s a huge film buff and was having a nerdgasm just thinking about it. But once we got to the third floor and saw the actual exhibit we were really, seriously disappointed. The actual exhibit was about one-sixth the size of our IDC classroom. It was just a tiny corner on the third floor, and all it contained were a few pictures and the like.

Thank goodness the exhibit on the rest of the room was good, otherwise it would have been a pretty bad trip to the museum. There were a few items that really caught my eye, and made me wish I ow

ned them.

They weren’t the typical works of art you would think of since, they were regular things you’d find in your house or at the supermarket.

The first things to really catch my eye were these really cool box set items.

One of them was a red rectangular prism with wheels on the bottom. At first I thought it was just a bigger version of a toolbox or some artists weird take on common house items, but soon realized that these items were actually used pretty commonly. I was pretty off mark with my guess, after taking a look at the picture next to the box, apparently it was used to hold groceries. Although I wouldn’t mind having it in my place to hold spices and what not.

These are the ones that seem really amazing to have, especially since they save so much space, but you know you’d never be able to buy. The giant purple square is a lounge, bed, bed stand and an office all in one. It’s like the perfect thing to have in a small studio apartment, especially for a student. The item in this exhibit that I really love is the mini kitchen. It’s smaller than a cabinet and has almost everything. It has drawers the perfect size for different cooking utensils, and plates. It even has a stove, and a cutting board. I didn’t get a good look so I couldn’t tell if the largest opening was a small oven or a large cabinet for pots and pans.

Either way it had me housewifing over it. I think the best part that all three share is the simplicity of the design and color scheme. They are all solid colors and very basic ones too, that don’t really stand out as unnatural – they aren’t depressing or neon.

The other items that I thought were pretty interesting and I wish I had for my room was an amazing set of plates, that made me think of Japanese koi fish, and some interesting desk lamps called eclipse lamps.

 wow this basically ended up becoming more of a wish list rather than a review … It was a really interesting exhibit. We also saw some interesting appliances and decorations from different time periods made from different materials, some looked like they were made of garbage. It was really interesting. The MoMA had almost a complete make over from the last time i went. I suggest going there again if your interested in seeing some strange furniture or a really weird video.

They had a video playing of a man in all black standing on top of the camera, so it looked like his feet were pressed against the lens and you were looking up from under him. All he talked about was feet and pressure on his feet. They made it even more real by making the video play on the ceiling so you had to look straight up or lie on a couch to watch it. We stopped by to watch it for a few seconds on our way out, and all we could say was, “WTF was that?”

And finally we left for Uniqlo.

After visiting the MOMA on numerous ocassions, I wasn’t too thrilled to be venturing into that territory once more. As absent minded and irresponsible as it sounds, I decided to leave my visit for the last minute-Wednesday afternoon. Being that I am an Orthodox Jew, these last few days for me have been all about the food and prayer. Apple sauce, apple pudding, apple pie, apple cobbler, and who can forget the apples and honey caused a lull in my life; I knew I needed to branch out of the comfort zone I was in for the last two days and “talk a walk on the wild side” and explore other cultures and ways of life out there.

So on Wednesday afternoon after a grueling math quiz, I set out on my journey to explore the MOMA. My previos visits to this modern haven have either been with my grandparents or on a class trip as a Sophmore in High School so I knew this trip would take a turn for the better. No one telling me what to do or what to see or where to venture, I was free to explore!

At first, I decided to check out the new exhibit, “Century of the Child,” on the sixth floor. All I can say is that my decision is majorly regretted. I could not even begin to fathom what this exhibit depicted or what the artist was thinking. Gold foil with the alphabet placed on it, children’s blocks appeared to me as if they came straight out of the Toys R US Christmas catalog, and canvases filled with splatter paint in vibrant colors and shapes-I was totally confused. So I made yet another attempt to figure out this wacky institution and ventured to the fourth flour. Okay, thinks began to catch my eye and I was starting to enjoy myself.

Immediately, I felt as though I were in the Louvre in Paris. As far fetched as that sounds, I saw massive crowd hovering over a small painting that reminded me of the Mona Lisa and its surge of people surrounding it. This painting was of Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol. I’ve always seen replica Warhol’s, or have turned my pictures into Warhol-esque portraits at bar mitzvhas or parties, but I’ve never came up close and personal to one. The colors caught my eye instantly and I was hooked; I became obsessed with Marilyn! To follow my obsession, as I continued in the galleries, I spotted another Marilyn! Only here, she was all cut up and mismatched.  James Rosenquist’s Marilyn Monroe (1962) to me, was the ultimate representation of pop art. Both Warhol and Rosenquist took an everyday object of the time, Marilyn and transformed her! The every day person was now able to relate to Marilyn-not just the Hollywood or afluent scene.

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How could I leave the Moma without seeing Jackson Pollack? Pollack has always been my favorite artist. Iv’e tried to replicate his work since age three yet never succeeded. Most people are unable to understand his viewpoint yet his beautiful yet messy, carefree yet meticulous style is what I admire most. You can call me obsessed-I even wrote my Macaulay essay about him.

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Although abstract expressionism is a bit esoteric and may fly over my head sometimes, this visit to the MOMA (although brief and cheap) really made an impression on me. I no longer briskly walked through the galleries counting the seconds on my watch to leave, and I no longer tried to see every piece of artwork in the museum, I now appreciate art for what it’s worth.

Welcome to the MoMA

My walk to the Museum of Modern Art, from Lexington Avenue to nearly the end of 6^th Avenue, brought me little comfort to my initially very anxious, albeit inquisitive self. I saw beautiful pieces of art resting on the endless Park and Madison Avenues along with the hundreds of middle-/upper middle-class foreigners. Self-consciousness overwhelmed me. Upon entering the MoMA for the very first time, however, I was surprisingly welcomed by the beautiful view the outdoor sculpture garden provided. This calmed me down and encouraged me to start my adventure.

Jackson Pollock’s “White Light,” “Number 1A, 1948,” and “Full Fathom Five” were a delight to see up close and personal because the sheer magnitude of these paintings is not describable – only able to be experienced. There is no doubt, in my opinion, that skill and raw emotion is necessary to create and very evident in these types of works.

“White Light,” 1954

“Number 1A, 1948”

“Full Fathom Five,” 1947

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I have never professed to understand nor enjoy abstract art. Even after our weekly discussions and biographical recollections of a few of the greater painters of the abstract era, I stil cannot for the life of me appreciate the messages conveyed. Perhaps it is because I will never quite understand the circumstances that warranted the expression of such passion, or perhaps I lack the wherewithal to grasp the abstraction they pursue. Whatever the case may be, my eyes dragged themselves elsewhere despite the obnoxious size of the canvas.

What matters most to me is the meaning beyond the canvas, and a few of the paintings I found in my travels through the halls of the MoMA plucked my heartstrings carelessly and let them violently strike back at my pick guard of a stomach. The first piece I found compelling was called Untitled (You Invest in the Divinity of the Masterpiece) by Barbara Kruger. The piece was a photostat that depicts a black and white tinted “The Creation of Adam” by Michelangelo with an overlapping of bold and aggressive text. The text read as the title does, with “Divinity” embroidered in the center of the piece. The juxtaposition of the masterpiece and Kruger’s words exemplifies the change in attitudes towards religion and art’s role in bridging the gap between church and public. The usage of black and white not only plainly denotes a sense of antiquity to a modern viewer (thanks be to color photographs) but also a symbolic representation of the religious ideals that Kruger’s words cut through. This resonates within me as an open defiance against the role of modern religion, in addition the value we place on religious artwork. The only question I could muster for myself to answer was, “If it were any other pair of men touching hands on clouds, would the fresco be as renowned?”

http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3ADE%3AI%3A5%7CG%3AHI%3AE%3A1&page_number=400&template_id=1&sort_order=2

The next piece that stood out to me was titled Iamb (Blind Smile), an oil painting by artist R.H. Quaytman, a part of her Iamb series. The painting depicts a grizzled man staring into the black with a dim light shining over him.  His hair is thin and hangs loosely off his head, though finely quaffed into a mangled mess atop his head. The white of each hair outshines the dim light above, creating a sense of tension between the light and the dark in the painting. He is not a particularly attractive man; he’s portly, hairy, and wrinkled. His skin appears fragile and papery, his body hair catnapping atop it. The light blurs out his eyes as if to force the viewer to understand his body language. As I mentioned earlier, the stress between the white of the man’s skin and the shadows across the way reveal the intentions, at least as I perceive, of the piece. When compared with the title, the man stares off with an empty smile into the darkness, looking past what shadows would traditionally incite fear and uncertainty. It’s as if to say to enjoy the darkness of life, one must close their eyes to subvert the innate associations we make with darkness.

http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A37079%7CA%3AAR%3AE%3A1&page_number=4&template_id=1&sort_order=1

I appreciate art that speaks beyond its canvas; beyond the walls its mounted on. I see it as visualized poetry, words in motion.

-Stephen Elliott

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.

When looking at my planner, a few days ago I saw that I had to post about the MoMa by Thursday. Having people coming over the weekend and having classes in the afternoon on weekdays, I’d thought I’d visit the MoMa sometime at night. It would be a nice calming stroll where I could look at some pretty colors and fancy architecture after my brain had already been zombified after an economics class. So I set out on Tuesday ready to relax when I found out that the MoMa closes at 5:30. When I saw that, more fucks came out of my mouth than I am proud of.  So first off, I’m going to start off by complaining that a museum shouldn’t close that early on a weekday. So after finishing a 4 o clock class, I rushed on to the subway and got there at about 4:45. With little over half an hour left, there was a lot of museum to look at in that brief amount of time. I wanted to approach going to an art museum differently than what I was used to; and really wanted to try ‘seeing’ and deeply thinking about all the paintings. But for whatever reason, I was simply not in the mood. Maybe it was the anxiety that I wouldn’t get the assignment done or perhaps the adrenaline from rushing to the museum itself, but I decided that I really wanted to relax and enjoy myself. So I thought, I think I’m going to see things a little differently; and decided that I would browse through the galleries and comment and look at whatever was funny to me. I thought that humor would probably be the best tool to calm me down and really appreciate the different paintings. But soon I realized that looking for the funny got old fast. Many paintings were so simple and so bland that I found it to be eventually more taxing on me to actually make up a ridiculous story- so I gave up. I just wandered around the museum and decided to ‘let it come to me’. It was kind of a silly strategy, but I thought the worst thing would be I didn’t absorb anything and would have to come back on Wednesday and figure out something to talk about. So I took a walk around the museum and treated it more like a walk, just defeated I decided that it was a tranquil and somewhat serene place to daydream and wander. After sitting down, I saw “Untitled” by Lee Bontecou it was a good painting to zone out to. It was very ominous. Basically it was a dark hole surrounded by some kind of industrial material. I liked this piece, not just because it was 3 dimensional, but because it didn’t seem to make me think I was supposed to be getting something out of it. It wasn’t telling the tale of a random girl or nude, it simply was there, watching me. It didn’t seem to care that another random college kid was trying to decode this museum. It just stayed there and stared. For some reason I always got the feeling that it was looking at me once I appeared in the room. It reminded me of one of my favorite old movie “Alien” where in the end the alien gets flushed out into space. I think when I looked at it I thought of space a lot for some reason, just the emptiness and the almost alien exterior that surrounded this black hole made me think of something beyond the earth realm. I then thought about the horror movie “The Ring” and how the dead Samara creeped out of the well. Overall, it was definitely a dark and mysterious painting: giving off vibes of mystery, and suspense rather than a clear emotional background.  I think my love for literary and film horror provoked my stumbling and losing myself on this random piece of artwork. I guess looking ahead, maybe I’ll be drawn to the more mysterious, more suspenseful works. And right as I really zoned out to the hole, one of the staff at the museum tapped my shoulder and told me that the museum was going to close soon. And when I looked back at the painting it just looked like a boring old hole. I turned around and started to leave when the feeling that it was watching came over me again and as I turned around it seemed more sinister for some reason. It was all pretty bizarre and I don’t know if that was really meant at all by the artist. I just hope his intended meaning wasn’t something too different although I guess its hard to relate to aliens and creepy dead children. All in all, I had an interesting day at MoMa, but I’d like to go back, there was a lot that I felt like I could go deeper into but panicked for time. And once again, I’d like to say that closing a museum at 5:30 is dung.

For the past two years, I have grown to be a fan of Moma; partly because I was thinking of majoring in art of metal designing back in high school for a short time. But, I was never enthusiastic or brave enough to visit there all alone. This Saturday was my first time visiting Museum of Modern Art by myself.

I was able to sense the artsy environment as soon as I got off at 53rd Street from the train. Even the advertisements on the walls were arranged in somewhat artistic formation along the escalator. As I got up the escalator and out of the train station, I immediately spotted Moma building, which stands in the midst of building jungles. Then, I thought that maybe today I should try to appreciate the artistic values of the surrounding rather than the work of art itself: such as the architectural designs and environment of the museum.

Moma, exteriorly and interiorly, used the color combination of white and black. Their flooring was mostly done by natural wooden tiles. The interior of the museum seemed to have no other purpose than emphasizing the arts– paintings, sculptors, and other models. It’s coloring was really simple. However, as I moved up to higher level I was able to see different things. In one spot, I was able to observe down the lounge areas of second and third floor. The art pieces felt different from this angle as I was able to observe the entire room as one picture rather than looking at each art pieces. Also I felt like the surrounding skyscrapers made Moma more unique and modern compared to other museums. On the Ground Floor Moma has a park-like place where we can sit around. The view of the City from the Moma is quite exquisite. I certainly feels different from the City when I commute to school.

I also looked into few pieces of arts. Because I had more knowledge about abstract expressionism, I was attracted to look more closely into works of Rothko and Jackson. During my last visit of Moma, my friend and I were completely lost and disconnected with the works of abstract expressionists. But this Saturday, I kind of had a clue by looking at the coloring, textures, and general aura of the paintings. Then, I came across this painting “The Voice,” by abstract expressionist named Barnett Newman. His style certainly differed from that of Rothko’s or Jackson’s. His art piece was done on an enormous canvas, just like many other abstract expressionists. His painting contained neither squares like Rothko’s nor the dripped paints like Jackson’s. Instead, it contained simple textures from the weave of the canvas. I stood in front of the painting for awhile to figure out what the artist was even intending to say in this piece. But couldn’t really think of anything. After reading the description, I was able to get a sense of Newman’s intention.

Visiting Moma after learning about some of artists’ lives and styles changed my perspective in art entirely. I did not feel like a complete foreigner anymore. I didn’t go “what the hack?” pointing at abstract expressions pieces. This Saturday was a good day for me to have a hiatus from routinely life and enjoy the view of the City, simple and exquisite architectural designs of Moma, and abstract art pieces.

-Sihun

I visited the Museum of Modern Art Monday afternoon on the 17th of September.

When we discussed modern and abstract art in class for the past 2 weeks, I thought I understood why people made abstract art. When I walked out of the MoMA and thought about what I saw, I realized that I really didn’t understand anything.I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy the museum at all; I did, but the trip definitely wasn’t as fulfilling as I had expected it to be.

It was my first time visiting the museum and I had no idea where to start looking. I probably should have done some research before hand but I was lazy. Maybe if i had done some background checks on the exhibits, I would have felt more comfortable there. Anyway, I flipped through the floor guide and Found the suggested route for Long visits which started from the top floor, the sixth, and went down through the different floors.

I decided to start from the fifth floor in the Paintings and sculptures exhibit. It was interesting to see all the different paintings at first because they were mostly brightly colored and had strange patterns that just catch your eye. There was one particularly eye catching painting hidden at the back of the exhibit with no description. I was first attracted to it because it seemed like a painting of a unicorn. It was really surreal and mystical and in a way reminded me of the song “Lucy in the sky with Diamonds” by The Beatles because of it’s vibrant colors and also because It felt like the painting was produced through a hallucination. This isn’t to say that I think it’s stupid but, because it was so different, I was taken aback by it. I tried to make sense of what I saw but I couldn’t really see past the sheep (my final conclusion about the identity of the animal), the green man, and the tiny farmer.

While I was walking around the Paintings exhibit I found myself more attracted to the paintings with more familiar objects. For example, there was one painting that showed A lamp-lit street in the dark with a bright blue background showing that it was daytime. This Painting piqued my interest because it made me wonder about why the artist wanted to contrast the two scenes. It is hard to tell in the picture i took, but there was also a great deal of detail and precision in the painting that I liked. It would seem boring to look at this painting after seen all of the different “weird” paintings, but it wasn’t and I actually enjoyed looking at this one.

After finishing the 5th floor, I headed down to the 4th floor where they had a second section for paintings and sculptures. While looking through this gallery, I noticed that I was again more attracted to the paintings that were more familiar to me, but which were expressed in different forms. I especially enjoyed the Cubist style because the objects were easily identifiable but were painted in such a way that they weren’t so direct and conventional. Some of these paintings were made by Picasso. Contrary to other people’s belief that it is something sad that people overlook lesser known works because they are only attracted to the big name artists, I don’t think that this is necessarily true. People may not be attracted to works because of the artist that painted them, instead they might have been attracted to the artist because of the painting. For me, I didn’t realize that many of the paintings i enjoyed were made by well known artists until  went and looked at the descriptions.

As I made my way further downwards, I visited the Quay Brothers film exhibit and also a section on photography. These were interesting to me because I liked the animation aspect about their work. Their animation was horror filled because of the objects and themes they used, but the way the animations looked were very interesting and the works were in motion so I was more focused on them. The photography exhibit was interesting because they reminded me a lot of what we can do with Photobooth on Apple computers especially in the distorted pictures.

This one was interesting because I was amazed that people could actually produce pictures like this through more conventional photography and development.

Now you may be wondering why, when I obviously enjoyed so many things, my trip wasn’t as fulfilling as I expected. This is because I went in expecting to enjoy everything and to appreciate the talent that I saw but unfortunately I didn’t. I was interested but when I walked out of the Museum I didn’t feel changed nor did I have the feeling that I wanted to go back. Modern art is still hard for me to comprehend. Maybe this is just because I’m still familiarizing myself with it or maybe I might never get it. The MoMA was a nice experience but I am still unchanged.

Last Friday I went to MoMA for the first time in my life, feeling apprehensive about the intellectual works of art that are referenced to being at MoMA. As I walked around, I noticed the various artists categorized by floors and rooms and the different styles of art that each of them had. From enormous paintings of rectangles with a few stripes to random objects that weren’t augmented at all by the artist, the museum offered a view of the diversity of art that captivates each person that looks at it in its own way. A few things stood out to me right away. The first thing that i really enjoyed was the painting of the continents colored by the    national flags of those countries. This picture demonstrated to me all the different cultures around the world and how they intertwine with other cultures next to it. While America had one flag, Africa had dozens of different flags that made for a very interesting design. There were many different paintings of this kind, with different colors and patterns. As i watched people gaze at this painting, I felt that this type of art united viewers of different cultures and ethnicities as we were all watching this one painting and trying to comprehend its relevance.

Another work of art that really appealed to me wasn’t even something I would consider a work of art at all at first. It was a bag of cat litter,casually positioned along the wall. I didn’t even know how to begin to interpret this. Being a Macaulay student, I was stumped by the message that the artist was trying to send by putting an ordinary item and calling itart. It is these types of art forms that confuse me and make me eager to learn more about the different styles of art and what each of them could mean. 

Another painting that interested me was also not a painting, but an innovative combination of many televisions that portray an artist’s life. These televisions depicted everyday events that the artist does while he’s doing them, going in chronological order from left to right and top to botom. I thought that this was a very unique way of the artist getting his message and emotions across, as he didn’t actually use any oils or paints, but rather used the modern technology to show us his life. To me, the artist seemed lonely as in most of the videos he was alone and seemed unhappy. Seeing the things this artist does everyday on television made me feel like I was observing his life and making my own conclusions based on what I thought his emotions were in the videos. I found this form of art to be very unique and captivating.

And the last two paintings that stood out to me were provocative, as they challenged authority and society as a whole. The first picture shows a person pointing a middle finger to what seems to be a government building, which made me believe that the person was not going to follow the rules and laws of the authority and will stand up and “fight the power”. The second painting shows the same person pointing a middle finger to a whole town, therefore challenging society as a whole. To me, that meant that this person did not want to follow the norm of humanity and abide by their customs and rules. The person wanted to be unique and make his/her own place in society. These two paintings send a really strong message to me, as a viewer, of the artist’s opinion of authority and peer pressure and following the norm.

Overall, I enjoyed my visit to the museum as I got to look at many different styles of art and cultures that are expressed in the art pieces. The museum offered a window into a different world or a strong political, social, or cultural message in every painting. When people come to MoMA, they can appreciate the diversity of the art works and find something that suits everybody. I will definitely visit MoMA again once I have a better grasp on art.