When I arrived at the MoMA for the gallery talk on November 6th, I felt really grateful to experience it from MoMA educator Agnes Berecz, the tour guide who enhanced the Women in Photography exhibit for me a few months ago. Her extensive knowledge about the historical contexts and the artists themselves as well as her opinionated input really made me feel like I was engaging in more of a conversation than an educational lecture.
Something I found interesting about experiencing the gallery tour was the new Jackson Pollock appreciation it lent me. I entered the exhibit with a general bias against him since I’ve studied his past and disapproved of his unfavorable character. I have seen Pollock’s “#31” at the MoMA dozens of times before without feeling too impressed or emotionally drawn to the piece. But as our tour guide, Ms. Agnes Berecz, began explaining the consequences of horizontality in a piece and the special relations it requires, I felt a strong sense of how Pollock’s paintings epitomized complete release from control and an allowance to let the body and gravity take art where it wishes to go– a huge element in Abstract Expressionist art. The fact that Pollock made a decision as simple as changing the orientation of a painting that consequently affected an entire movement is fascinating to me.
I love Abstract Expressionism because, in some cases, a variety of elements are taken into consideration while the end product exudes a subtle beauty that strikes viewers. In others, the sheer magnitude of a painting and the execution of brush strokes, color choice, and subject matter evoke an emotion by themselves. One of my favorite paintings in the exhibit is Willem de Kooning’s “Woman, I” because it embodies a raw and intense power normally associated with a work that takes extensive time to complete. I can feel the artist’s frustrations and rage with every bold brush stroke, and I feel like a work that’s so revealing not only of its purposeful subject matter but its behind-the-scenes creation takes art to another level.
