The Arts in New York City
After looking at the Diego Rivera exhibit at MoMa, I then saw another exhibit that was particularly interesting: a Fluxus exhibit. The Fluxus exhibits had similar ideals but slightly different modernized definitions of art from the one at the Grey Art Gallery.
At the Grey Art Gallery, Fluxus art was mainly focused on to solve the “Essential Questions of Life”. Thus abstract, unusual images were used to cause people to learn more about aspects in life that people would see as “commonplace”. Thus Fluxus art at the Grey Art Gallery has its main purpose: to mix the usual with the unusual. The exhibit, although tending to have some traditional rules such as no touching of the artwork, did add a sense of abstractness into it as much as it could, by adding non-traditional clocks, “weird” shirts and underwear and a strangely erotic video representative of sex. But it also is more traditional than other museums as well, adding a history of Fluxus art that some other museums would skim by more often. Thus the “do-it-yourself” approach is combined with an approach that is far from being that.
Fluxus art at the MoMa was less interactive, but to me, it was more interesting. “L’art n’est pas art”, an image in French that drew to me showed this meaning of Fluxus art within MoMa: that art is not art and what is not art is art. This was explained at the Grey Art Gallery, but only in a more instructional manner, rather than in one that uses the art of language to explain how Fluxus Art is not just anti-art, but a lifestyle. The Fluxus Box made more sense to me than it did in the Grey Art Gallery due to this emphasized concept. As well, although there was not as much bizarre images(the short video clip representing “sex” had less of a mystique and there was not any strange clothes or weird clocks), there was a work that drew me in, also known as “The Opera” a piece that represents what a modern day, sick and twisted libretto would be like. This piece made me realize that with the Operas we watched, the music, and every mixed art we have experienced in the Macaulay seminar can be mixed up today to be Fluxus art, which is why the determination of art today is truly ambiguous. The MoMa Fluxus exhibit was more enlightening to me for it made me realize that all modern art is technically Fluxus art, whether it is a Fluxus Box, a painted garbage can in Coney Island, or a wall with graffiti.
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I enjoyed reading your review! However, I also visited the Fluxus exhibit at MoMA and I actually liked the Grey Art Gallery’s exhibit much better! Unlike the Grey Art Gallery, when I was at MoMA, there was no tour guide in the Fluxus exhibit, so there really wasn’t anyone there to explain the meaning or intention of the artwork to me. A few of the pieces confused me and I wasn’t really sure how to interpret them. As you said, the Grey Art Gallery’s exhibit was more concentrated on showing everyday objects and the “essential question of life.” I wasn’t too sure what the theme of the MoMA’s exhibit was and I too found it much less interactive. I enjoyed reading “The Opera” as well and I found it very amusing. I was looking for happenings in the MoMA exhibit, but couldn’t find any (unless I missed them). I thought the small string instrument (not too sure if it was a guitar, violin, or ukelele) that had its strings pulled up and apart was quite interesting, although I wasn’t too sure of its significance. I also thought the picture of the “sliced” naked woman was engaging, but weird. I found myself walking through the exhibit asking myself, “Is this really art?” But, like you said, the Fluxus exhibits made me realize that ANYTHING can be art, and they have forced me to view the world differently.
I think both exhibits were not really interactive, but I do agree that the Fluxus exhibit in MoMA was a bit less interactive because they did not want people to touch the glass/any object at all. However, it could be that the personal tour guide in the Grey Art Gallery made the exhibit more interactive? I just didn’t think the Grey Art Gallery was interactive because there were still some art pieces that we were not allowed to be near/touch at all.
I agree overall that Fluxus art changed the way I viewed art in general, and that literally, anything can be art. I think one of the pieces displayed in MoMA that intrigued me was the four pictures of a hand. As I looked at it, it made me think, “oh wow, they consider this art?” Maybe the intention of Fluxus artists was to satirize about the way we consider art. I still consider Fluxus as a mystery to me, and probably will continue to think of it as that.