The Arts in New York City

After thinking about my expedition to the exhibition, I found some distinct differences between visual art and performing arts that contributed to my great appreciation for the abstraction of Puryear’s wood sculptures. One such distinction is that, unlike performing arts, visual arts is, literally, still. You can observe the piece for as long as you want until you can discover the intentions and purpose of the artist and you can always refer back to the artist’s work–it’s not going anywhere–, whereas, in performing arts, you have to pick up what is going on at the moment the artist performs. Anything that you missed during the performance, you either forget or have to figure out and reflect on. It was much more gratifying to know that I had the time in the world (or at least the hours during which the museum was open) to soak in the artist’s ideas. Also, there is no sitting in visual arts because you have to walk around a gallery or museum to observe the visual arts, as if you were almost, for a lack of better word, forced to expose yourself to the art. On the other hand, you have a seat in performing arts and two choices are given to you: enjoy or sleep (I’ve done a mix of both: doze off, but come back to the show.) For me, in Puryear’s exhibition, I said that I would observe a particular piece that I saw in MOMA’s online exhibition, but every time I walked by a piece that was visually striking–which was practically ALL of them–I had to stop and tap into its beauty. You could say that the direction of my movement around the exhibit was fueled by my curiosity and interest. This made it rather difficult to take the time to observe every other piece in the exhibit that I did not get a chance to look at. Furthermore, describing visual art, especially with the contemporary, abstract art that all of us explored, is rather difficult. During the presentations, it really was a struggle to grasp on everyone’s descriptions of the art they saw without actually seeing the piece for ourselves. During my visit with Farah and Ramona, it took some effort to articulate what we wanted to say about each piece. Describing the curvature, the shapes, lines, and the patterns required some heck of an oral effort. Quite amazing how Puryear was able to make wood seem so flexible and malleable. Architecture using wood does not even seem to have such indescribable structures, but I could be wrong…perhaps, very wrong….

In response to a comment about “Le Prix”, the sculpture that appeared to look like a “chain suspended in air”, I realize that I took the title rather literally. I was actually trying to figure out if the physical structure had some kind of a prize built into it, but I think I have to agree that the prize could possibly be the defiance of gravity portrayed. Cool…but funny. The prize was presented to me, but I did not accept it.

As one of us mentioned during our presentation, none of us had to know that Puryear was African American. He does not necessarily focus on political statements, unlike Kara Walker, pertaining to race or gender. I guess this made it a little faster to grasp what Puryear’s wanted to evoke in his sculptures, but by no means did that make them more obvious to understand.

A remarkable experience indeed.