The Arts in New York City

I had never been to the New York Hall of Science till last week. While I was walking into the Hall of Science, I was thinking how am I going to find art here? After all it is the Hall of Science, where little kids go to learn science while they are having fun. I was absolutely wrong. The Hall of Science has great deal of artworks. There are art galleries on the second level as well as many opportunities to create your own artwork. Read the rest of this entry »

Long before I actually visited the Guggenheim Museum, I had learned about its distinct architectural design. Unfortunately, I visited the Museum when the exterior was under restoration and covered by the scaffolding. I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t have the entire view of the building, but the cylindrical shape was still discernable. Its rotunda structure stood out from the surrounding boxy buildings. Inside the Museum, I was impressed by the unique interior design, and was amazed as well as perplexed by the abstract paintings.

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On my next adventure to discover art, I chose to learn what kind of art is around me. Unlike Medieval or Renaissance art, which has captions stating its significance, modern art is ungraspable. I asked myself, where could I find modern art? Where else than the Museum of Modern Arts (MoMA). During my trip to the MoMA, I was bewildered. I remember spending most of time looking at the artworks, trying to comprehend what is being displayed. The lack of understanding was simply dreadful to bear. Before stepping into the MoMa, I had the impression that modern art was easy to understand. I am living in a socially advance society, so art should be more coherent than artworks created centuries ago. I was wrong. Read the rest of this entry »

Suzan-Lori Parks’ “In The Blood” is a riveting play, ultimately concerned with the effects and existence of hypocrisy within human social systems. The questions posed are difficult and demand that we, the audience, examine the answers within ourselves as well as within the society as a whole. While “In The Blood” takes on the qualities of a sophisticated, truthful and certainly socially critical play, Mary Beth Easly, working together with the Brooklyn College Theatre Department, found the compelling nuances between a performance with great depth and yet a sense of genuine humor that keeps the audience engaged and entertained. Read the rest of this entry »

From September 28 to January 9, the Guggenheim Museum is showing an exhibit called Richard Prince Spiritual America. I went to see this exhibit over the Columbus Day weekend and found this artist’s work very interesting. Richard Prince’s career began when he moved to New York as a young man in 1977 and it has flourished ever since. Prince could be considered one of the post modern artists who have transformed the art world in the past 30 years by transforming what it is that the audience believes to be art. The style that is shown is provocative and thought provoking. The quality that made this exhibit at the Guggenheim unique was Prince’s style of appropriation in portraying everyday images and the jokes that he used as art in the exhibit. Read the rest of this entry »

As I looked through out the halls of the Museum of Natural History, I seemed possessed by the kid in me. Dinosaur bones, space shows, and giant planets all clouded my head with fascination. In one exhibit lay a piece of the largest meteorite to hit the US, while in another room a display showed the figures of animals that lived during the Ice Age like the Willy Mammoths and Saber tooth Tigers. Another room was dimly lit as it displayed precious stones from around the world including emeralds and diamonds. The evolution of man was easily outlined in another gallery; it talked of DNA replication and detailed the major organs of the heart with such precision. However as I kept exploring, I kept thinking that the stuff displayed here should be interactive, viewers should be able to touch and feel the artifacts they see. The touching would help make the artifact what it once was, a regular piece that populated the Earth. So I posed the question should scientific galleries let the viewer employ their five senses when viewing works? Read the rest of this entry »