Art Review #1 – My Visit to the MoMA

I have always wanted to visit the Museum of Modern Art. It seems that every time my friends and I hang out in midtown Manhattan, we always tend to stumble upon this sleek-looking building with banners labeling “the MoMA”. I have visited the MoMA Design store located in SoHo numerous times and there were always new creative items that never fail to fascinate me. This only made me want to visit the MoMA more, and so, I arrived at the well-designed museum with great enthusiasm.

First of all, I was very impressed by the architectural design of the building. Apparently, the MoMA was redesigned by the Japanese architect Yoshoio Tanigucchi and he definitely did an amazing job renovating the place. The design presented the modern idea of the museum as well as the serene feeling people feel as they browse through the variety of art pieces. I can tell that it is very peaceful and comfortable, especially since there were quite a number of people out there just sitting around relaxing.

After admiring the interior design, I moved on to the galleries located from the second to sixth floor. The third floors stood out to me the most and it was filled with architectural design. On one of the showcase walls, I found two “Bad Dunny” dolls that were apparently a gift from the manufacturer to the museum. What attracts me about this item is that I recently bought one of these “Dunny” dolls from the Kidrobot store. It is exciting to see an item in a museum that is so similar to what I own in my own home. In this gallery, I also found the specially designed furniture very attractive. Not only are some of them made of uniquely designed materials, they are formed in a very interesting way. Some are made to fit together while others shaped like they came from some alien world.

There was this huge photograph of a man that also captured my attention. What is special about this piece is that if you look at it at a closer distance, you would see that the picture is made from hundreds of different signs. The black and white contrast of each individual signs emphasized and gave form to the man’s face. It is fascinating to see such innovative design.

Of course the art pieces on the other floors were very interesting as well. However, there were times when I just could not help but stand in front of a piece of painting and wonder, “how is this art?” Those are pieces of art that make you exclaim, “I can do it too!” But then again, they were placed into the MoMA, so no explanation is needed. Other than these art pieces, I found some paintings that were unique to my eyes. One of my favorites include a huge painting with basically paint splashes. This kind of painting can be easily categorized as one of those I-can-do-it-too paintings. However, after examining it closely, I realized it is definitely harder than it looks to make it as dramatic and beautiful as it is. Every line of paint must be coordinated with other colors to make this painting work. The fact that it was so big made it even more difficult to work out.  

I had my eyes on other simple paintings, such as the painting of just the word “OOF” or the whole wall of the pictures of Campbell Soup cans. Personally, I find the plain and normal ones more attractive than the crazy and weird-looking ones. All in all, I am happy with the fact that I finally visited the MoMA but I am not at all satisfied with visiting just one art museum (other than the Met so far). Therefore, I am definitely looking forward to visit more art museums and broaden my experiences with art.