Art is Where You Find It

I have always wanted to learn more about Chinese history, especially the period of strong Communist rule. Because many new concepts were forbidden during this time period, the rebellions that often occurred just fascinates me. I am such a strong advocate of studying in depth Chinese culture because it is important not to neglect the culture that my grandparents and parents lived through before they immigrated here. Having this idea in mind, I visited the Asia Society and Museum to see the exhibition: “Art and China’s Revolution.” It is a great cultural change since China is becoming more modernized and opened to displaying the works from Chinese artists during the 1950’s in the United States for the first time. Some artists went against the normal styles of their time of what was acceptable; rebellion in this case is good because it called for change. They were brave enough to express their artistic feelings despite their fear of being imprisoned. Walking through the exhibition I felt so amazed at the different talented works displayed, and I kept on thinking of how inhumane Mao’s party was to quell the beginnings of a cultural revolution that would forever transform contemporary Chinese art with its modest beginnings. It also astounds me to know these paintings and scrolls survived the violence during this timer period and were not destroyed earlier on.

From the outside, the Guggenheim is a structural marvel. Since it is very difficult to describe, you’ll have to take my word for it (or take your eyes to it). The inside looked promising, a beautiful ceiling and spirals leading upward to the various exhibits on display. On this particular day, there were only two exhibits on display; hence the terrible timing. I had just missed the Louise Bourgeoise exhibit; and the museum was in the transitional phase of bringing down the old, and setting up the new, effectively limiting off the majority of the museum.

I, always the optimist, still tried to find the good in a bad day. The Catherine Opie exhibit was distinctive in that her photographs were all of buildings, streets, roads, etc, none of which contained any people in sight. All of her pieces were named “Untitled #,” # being whatever number she had assigned for that particular one. I thought that it was a very interesting technique; by not giving the photograph a name, Opie forces the observor to either make a personal name for the photograph, or move on and forget about it. I had chosen the latter for many of her pictures, but the one that had really stood out left quite an impression on me. A snapshot of American life, the photograph was of a fast food (junk food) place, with an advertisement for Funeral services in plain sight. It was a wonderful mix of acuity and irony, which I thought was a great combination. Having found something meaningful in a photograph of something that seemed so “ordinary” at first, I took a second look at ther other photos in search of something I had missed, and spent the afternoon there.

I had though it was the wrong time; but if I had gone at any other time, I wouldn’t have made the observations about that I did about Opie’s exhibit. It’s a nice bit of irony in itself.

Located on the outskirts of Chinatown, the New Museum is not worth the general admission of $12; and for some, might not even be worth free admission. The building itself is spectacular, with its unique architecture resembling boxes being stacked on top of one another. However, that is probably the best part of the museum and it all goes downhill from there. Despite the towering height of the building, only three floors were being used for art galleries since half of the floors were in renovation. The weirdest exhibit for me consisted of televisions playing random events, such as people performing on a stage to a speech by an elderly woman. I would have been more interested in the videos if I understood the meaning of them, but they seemed to have no connection to each other in my point of view. Another exhibit consisted of books, a large chuck of them depicting kung-fu. Don’t they have a library for that? It takes under an hour to explore the entire museum but it is best to not even attempt it.

What have you found of interest in the NYTimes Arts section? Add your comments to this post. I encourage you to leave multiple comments, and to comment freely on others’ ideas.

Colors. Where are they? As I entered the Mishkin Gallery, I noticed that majority of the pictures there were black and white, having to do with mostly indentity. If you want to visit a gallery thats not like any other, you should visit this gallery. I saw this one interesting picture which is also in MOMA. This picture is of a cotton farmer’s wife. She is not given a name. She has no identity and is portrayed as a nobody, or as someone that is not special. She is portrayed as someone who is just like any other cotton farmers’ wife. [Read more →]