After spending the morning checking out the beautifully preserved Art Deco hotel we are staying at – the Waldorf Astoria, I decided to spend a few hours at the Museum of Modern Art this afternoon (MOMA). I knew there were a number of very famous works of art here that I was keen to see and I was particularly keen to see the Kandinskys, but other than those few very well known pieces I was unsure what I would find here.
I understand modern art quite well, and I can recognize important pieces that challenged perceptions of what ART (TM) was, over the last century or so, and understand the concepts behind pushing boundaries and challenging audiences… but at some point I have to acknowledge that while I understand and can appreciate various pieces of modern art – I just don’t like most of it. It’s not to my taste.
Modigliani:
Duchamp:
Klimt:
Van Gogh’s, ‘Starry Night’. I actually really love this artwork (it’s far more interesting than his sunflowers or his haystacks), it is beautiful to look at and stunning to see Van Gogh’s thick and lush brushwork up close and personal, however, I honestly think that this work, and many others like it, are suffering dreadfully for the constant reproductions that we are bombarded with. I’ve seen this painting replicated on posters, notebooks, scarves, umbrellas, phone covers, coffee mugs and God knows what else. And it seems to get to the point where the artwork starts to lose some of it’s intrinsic beauty, and maybe even value, by this constant repetition. I found myself staring at the very beautiful and famous painting, just one of the tourists surrounding it, and thinking, ‘huh’, instead of ‘wow’. Such a shame really (and no, I didn’t go downstairs and buy anything with this image on it from the gift shop, though there were plenty of options!!!)
Picassos:
Chagall:
Mondrian, for BigSal:
For someone obsessed with the man vs machine made, and whose aim was to try to eliminate the trace of man in his work, his brushstrokes are really far more evident than I was expecting.
Monet:
Lichtenstein:
Mappe of the World. There are over 100 of these mappes that have been embroidered in Afghanistan by women making a statement about geopolitical changes. (will have to look up the designer).
Warhol:
Jasper Johns:
Pollock: (bet they hung theirs the right way up, the first time!)
A rose from the sculpture garden:
So after a quick whip around and deciding I didn’t need to be there as long as originally anticipated, realise my ambivalence for modern art remains no matter how many priceless masterpieces I am surrounded by.
