My Visit to NYC

Third Installment: Lessons on Modern Art at the MOMA

My cousin Marc was my extremely gracious and entertaining companion/guide for the second day of my visit to NYC. Marc resides on the top floor of Emilie and Xavier’s home in Harlem, has a variety of VERY interesting jobs in the big city, and is living in New York in pursuit of a career as an artist. He wears a hat well too, don’t ya think?

Marc and I had the whole day to do what ever we wanted, so I thought to myself…what could be better than to spend a day with a modern artist at the Museum of Modern Art a.k.a the MOMA? I’d never been there before and have always wanted to, so off we went.

Marc was the perfect guide. He knows his modern art and we had some good discussions and lessons. I picked his brain hard. It’s amazing how little I know about modern art. I learned some interesting things and enjoyed myself very much. Thanks Marc, my boy!

Some of what we saw…

Jackson Pollock. One: Number 31. (1950)

I learned quite a bit about the artist Jackson Pollack. Of course I’ve only ever seen Pollack’s paintings in text books, coffee table art books, or online. It’s a different experience all together to see them in person. When you can get up close and see all the detail, it feels almost like this painting is moving. No person, place or thing to be seen, but there is rhyme and reason. Pollock would tack his huge canvases to the floor, put on some Jazz music and begin flinging, dripping, and splattering. A painting like this would take him months to complete. The most expensive painting every sold was one similar to this… No. 5 by Jackson Pollock.

Pablo Picasso. Girl Before a Mirror. (1932)

Picasso, Picasso, there’s no one like Picasso. Like I said, it’s a different experience seeing a piece of art in person that you’ve only ever seen in print. As a kid, I remember loving Masterpiece: The Art Auction Game by Parker Brothers (we had this 70’s version). I didn’t really know how to play the game, I just loved looking through the cards of all the different paintings, studying them over and over. I remember Girl Before a Mirror being in the stack. I would stare at it forever. Still staring. It always blows my mind when I realize afresh the dates on the Picasso paintings. In 1932 this painting was out there!

Andrew Wyeth. Christina’s World. (1948)

This painting was also among the Masterpiece game cards. This one was my all-time favorite. When I was a kid, for some strange reason I assumed the girl in the painting was blind (she was actually had polio and was a friend of the artist). When I was around 12-13 years old I fancied myself a writer and composed a very melodramatic story about a young, beautiful blind girl named Christina who runs away from home to find her true love. My inspiration was this painting. I would set the Masterpiece card on my desk as I typed away on my mom’s old type writer. I still can’t believe my story was never published! I’m sure it was a Masterpiece as well. Still heart this painting though. It was a treat to see the original in person.

More from the MOMA….

This painting is in every dorm room or college apartment, and also at the MOMA…

“Starry, starry, night…paint your pallet blue and gray…” Couldn’t help singing the song when I saw this.  Vincent Van Gogh. Starry Night. (1889)

Loads of color in the main lobby…

Photo by Marc

My favorite of all was the photography galleries. I thought of you dad. You would have loved perusing…

Something that can only can be seen at the MOMA…or on the street possibly…

(I feel bad I don’t know the title and artist to label this. I did look hard for the info with no luck. It was in the Contemporary Art Exhibit form the collection)

In the MOMA gardens…

Katharina Fritsch. Figurengruppe. 2006–08 (fabricated 2010–11)

Self portrait….

I now have a much deeper appreciation for what art can be thanks to the MOMA, the fantastic artists, and my good cousin Marc.

Here is a favorite artist of Marc’s. We saw his exhibit too. Very interesting stuff.