While we were in New York I spent an afternoon at the Museum of Modern Art. I had never been there before, so it was one of my avowed goals (besides obtaining the US#1 circ and visiting the famous yarn shops) to go there on this trip.
Mission accomplished.
I started on the top floor and worked my way down, which also seemed to take me through in more or less chronological order. The top floors had the late 19th and early 20th century Impressionists and Expressionists and Cubists.
There was Picasso
and Giacometti
and Brancusi and more Picasso
and Matisse and Cezanne
I don't remember who made this statue but I loved the hands.
One fact about art of any kind is that what you take away from it depends on what you bring to it. When I sat down in one of the galleries to rest my feet, I found I was looking at a wall of Mondrians. Now, Mondrian has never been a favorite of mine, but as I gazed at this painting
I found myself thinking of the yoke on La Harlot's Bohus sweater, which got so much [well-deserved] coverage on her latest book tour.
I noticed that these two Mondrian paintings, which were not hung next to each other,
used the same colors. And found myself thinking how pretty a sweater would be in those colors.
Yeah, if you are gonna steal color ideas, do it from the masters :-)
So then I had to go back and take another look at the Picassos and Matisses and Cezannes to think about them in terms of yarn colors. IMNSHO, art is all about what it says to You Right Now, which is entirely different from what it said to You Last Year and is also different from what it said to The Person Over There.
The first painting I ever loved was there
and was the subject of interest for everyone who passed by.
It took me a while to get to actually stand in front of it. Three or four art lovers had decided that the place to congregate and decide where they should go next and how they would get there and oh, by the way, did you hear what happened to Monica last week? was Right There. I felt bad being annoyed at them but really, why pick the spot in front of the single most famous painting in the whole museum to have your meeting? So I shoved them to the floor and cursed them for the inconsiderate idiots they were. Not really, but I thought about it.
As is apparent from my photos, MoMA allows patrons to take pictures, just no flash. I've never been in an art museum that allowed that but I loved taking advantage of it. At first I was fixated on the paintings and sculpture. But then I started noticing the other people, too.
I loved that this couple could have been from the midwest. Apparently not everyone in New York is avant garde.
What were they all looking at?
An entire 3 or 4-story interior wall covered with cartoons by Dan Perjovschi. (If you follow the link you can see lots of stuff about the artist and the exhibit and download a pdf that shows all the cartoons.) I tried to shoot my favorites, but as you can see I didn't do a great job. Holding one's breath helps, but not as much as a tripod. (I have since read that exhaling before taking the shot is much steadier than holding one's breath. Live and learn.) Click to embiggen so you can read them.
After a couple hours of art loving I had to take a break in one of the fine cafes in the museum.
That's the beginnings of the second blue sock. There is nothing like a nice sit-down, a cappucino, and some knitting to soothe an over-stimulated visual cortex.
I hope you enjoyed your tour through the museum as much as I did :-)
