Museum of Modern Art - Rebecca Samuels #4

Museum of Modern Art

Let me start out by saying that I am ashamed of how we arrived at the Museum of Modern Art. The night before we left for the Museum, my father and I thought it would be a good idea to look up where the Museum was in relation to Grand Central. We soon figured that it was only a few blocks away (I say a few blocks because when my father and I are in New York, we don’t mind walking). The reason I am ashamed is because we somewhat got lost on our way there. My father being a “New Yorker” made it that much more embarrassing. We eventually asked someone (who turned out to be from Paris) who had a book of maps on New York and its places of interest. Back on track to the road of the Museum of Modern Art, I could honestly say that I thought this church was the Museum and started taking pictures of it. My father then directed me the right way and MOMA was only a few buildings down.
The Museum of Modern Art was developed in 1928 mainly by Abby Rockefeller and two of her friends. The first version of this museum was six rooms in the Heckscher Building. Three museum sites later, land was donated for the present museum. In November of 1935, the Museum of Modern art initiated Vincent Van Gough’s exhibition. His collection included sixty-six oils and fifty drawings. Philip Johnson was the architect for The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. The rest of the museum was also designed by Johnson, and with the help of Edward Stone, was designed in the international style. (Most of my information from this paragraph was rephrased from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Modern_Art)

            When we finally entered the museum, it was a disaster. There were people everywhere. Apparently the credit card machine went down and an employee was trying to get everyone who was paying with cash to the front of line—lucky for me! So after entering the museum, I suddenly told myself that I was only going to focus on the things I wanted to see and was going to skip over things that didn’t interest me. I learned my lesson from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and will never try to take on the whole museum in one day again. We took the elevator and started my mission on the third floor. Right away, I was amused. With all the colors and the neat inventions, I was really happy we skipped the first two floors.

The first inventions were blizzard survival bags, fire escape ladder, recycled rescue board, and even an inflatable shelter for the homeless. This inflatable shelter amazed me the most out of all the inventions. It looked like a bunch of plastic bags—ones you put your groceries in—taped together. What I thought was neat about this inflatable home was the fact that all it had to do to be inflated was to put a certain part of the home on an air vent. Standing there looking at this invention, I could only wonder what it would be like for the people who are homeless all over. Instead of cardboard boxes, they would be able to have a home that wouldn’t get soggy or start to smell after a while.

After feeling even worse for the homeless, we decided to move on. I saw a lot of interesting furniture that didn’t really catch my eye because it looked like I could just go and buy it from IKEA. Next we entered a room with photography. I started to take down names and photograph titles to show which ones I liked most, but in the end I decided I liked most of them. I am in a photography class now so black and white pictures stand out even more to me—especially because I felt like a lot of these pictures I could have captured, given the moment in time. The first picture I looked at was “Versailles, Maison close, Petite Place March 1921.” That was when I realized the photography looked almost like my own. Many focused on shadows and lines—just like mine would.

We then entered a drawing room. I wondered what made these artists famous/different from artists in our everyday life. The work I was seeing looked no different than other non-famous artists’. What I mean to say is that it is common for people to paint and draw that well, what makes these people more famous than everyone else? What I found different about this museum’s artists was that after using charcoal or pencil, they often cut and pasted their work onto something bigger. Sigmar Polke was/is one of the artists who admired cutting and pasting. He preferred to past his painted papers on canvas. The common materials also seemed different than the artists’ from other museums I have seen. Artists decided to include masking tape, metallic foil, etc.  

I then finally discovered a water color painting (or a partial at least). It was done in 1998-2001 by Maria Lassnig. It appears to be a person swimming in the water and only the water was done in water color. When we left this room, I saw a sculpture that looked slightly familiar. After showing my dad and he said he liked it, I searched my memory to find another sculpture looking somewhat the same at the Yale Art Gallery. This sculpture in the Modern Museum of art was of a bus driver with a partial sculpting of the bus. This person had the same physical characteristics as “The Dentist” back at the Yale Art Gallery. The man who sculpted these, his name was/is George Segal. I was proud of myself that I could recognize pieces of art by artists from other museums.  It is amazing what a few trips to different museums can do for you!

On the next floor (the fifth floor) was a painting that no one could ever miss. It was Starry Night, by Vincent Van Gogh. Normally I would notice it, but this time I seemed to notice it even more—I have been doing a painting of “Starry Night” for a project in my color class. It was neat to see the painting up close and personal—the actual thing.

Overall, my experience at the Museum of Modern Art was nothing less than extraordinary. I learned to focus on the things that amazed me and also figured out how to better manage my time. I was also thrilled that I was able to go see a modern museum, whether it was my choice or not. It was incredible to see people’s inventions and artist’s more recent artwork. I think the only downside to this museum was the fact that I still felt in the way. I had some points of Déjà vu in this museum—but relating to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is definitely hard to go to museums when you have bad anxiety! But I do what I can, and try to make the best of what I do see—and with this museum, I felt very successful.

*I know this paper should only be about 750 words, but while writing it I figured it would only be right if I shared my full experience. After all, it is “Museum Experience”!

for access to my pictures, click here.

Or go to http://photobucket.com/mytriptomoma