3 Days, 3 Museums! Day 1: Picasso at MoMA

SO - I'm back from a fabulous visit to NYC, and had some luck and some misses with art museums. that worked out really well for us in our whirlwind three days.

Museum 1: we went to MoMA after-hours, to see the incredible Picasso sculpture exhibit.  It was the day we arrived in NYC, and the last day of the exhibit, and we already had matinee show tickets (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime; it was incredible and I highly recommend it).  So we picked up 1/2 price after-hour tickets to see just the Picasso show, which was fine, because I have been to MoMA many, many times, and therefore didn't need to see the rest of the museum on this trip.  The Picasso exhibit was divided up by time periods and specifics of style and medium.  The sheet metal sculptures pictured above right (Woman with Child), and directly below (Head of a Woman), are from 1954-64 and my husband who you can see in both pics, did not like them.  At all.  Luckily, he enjoyed the stuff in other rooms of the exhibit, including the Head of a Woman, above left, pictured with me so you can see its monumental size.

 I have included the guitar pictured below, because of Picasso's use of a construction method that I teach my students, when we are making cardboard sculptures or using cardboard for armatures for papier-mache.  I am referring to the method of cutting tabs on the bottom of a cylindrical item.  I love showing kids that someone famous made things the same way that they do!

We left our cat home, tended by the cat-sitter, so my husband was happy when he came across this Cat sculpture!

 Below, Woman Reading

 Below left is Head of a Warrior, and though you can't tell from the photo, it is quite large.  Below right is of course Baboon and Young.  We've all seen this one before!

 This whimsical piece, Woman With Baby Carriage, pictured below, was a crowd-pleaser.  Everyone seemed to love discovering the face on the baby!

 There was SO much more to the exhibit - it was huge - so this was just a taste for you all!!  I was impressed by the scope of the show, and how it is all so easily identified as Picasso, despite its variety.

Museum 2: we went to the Whitney, the day AFTER the Stella exhibit closed, which meant one floor of the museum was closed, so the tickets were reduced price.  The Whitney relocated 9 months ago, and this was our first visit to its new location.  I have a lot to share about this museum, so I am going to wait and put it in a separate post.

Museum 3: on our last day in NYC, after walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, we were cold and needed a small museum to tour to warm up.  We  headed uptown to MAD (Museum of Art and Design).  Again, one floor closed due to a changing exhibit, and so we paid a reduced ticket price.  Our visit there was cut short because my husband wasn't feeling well (he's fine now), but I still got to see most everything.  I just didn't have time to spend money in the gift shop!   I'm leaving this museum for another post as well!!

 Instead, I'll close with a few shots from walking around NYC, including a couple to hopefully make you think!

Art Educator Befuddlement - Help me please!

I just spent a few days in fabulous NYC, during the blizzard-that-wasn't.  We had tickets to see the Matisse Cutouts show at MoMA, and it was, of course, fabulous, and deserves (and will get) a post of it's own.  But this isn't that post.  And the magical Matisse pictured above is not one of the cutouts.

Once we finished touring the special exhibit, we visited the rest of the museum.  I've been to MoMA many times, but it's still fun to walk through the 20th century pages of an art history textbook.  Above and below are a few of the many iconic paintings in MoMA:

 These paintings are so iconic that I don't have to name the artists, because anyone who has taken a basic art history survey course knows every one of these, and others in MoMA, such as Picasso's Three Musicians and Monet's huge Waterlilies.

  First time visitors to MoMA are usually amazed at how small these two paintings below are.  I mean, Starry Night is somewhat small, but The Persistence of Memory is downright itsy-bitsy!!  What a surprise!

But none of the paintings above are the reason for this blog post.  It's other stuff that has me befuddled.  I mean, I'm all for originality.  I never had any trouble teaching kids about Pollock, for example.  I could show them his earlier stuff, so they knew he could draw really well, and then, when they ask "why is he so famous for just flinging paint all over the place?" or "why aren't our paintings that we did that way in a museum too?" I could answer by putting it in historical context.  He was doing something new, that hadn't been done before, and it was special.  

 

But there's some stuff I am scratching my head over, and I need your help.

Look at these pieces below:

 

There's this one pictured above, Twin by Robert Ryman.  It is all white.  Or how about the piece below? If you are able, read the description by clicking on the image to enlarge it. 

 And then there's this one below, by Bruce Nauman.  Wha???

 I missed getting the name of the 'artist' for these pieces below.
Or maybe I just didn't care.

Cosmic Slop "The Berlin Conference" by Rashid Johnson, pictured below, is a large black textural piece in soap and black wax.  I can't quite fathom the connection between the canvas and the title.

 Below, the piece titled North Chester Ave, by Mary Weatherford, really annoyed me.  It doesn't  evoke anything to me whatsoever, and then there's the obtrusive cords.  It's supposed to depict the color, light, and atmosphere of a landscape.  Um, really?  Doesn't do it for me.

 How about the Barnett Newman painting 'The Wild', below, as viewed by my befuddled husband?  He's thinking "please can I go sit down now?  Or take a walk outside in the miserable icy cold wind and slippery sidewalks?"

What's with these hideous lumps of molten looking poo by Lynda Benglis?

 Or this, below, by Eva Hesse, made out of paint and string over papier-mache with elastic cord?

 And the ultimate hideousness, at least to me, was this noisy and violent video installation, below, situated in the room next to Matisse's glorious Dance of Life.  The wailing screeching repeating sound track was persistent and beyond annnoying, especially since you could hear it while viewing the artwork in the adjacent room.  I just don't understand.  

 I feel like the joke is on me.  I need someone to explain to me WHY this stuff rates being in a top-notch art museum along with paintings by Klimt, and Picasso, and Cezanne, and Gauguin, why I should want to pay good money to see this garbage.  I'm not an old fuddy-duddy.  I enjoy some contemporary art, which is why a visit to Mass MoCA is one of my favorite museum excursions.  But I need to draw a line.  I don't  understand the value of these pieces I have posted.  I want someone to tell me how you explain this stuff to kids.

In elementary art programs, we are teaching the Elements of Art and Principles of Design.  We are teaching composition and color theory and creative problem solving and personal expression.  We are teaching global, cultural, and historical awareness.  We are, honestly, also trying to make attractive art, stuff we can hang in student art shows and that make the parents, administration,and community proud.  But how do I make the leap from these basics, to a video of someone chopping off a bloated finger?  Or a 1/2" wide canvas hanging on the wall?  Or a pile of hastily painted canvases laying in a pile like discarded leftovers, for me to pick up off the museum floor and examine?  Or any of the other pieces that I have included below 'OOF'?  What is YOUR opinion on these pieces, and how do YOU approach discussing them with students?  Please weigh in!!

Thank goodness there was the whimsical Lunar Asparagus by Max Ernst to cheer me up, in the midst of these other pieces, or others like this colorful beauty by Andre Derain, which I will use to complete this post.  I'm looking forward to your opinions.

A tour through MoMA

Let me introduce your MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) tour guides: Marcia (Art is Basic), me (with Mr. E), Erica (Art Project Girl), and then me again with Janis (Dream Draw Create) begin by posing in front of Monet's Waterlilies.


Above, Marcia points out a lovely Kandinsky, while a sideways Erica ponders Frida Kahlo. (Sorry Erica; Blogger is playing games tonight.)

Janis brings Mr. E to see her favorite Starry Night, and Marcia compares hands with a Miro painting.

Here, I contemplate The Persistence of Memory, while Erica reaches out to a painting by Rousseau.

Above, I become one with Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. The next image is a Vik Muniz collage, and finally a sculpture from the contemporary galleries.

We end our tour in the contemporary galleries after visiting a Jackson Pollock painting.

What I couldn't show you: photography was prohibited in the Cindy Sherman Retrospective show. I doubt I would have posted any of them anyhow. I was not previously familiar with her work, and it wasn't really my 'cup of tea'. Look them up and decide for yourself.

Meanwhile - for those of you who have NEVER been to MoMA - after looking at these pics, are you surprised by the small size of Dali's drippy clock painting?

And who else remembers when Picasso's Guernica was at MoMA? I remembered it being vandalized while there. Turns out MoMA gave it up to Spain in 1981. You can read the whole story of this HERE.

One more question for those of you who have been to MoMA over the years. The museum had a huge renovation which was completed in 2004. Am I the only one who preferred the museum prior to the renovation? I've been to MoMA many times both before and after, but it always seems to me like there is so much LESS there now than there was before the renovation. Just an opinion.