Finding MoMA

The MoMA Building, fromthe opposite end of the MoMA building

In New York City, and especially in Manhattan, there are many art museums that contain a treasure trove of artistic masterpieces. Researching about many renowned museums, I have recently heard of a museum in Manhattan named the Museum of Modern Art, or MoMA. The museum was established in 1929, a time when modern art began taking root in the artistic world. I found that the museum offered free admission to visitors every Friday, and also containing many works of many renowned artists (such as Picasso and Lichtenstein). I decided to travel to Manhattan to see how impressive this museum was to sport such an incredible amount of works from famous artists. Although there were innumerable amounts of excellent works, I decided first to take a survey among the museum visitors, then showed works that left the highest impression on the viewers.

Dabbing in Paint & Politics


Left to Right: Black and Blue (Vuyile C. Voyiya of South Africa), Case History (Boris Mikhailov from Ukraine), and 1919 Majus 1 (Mihaly Biro from Hungary)

 


L to R: Vilag Proletarjai Egyesuljert! (Bertaian Por, Hungary) and Casspirs Full of Love (William Kentridge, South Africa)

 

According to a survey of 100 visitors across the building, I found that many of the visitors (73 out of 100 people) viewed works in MoMA intimately related to political ideas (as modern art rebelled against established political thought and propaganda). They especially thought that political views were more rampant in more recent artworks. In the South African gallery, there were many works that seemed to reflect the political scars left by apartheid and government oppression. In the photography section, Mikhailov’s photographs displayed the failed policies of glasnost & perestroika during Soviet ruleand their consequences on Ukrainians.  There were also some works that were more dated, such as Biro’s 1919 Majus 1.

                When I asked the visitors to spot one common aspect of these political drawings, 43 of 50 people I asked noticed was that many of the political drawings were nude, in both photographs and drawings. “When I was in the South African wing, there were a lot of nude or sexual content in the drawings”, said Jack Houston (visitor). Another visitor,Vanessa Hodsten, said that “the nudity really gives a raw feeling to the emotion of these artists as well as their uncensored ideas.” However, the visitors were dismissive about concerns of nudity in the artworks, even parents who had young children with them. “I think nudity in art is common,” said a mother of 3 young children (she declined to be named), “and I also think that the nudity here is actually for a purpose, not like those in music videos in American pop.” Many people also told me that not much color (other than photos) was used in the paintings, as well as having numerous amounts of red and black in the drawings. “Probably represents the passion of the artist,” said avisitor. “ I think since Fascism and Communism used those colors a lot for propaganda, maybe the artists wanted to have that effect too,” said another visitor.

The Cultural Revolution, in Art

L to R: Drowning Girl (Roy Lichtenstein, USA), Hope (Gustav Klimt, Austria), Golden Marilyn Monroe (Andy Warhol, USA), Secession XIV, Beethoven (Alfred Roller, Austria)



L to R: Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (Pablo Picasso, Spain), The Starry Night (Vincent Van Gogh, Netherland), The Persistence of Memory (Salvador Dali, Spain)


           Although politics play an important in modern art, modern art has played an important part in changing the perception of art and culture in the world, as well as starting artistic movements across the world. Out of 100 visitors, 92 of the visitors, both tourists and citizens of NYC, had come to MoMA to view works mainly by Picasso, Warhol, and Lichtenstein. Picasso’s works were most sought by the following 92 people (43), followed by Andy Warhol (32) and Vincent Van Gogh (18). When I went to the museum, Picasso’s works were always surrounded by people with cameras. However, when I asked them to tell me what the Les Demoiselles d’Avignon was about and some insight about the artwork, many people were unable to give me insight and what they thought of the artwork. Most of the responses from my questions included “I just think it’s looks interesting”, “Picasso liked to draw weird doodles”, and “I just wanted to take my picture taken”, or avoided the question with a smile or a shrug.

               I then asked a student named Miranda, who attends the Tisch School of Arts in NYU, to tell me what she thought of the artworks. “Many of these artists have done very significant things to the human perception as well as the art circles.” She then pointed to the Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, and said “Picasso’s works were famous for Cubism, right? Well, Cubism inspired many artists to analyze and reassemble what they see into an abstract form after breaking the image into parts.  This inspired many people in society to look at ideas and objects dynamically, instead of just looking at it in only one particular view.” “In fact”, she continued, “this work is supposedly the first Cubist artwork. You can say that Picasso started this entire movement where people started to see things differently.”

          She then took me to the gallery where The Starry Night by Van Gogh was hung. “This artwork, too, shows different perspectives of color. Also, the artwork doesn't look like stars twinkling, but they look like they’re swirling along with the night sky. Van Gogh shows that to him a starry night could look like a swirl of stars, rather than the common perception of a stationary sky.” “For Dali, he took the surreal to display how time and memory relate to each other”, said Miranda while walking to the wall where The Persistence of Memory was hung. “Clocks don’t melt”, joked Miranda, “but for Dali the melting clocks show that time is invasive in our memory that symbolizes how we forget things that occurred a long time ago.”

              Miranda also explained that culture and morality today was heavily influenced by modern art. “Warhol and Lichtenstein were artists who began to draw upon American Pop culture, as well as showing Americans how mass-produced this culture is. If you look both at their works, you won’t think that they are hard to dray, and they aren't. However, themes and not skills are the essence of any artwork.” She then proceeded to the German impressionists and Austrian Secessionist galleries. “Austrian Secessionists like Klimt and Roller changed much of people’s impression of morality. You see many sexual themes in Secessionist art, and that’s because Secessionists wanted to challenge morality dominated by the Christian faith and show that people no longer had to think that Christianity was the only moral path for an individual.”

 

Art?


L to R: Trafalgar Square & The Voice (Barnett Newman, USA), Split Flap Board Flight Information Display System (Solari di Udine, Italy)


               There were many works where people lauded as masterpieces, but some of the artworks hung were questioned by many people as an actual piece of art. Many of these questioned artworks included almost blank canvases, compilation of various refuse, and normal objects. For many people, if the ‘artworks’ were not displayed as artwork, then they would have considered it junk or a failed experiment or a mistake of an artist while painting.

When I interviewed visitors whether anything artists try to create can be considered art, 134 people out of the questioned 200 said no. “It's insulting to see someone get fame because they did something ‘original’, while putting in no effort”, said one visitor. “I could sell a blank canvas saying it represents something deep”, joked another. When I asked the visitors who did not consider some artwork ‘art’ what their definitions of art were, many replied that art was something drawn, sculpted, crafted, or painted with an effort to express oneself.

However, some visitors appreciated the unusualness of the artworks. One visitor, named Sam, said that anything could be art. “ Art represent what the artist is thinking, so saying something can’t be art just because it looks simple is insulting to the artist.” Another visitor also added to Sam’s point, saying “yesterday smartphones would have been dismissed by science fiction, but now it’s daily life; I think people need to change their preconceptions about art and what is the norm.”
 

Reflections

MoMA, for many, is more than an art museum where art students hang out and tourists take pictures. MoMA contains the one of the most recent collection of art in the US, maybe even the world. Many of the artists, and the artworks themselves, have propelled culture and thought to the present. Many more artists try to propel them to new levels. For many visitors, MoMA is a place where one can reflect on both the present and the future and where one can find something more than artwork. Whether one likes art or not, it is certainly a place where one’s perceptions of modern life will change. 

 

 

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