Elaine Chen
A Visit to MoMA
The Museum of Modern Art, located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, displays wonderful exhibitions of a combination of modern art and contemporary art. To be honest, I only expected abstract and pop art, but every floor of the MoMA wonderfully addressed a great variety of subject matter, mediums, and periods of art movements. Starting from a scarce collection in 1929, MoMA has become one of the largest and influential museums covering a wide range of paintings, photography, film, book illustration, and architectural designs during the modern art era between the 1860s to the 1970s.
Entering the building, the 1st floor gives off a comfortable working environment aura, especially how it was connected to a garden for coffee rest time. There is an automania in the exact middle, already welcoming a strong sense of modernism to the visitors. While The MET deliberately losesme every time, the MoMA also is quite a maze itself despite how small the interior appears. One moment you are in a Surrealist collection, and next, you see Paul Cézanne and Claude Monet’s paintings by just making a turn. Each floor is packed with different genres from various time periods. The 2nd Floor has Cindy Sherman’s master photography shots and then there are large minimalist works people take pictures of even if they have no idea after reading the historical labels. Next on the 3rd, many sculptures made with rather autonomous materials exactly deliver these nice views of simple expressiveness. The 4th floor was a major collection of pop art, of course, the iconic, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. Just like the title, “From Soup Cans to Flying Sauces”, distinct styles of this movement delivered playful and ungraspable meanings.
My MoMA tour is coming to an end on my arrival on the 5th floor. The intro was dominated by pieces by Picasso, and artists around the Cubist and Fauvist movements. I was glad to witness the painting that is like in every MoMA news passage, the American People Series one based on Picasso’s Guernica. It felt like an accomplished one-day swipe in at the MoMA!
Hey, there’s Jackson Pollock down the corner and other large abstract arts luring my steps forward.
The Surrealist Objects Collection from the 1880s to 1940s was my favorite. The Persistence of Memory immediately lightened my curiosity after
hours of dragging my legs around the museum. I love how surrealist artists convey powerful yet ambiguous themes in their works. Feeling the distortion, anger, and mystery was like an interesting network of communication between the art and the observers. My last and most unexpected MoMA memory was Van Gogh’s Starry Night. A crowd of people was hurdling over the small painting, recording every angle of the masterpiece. By the way, films were displayed everywhere. When rest is needed, sitting in front of the film absorbs you into another world of bizarre visuals.
The MoMA was an extraordinary and educational experience since I strongly felt fascinated by the diversity in the art world. Although sometimes my mind really just went Wow literally anything can be art, I realize how art value and its market value have such entangled relationships. This inspired me to jump out of my traditional box and broadened my interpretations of art conceptually. I guess it really is a random but somewhat selective process when it comes to how certain artists are chosen for exposure. Fortunately, MoMA frequently hosts new exhibitions for different artists and fresh themes. Works of art from collections are displayed in rotating installations so that the public may regularly expect to find new works on display. The museum has been expanding its boundaries and embracing present time arts, showcasing the rich developments in visual arts. A MoMA revisit is ensured since I missed plenty of works that were unavailable for view. Maybe I will get lucky the next time! It would be exciting to pay a visit to the Shed, the stunning architecture by itself is extremely captivating. Lastly, thanks to New York for providing such accessible art resources!