Wednesday, April 01, 2009

MOMA MIA, MOMA MIA....



I had a great day in NYC today. I had did a little shopping, a lot of wandering up to Columbus Circle and a visit to the Museum of Modern Art. I have been wanting to go to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) for some time since I moved back to the NYC area. A friend from work said he would hang out but he didn't come through. Just as well, it enabled me to take on MOMA at my leisure, and man did I leise.

I first came across a Batiste Madalena exhibit. He was a commercial artist from the 20's who hand did movie posters for a movie theater in Rochester, New York. He worked about 4 years using tempera to paint 6 paintings a week for whatever movie was exhibited. When the theater was sold, he was out of a job. A few weeks later he was fortunate enough to rescue many of his paintings from the theater's trash and we get the benefit to see them at a museum.




The rest of the time I spent trying to find the many famous paintings of the last 100 years. I was spellbound by the Manets, the Monets, the Mattisses, and of course Picasso. the last time I was at MOMA was in the late 80's. I don't remember much of that visit and MOMA has done an extensive renovation. A great job, I might add, worth the 20 bucks. I was able to take some pictures of some of the better known works of art.







And some more I was able to sneak some shots at.










2 comments:

AlNickerson said...

Hey… one of those paintings looks like Jackson Pollock’s "One (Number 31)." You saw a Jackson Pollock painting? Man, I love Jackson Pollock. Dunno why, exactly. I’m not a huge fan of abstract expressionism. There doesn’t always seem (to me, anyway) a whole lot of craft in such work, but there’s something about Pollock’s paintings that I really enjoy. :)

Scanman said...

You are correct sir, about Jackson Pollock. That's why I was so blown away today. I can't believe how many iconic American artwork is here, art I've seen hundreds of times but have never seen in person. It was great.