An afternoon at the MoMA

Perhaps I am starting to get comfortable again with museums, perhaps the Museum of Modern Art in New York City is just a really cool place to visit.

There was a big Dada exhibition at the MOMA: Sophie Taeuber, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Arp, Man Ray, Max Ernst, George Grosz and so many others. I wondered if Dada artists refused to take seriously art and power after World War I because they knew that no war or dictatorship is possible if people don’t take themselves and their leaders seriously. Alas, too many people took themselves, their nation, and their leader too seriously and the world was at war again.

The Paris section had a lot of interesting pieces. It made me remember of a high-school mate, whose nickname was Picabia, because he looked like French dadaist Francis Picabia (or was he a relative of Francis Picabia? I don’t remember). We were so cool and intellectual in high-school.

[Dont’ miss the instructions on how to make a fauxtogram]

There are so many famous paintings at MoMA, one after another; it feels like being on a ring with Cassius Clay, and getting one punch in the face after the other. You want to get closer to each painting and get something more from it; the feeling of the brush strokes, the depth, the smell, whatever essence was left by the painter. You want to know that being in the presence of these paintings is much more than looking at a picture of them.

Because they don’t check your electronics, I had to walk around the museum with a white plastic bag that contained my iBook, iPod, Palm, and cell phone. The good and unusual thing is that they let you take pictures. Several people were taking pictures with their cell phone, so I started too.

This painting made me wonder: is it still art if it hurt your eyes when you look at it?

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