MoMA, New York City - miscellaneous art

Laura and  I really loved the 5th floor with the impressionists, post impressionists, cubists and surrealists. It was amazing to see Van Gohn’s Starry Nights, Matisse’s dancers and Salvador Dali’s clocks and so much more. I loved the Klee, Chagall and Klimt.  Then the Picabia exhibit was incredible, seeing the life of a great artists works through his various periods. The psychedelic art of the 60’s was simply wild with Warhol and flashbacks.
But that was only a bit of the whole of MoMA, a couple of floors. There were 6 floors and performance exhibits and photography and just a whole lot of art. I came round a corner and damn there was Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World.  Everywhere there was iconic art.  But also there was this exhibit of Russian art before Stalin.  Stalin introduced the ‘socialist realism’ and that’s all I’d really seen, these plump propaganda peasants. But here at this exhibit was the whole of the really creative  constructionist period of art when Russians were being original.  No doubt a lot ended in the Gulags as a result.  But it was an experience to see a whole era of art I wasn’t aware of.
There was also an exhibit of Lovers and another of the work of a variety of photographers. There was Nan Goldin’s “The Ballad of Sexual Dependencies”, posters,  book covers and spiritualism.  And much more.  Laura and I walked through looking and commenting and generally having an extraordinary time.
We met a delightful member of the gallery, a 72 yo gorgeous lithe creature wearing a red scarf,  doing a survey for MoMA. Laura loved her and we talked  of art, travel and love like old friends though we were strangers who’d just met.  What a delight.  Something in the space and experience of MoMA makes for such possibilities.
Lounge areas and cafes, with spacious washrooms on every floor as well.  The whole layout and design of the building  made the museum one of the most enjoyable experiences.  Lightness of being came to mind.  Uplifting and a celebration of human achievement.
Thank you MoMA!

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) New York City - the Fifth Floor

This really was an artistic treat.  There are 6 floors of exhibitions with lounges and cafe’s and expresso bars.  Lonely Planet tour guide recommended we get tickets on line but I had no way of printing them so decided instead to get to the museum early.  This was a good idea. It opened at 10 am and when we left around 12:30 there was quite a line up for tickets.  $25 for adults and well worth it for the 5th floor alone.  This was the collection galleries 1880 to 1950’s.
I love Paul Klee. I love Marc Chagall. I love Gustav Klimt.    I love the impressionists. I love the post impressionists.  I love the surrealists especially.  It’s all so inspiring.  So we walked around the gallery full of favourites like going to a concert with dozens of stages.  Visually this modern art is like seeing live, Sinatra, Elvis, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Dylan, Joni Mitchell. It’s that sort of experience.
I love Picasso’s early paintings and his later cubism.  Without knowing what an incredible artist he was in pictures the boy with the horse or his blue period I’d not appreciateh is abstract art.  He’s so accomplished.
Starry Nights by Van Gogh.  There’s the song and here was the original.  Wow!  I loved seeing the surrealist Salvador Dali’s clocks.  Wow!
Seurat and Monet.  So many greats, a generation of artists to choose from and there were a whole lot of lesser known but equally or almost equally as exceptional.  As a result of the world wars there was a lot of repudiation of the modern.  Lots of soul searching and trying to express this.  Surrealism was a dream like exploration with elements of Freud.
A whole room of Matisse.  Matisse’s dancers and the dancers of Degas.  So uplifting. I forgot how much I loved Rousseau until I saw his pictures, thought I love that, and found out it was Rousseau.  And Gauguin of course, The Frenchman’s dream come true. We just fell in love with the Fifth Floor and had more floors yet to go.  Unbelievably rich eye candy, mind changing, soulful experience.