Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Artistic Monday

Yesterday Jia and I took a short trip to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City--we were fortunate enough to have free guest passes that my aunt got with her membership, and we didn't have to wait on line.

The special exhibits were well worth seeing. Into the West: Photography's Image of the American West was wonderful. The photography spanned about 150 years, with images of nature and the old west juxtaposed with modern urban and suburban landscapes.

Next to "Into the West" was an exhibit about photography printing. I'd imagine many people wouldn't find it interesting, but I like learning about the printing process--partly from the days in the printing press class in grad school.

Martin Kippenberger was a surprise to me--I hadn't previously heard of him. I was amazed by the skill of his work as well as the sheer amount of completed work in his short career. I enjoyed seeing his out-of-focus acrylic paintings--he showed great skill with the paint and subject. Some of his work was more poetic with long titles (some of which were meant for shock value).

There was also the exhibit of Tangled Alphabets: Leon Ferrari and Mira Schendel. Jia and I were not impressed. Ferrari had some interesting, imaginitive work, but much of it was inaccessible to the average person. Schendel's work resembled gibberish with a lack of creativity.

We ended our long day out at Cooper Union, listening to the poetry of C.P. Cavafy translated by Daniel Mendelsohn and read by Mark Doty, Olympia Dukakis, and Maria Tucci.

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