MoMA

Balzac and wife

Saturday we visted the new MoMA after we went swimming. There was a line outside, and the entrance hall where we bought tickets was nothing fancy. Walking up the stairs to the main hall was nice though - Newman's Broken Obelisk looks great there, but Monet's Waterlilies looks really bad in the cavernous space.

First we hit the sort-of chronological rooms on the 2nd floor. Starting with the 90s the rooms went back decade by decade to the 70s. My 2 favorites were a big William Kentridge in the 90s room, and a huge Twombly in the 70s room.



Next we went all the way up to an ok but dry architechture show. Then on to the meat - the great Modernist work that MoMA has. The galleries were nice, the work hung well and I saw a lot of things I'm going to steal from. The biggest problem, and one that sucked our energy, was the crowd. There were so many people there it was a battle to see anything at all. Luckily the Dalis and Magrittes sucked people in so I couls bask in cubism and Matisse. My wife loved this:



and I did too.

Finally we were spent and we left without seeing everything. We hustled uptown to the Guggenheim to buy a fake-Calder mobile for our baby's room, then headed back to the hotel and went swimming again. Dinner at Zen Palate and Kung-Fu Hustle movie.

The new MoMA seems pretty nice, and I was glad to see all the good stuff they have up, but there are a couple problems. Too many people! Also, the big open area when you walk in is dramatic and nice, but you have to go up the stairs to it and it feels a little hidden away. Also, it's too big for most art. Another thing is that all the exposed walkways are a cool idea, but when you're up high the railings don't feel substantial and if you're height-phobic at all you're in trouble.

Tomorrow I'll write about Sunday and the Basquiat show in Brooklyn.