Sunday, January 02, 2011

MoMA is dead! Long live MoMA!

Here's my take on the NY Times article celebrating the re-birth from near death of MoMA.


Interesting take on how MoMA is settling in to the new space that seemed so unpromising when it first re-opened. I agree that Monet looked insignificant and that the Barnett Newman sculpture felt out of place; I also was delighted with the crowd pleasing foam cushions and felt that they added a humanizing element sorely lacking in the vast impersonal atrium.
I am too often repelled by the immense crowds that flock to MoMA and I find myself going less than I used to as it is more like Times Square and less like a haven for those who like to spend quiet moments with great works of art. For that, the Morgan and the Frick have always had a prime appeal.
Has \"Modern Art\" has become too popular? Perhaps the mission of MoMA has been fulfilled too well: crowds of tourists, toddlers and toadies swarm to every venue of the latest thing. So love/hate is the new MoMA and that push/pull is just another of the many NY City places that we all cling to and retreat from anew.
MoMA is dead! Long live MoMA!

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