A day at the Moma NYC: Marina Abramovic’, William Kentridge, Picasso and Henri Cartier-Bresson

Wow who new the Monday afternoon Moma is jam packed…! It felt like there were many little groups. Senior citizens, high school kids and ton of foreigners… Anyway despite the big crowd, Moma has some good exhibitions going on right now so I really enjoyed it. www.moma.org/

Marina Abramovic‘. Honestly I didn’t know of her work so much except this so called ” performing art” at Moma right now: “The artist is present” is getting so much attention at the moment. And I kind of already judged that this was not so great idea. So She sits on the middle of the second floor surrounded by security guards and curious audience in her red snuggy like outfit. She looks extra pale and huge. She may have put on some white make up to shock people. Anyway she’s very much into shocking people. ( wait till see her exhibition going on the 6th floor at the museum…!).

People were lined up to sit down with Marina starring in peace(?) and silence each others. It’s up to the guest( the audience) to decide how long he or she wants to stare at Marina. Marina sits there in no motion and no emotion. No water. No bathroom break. What if she faints? All day long for a month. The whole thing rather disturbs me but yet intrigues me and I want to shout to her in her ear to get up and stop this. I don’t know how to accept this or explain. But 6th floor experience of everything she has done was far beyond. There are many video installations since she is a performing artist. She cuts herself. She whips her ice blocks in naked then eats her honey out of the jar. She had put live naked men and women all over into this exhibition. One woman is for God sake up on the wall sitting and hanging on something like bicycle seat and completely naked showing everything including her pelvic hair. This naked woman’s looking quite sad ( at least to me) under her bright spot light is arching her arms time to time. Anyway, Marina loves naked bodies of herself and others and everyone’s. Is it instant way to shock people and get attention? Is it sort of freedom to her? All of these motions and the actions provoke me to think what really “ART” means. She stands on the border line of ART or Not in my common sense. I do not believe in Art being goody goody pretty Art, but she really challenges me in very uncomfortable way. So at the end, am I glad I did see it? Yes. I believe it was better I saw it all than I didn’t see it all. So now I know it all.

Marina Abramovic’

Then there is William Kentridge‘ s awesomely interesting exhibition:”Five Themes“

William is Best known for animated films based on charcoal drawings, he also works in prints, books, collage, sculpture, and the performing arts. This exhibition explores five primary themes in Kentridge’s art from the 1980s to the present, and underscores the inter relatedness of his mediums and disciplines, particularly through a selection of works from the Museum’s collection. Included are works related to the artist’s staging and design of Dmitri Shostakovich’s The Nose,which premieres at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in March 2010. I especially loved his Stop-Emotion Animations. So intriguing!!

The Magic Flute by William Kentridge.

William Kentridge. Drawing from Stereoscope 1998–99. Charcoal, pastel, and colored pencil on paper, 47 1/4 x 63″ (120 x 160 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art, with special contributions from Anonymous, Scott J. Lorinsky, Yasufumi Nakamura, and The Wider Foundation. William Kentridge’s still drawings and portraits greatly reminds me of ones of Francis Bacon. Not in all aspects a of it but especially the line quality. /www.lacasapark.com/la/2009/07/francis-bacon-1909-1992/

Then there is this installation by Yin Xiuzhen.

I liked it. It is sort of cute And i like the idea. This reminded me of a exhibition that was held at Deitch Project in Soh a while ago : Black Acid Co-Op. www.lacasapark.com/la/2009/07/black-acid-co-op-deitch-project/

The outer shell is made by mixed clothing such as sweaters, shirts and pants… then there are frames built to support this from the interior of the car. And the light filters through the clothing creates a beautiful soft colors to see from the inside of the car. This makes fab party room for the Adult or the kids! Especially with mega size speakers installed!

The interior. Quite nice, Ha?!

And Picasso: Theams and Variations.

I mean you never get bored looking at Picassos Art. What a blessed Artist he was?!! He had 80 year full of most prolific production in every different medium and techniques! He never stopped creating. This exhibition explores Picasso’s creative process through the medium of printmaking, tracing his development from the early years of the twentieth century, with depictions of itinerant circus performers in the Blue and Rose periods, to his discovery of Cubism. It follows his evolving artistic vision through decades of experimentation in etching, lithography, and linoleum cut, demonstrating how each technique inspired new directions in his work. The exhibition focuses on specific themes, showing how Picasso’s imagery went through a constant process of metamorphosis. Printmaking, in particular, allows this fundamental aspect of his art to become vividly clear, since various stages in building a composition can be documented. One series of lithographs shows Picasso progressing, step-by-step, from a realistic depiction of a bull to one that is completely abstracted into schematic lines. Other series reveal changing interpretations of the women in Picasso’s life, as they become the subject of his art and a catalytic force behind his creativity.

And here I have a couple of his work from this exhibition…

Then Henri Cartier-Bresson’s photo Exhibition!

I spent quite a time in front of gigantic maps to show his trails of world travels to take photos. Honestly I amd more impressed by his world travels than the photos itself. Beautiful photos but I mean this man traveled entire Japan in 1964! The maps look like ones for one of many Airline’s these days.