In Which a Long-Awaited Museum of Modern Art Reopens
Ever since I took my last humanities class, I’ve wanted to see some of the pieces that I studied. I finally got that opportunity a few days ago thanks to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. We saw pieces from big names like Frida Kahlo, Henri Matisse, George Braque, Andy Warhol, and Rene Magritte. It was everything I had wanted it to be. I even saw some paintings from the old powerpoints that I studied from in order to pass the final exam and used as examples for my final essay, “Why Modern Art is More than Lines and Circles on a Canvas.” Allow me to elaborate on 6 superlative pieces I found in the museum:
This painting is a great example of what I love about modern art – its ambiguity and ability to be interpreted many different ways. Is the figure hopeful? Do they feel a longing for the world on the other side of the river? Or is the figure feeling isolated by the distance between himself and the carousel of the world going on outside, ignorant to his grief? That’s up to you! It can even be different things to you at different times.
Calder’s fantastic. His mobiles deliver that classic modern art gut feeling of pure shape, line, and color, with the twist that the piece is in constant motion. It’s like watching a river, or a jazz musician’s solo. You’re always seeing something new unfolding right in front of your eyes. It’s always improvising, always in flux. It’s ephemeral and motion and music and modern life all captured into one piece. Gah. I’m still geeking out about it.
Somehow I like this better than his original Whaaam! done back in the ‘60s. It’s from a different point of view this time. You can’t see the airplane’s nationality, either. And it’s like he’s drawing back the curtain and showing you that all print is just a bunch of dots close up. Very, very pretty dots.
You know, sometimes a tie feels exactly like that, a snake squeezing the life right outta you. Especially if you’re a missionary walking on the baking sheets that are the sidewalks of Santiago, Chile in the summer.
The actual work done by the artist is only a set of instructions. LeWitt gives the museum curators some vague directions on how to put the crayon lines on the grid, and the rest is up to the museum to interpret and recreate. So every time this piece changes hands, it’s technically being made anew all over again. Gives the piece a sort of mystery and a life of its own.
Is this a statement about our bodies being an amalgamation of atoms? Or maybe it’s about our personalities? Or society / humanity at large? That’s up to you to decide! Aaarrrrrtttt!
Shout outs to Uncle Todd, Aunt Rebecca, Joanna, and my awesome wife for helping make this trip happen. If you ever go to San Francisco, I’d recommend you visit this place. It’s been closed for such a long time and it’s awesome that it’s finally open again for us to enjoy.
