Friday Night at MoMA

Brian and I had a hankering to see some art, specifically art at the Museum of Modern Art. Our last visit was three years ago, so we figured it was time to come back. They hand out free admission tickets every Friday night from 4 to 8, so of course that's when we went.

I met Brian there, but was running late so he got in line for tickets without me. I saw this church building on the corner of the same block where the MoMA is when I was hurrying from the subway stop. I had to stop and snap a picture. It seems like every time I'm in Manhattan I run into a new gorgeous building, just squished in the middle of all the skyscrapers. If this was in say Rexburg, Idaho, it would really stand out, but in New York it's almost overshadowed by the size and amount of the surrounding architecture. 

I grabbed a hot dog at a vendor on the corner and found Brian in line. One of the museum workers let me jump in line with him, which was very nice, because I didn't want to have to stand at the line's end halfway around the block's corner.

We learned our lesson from our last visit and started on the top floor where they keep the coolest items: the paintings. One of the special exhibits they have right now is of Rene Magritte. I'm not super familiar with his work, but Brian really likes his painting of the man wearing the bowler hat with the apple in front of his face and wanted to see the exhibit. We got in line, which extended clear in another room, and wound our way towards the front. At one point we were next to an opening that dropped all the way to the first floor. It exposed a hallway on each level. I felt a touch of vertigo as I looked down. As we watched the people stream back and forth on each walkway, we joked that it looked like a human ant farm.

The line moved fairly quickly and before long we were surrounded by paintings. To be honest, most of his paintings creeped me out. There was far too much nudity and unrecognizable figures. However, there were a few paintings that we liked.

This one is titled "The Treachery of Images" which shows a pipe. The French words on the painting read "This is not a pipe." Get it? It's not a pipe but a picture of a pipe. :) Mostly we liked it because it didn't have any exposed body parts in weird positions.

We really liked this one titled "Clairvoyance (Self Portrait)" because we like its message of looking at something for its potential.

This one we thought was clever. It's titled "The Human Condition."

After we finished with Magritte, we wandered down a floor to look at some of our favorite artists: Monet, Van Gogh, Mondrian and Picaso. I had to see Monet's water lily paintings again. I think that they are so gorgeous!

We wandered through the Picaso and Van Gogh paintings, and I got to see Van Gogh's Starry Night again. It's such a pretty painting.

A painting by the Italian artist, Gino Severini caught my eye. It's titled "Dynamic Hieroglyphic of the Bal Tabarin." It's a picture of a dance and I love all the colors. There were sequins pushed into the paint throughout the painting, giving it an almost collage-look.

Throughout the building there are windows that highlight great views of the city. It was starting to get dark out and it was fun to see the city lighting up.

One of the windows gave a great view of the street below.

We decended to the next floor which had a lot of sculpture and other random objects. Our vote was unanimous that the creepiest object we saw that night was the hairy cup, saucer and spoon. Maybe it's there for insulation? 

Brian got a kick out of the painting depicting the definition of the word definition.

We saw some of Roy Lichtenstein's work. I really like his comic-book-esque style. This picture he copied from an advertisement for a hotel in Pennsylvania. The picture's plaque described it as plagiaristic.

A visit to MoMa wouldn't be complete without seeing some random sculptures. They didn't have any hay bales this time though, which I was kind of disappointed about. We did see a snow shovel suspended from the ceiling by a fishing line though. Maybe their sculptures are seasonal.

On our way out we ran into some of Jackson Pollock's work. I was super excited that we found it by accident. I really love his paintings, not all of them, but most of them. Something about the layers of swirling colors just attracts my attention.

This is the biggest Pollock painting I've seen. I loved it!

Going to the MoMa is always an adventure. You never know what you'll find. It makes for a fun date night.