You find yourself in Midtown Manhattan with nothing to do. You have options; you could either go eat at Shake Shack (again), spend all of your money on new clothes you don’t need or you could immerse yourself in the culture and elegance of modern art. One will make you feel greasy, one will make you broke and one will make you feel sophisticated. It’s your choice.
The MOMA, or Museum of Modern Art, on West 53rd Street, is a beacon of light for those of us that find beauty in the simplicity and hidden meanings of the modern art genre. Modern art can be a blank canvas, a snow shovel hanging from the ceiling, or a short film of an artist painting another work. The amazing thing about the MOMA is that it is filled with pieces of art the defy society’s typical idea of what constitutes “art”.
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Whether it’s Robert Gober’s 2000-2001 untitled Intaglio Print recreating an advertisement for a cat sitter that he found in the street, or David Hammons 1995-1996 Out of Bounds creation of dirt on paper resting upon a basketball on the wall, modern art doesn’t follow any rules or have any guidelines.
You may find yourself strolling through the MOMA, filled with anger that these pieces of “art” are famous and revered when you feel as though you could make them yourself out of the trash you find on East Fordham Road. The truth is, you may say to yourself that you could do the things these artists are doing, but the difference is, these artists went out and did it.
Straight-forward, yet intriguing, these artists evoke a sense of mystery, wonder, and fulfillment in those that view their pieces. Artists featured in the MOMA show us that art does not need to be colorful, realistic, or even make very much sense for us to find it beautiful and worth praise. While some may find these pieces undeserving of the fame that they have gained, true lovers of modern art realize that these pieces are not as simple to create as one would think.
Tell me the last time you thought of depicting a young boy holding a backpack by only using three colors and geometric shapes. Well, that’s exactly what Kazimir Malevich did in his 1915 “Painterly Realism of a Boy with a Knapsack-Color Masses in the 4th Dimension”. Modern art is simple and beautiful, and living in NYC, simplicity is hard to come by.
If these art pieces intrigue you as they intrigued me in my wandering of the halls of the MOMA, visit Midtown Manhattan, absorb the love these artists put into their work, grab a healthy lunch, and feel the culture seep into your body. Modern art may seem easy, but when you look deeper, it’s far from it.