My Favorite Paintings at New York Museum of Modern Art (MOMA)

One of my favorite museums is the New York Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), of whose early 20th century European painting collections I am particularly partial.

My most favorite was a triptych by the German painter Max Beckmann, the mystical and political Departure (1933-35). These beautifully rendered hallucinatory, menacing, foreboding, and just slightly hopeful and redemptive panels, aptly and sadly captured one of the most horrifying moments of human history. These paintings were the answers to the art's existential question.



Less tense, yet no less disquieting, an early Picasso, Boy Leading a Horse (1905-06) from his Rose Period, also registered with me highly. Without any covering and protection, a slender youth and a lean and graceful horse, both economically outlined and modeled, wandered in an abstract landscape — a pale pink expanse of a barren field under a grave and leaden sky.  The high horizon enabled the pink boy fully merged with the pink field thus a harmony, and that also contributed to make the atmosphere less menacing; rather, a prevalent melancholy and a tinge of sadness permeated the canvas. The subtle and subdued beauty, the quietly riveting drama generated by the contrasting colors and moods, made one's heart ache.




My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 139: My Favorite Paintings at The Frick Collection, New York City
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 137: My Favorite Sculptures at Han Yangling (Han Dynasty Yang Tomb) in Xianyang, Shaanxi, China

List of My Favorite Artworks in the Museums I've Visited

Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York City 
- Max Beckmann's Paintings in MOMA and MET
- Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele in Wien (Vienna)
- Sunflower Seeds by Ai Weiwei at Tate Modern, London
- Last Trip to a Museum in 2012 - The William S. Paley Collection: A Taste for Modernism at De Young Museum in San Francisco
- "The Steins Collect" Exhibit in San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)
- Art in Subway Station, New York City
- Neue Galerie New York - Austrian and German Art Gallery
- Barry McGee Mural, Soho, New York 2010
- Arslan: In the Midst of a Single Breath - Dillon Gallery, New York

Liao Yibai: Real Fake - Mike Weiss Gallery, New York

Ai Weiwei's sunflower seeds exhibit at Tate Modern reminded me of an exhibit I saw in Mike Weiss Gallery, Chelsea, New York last month.



The exhibit, Real Fake, featured artist Liao Yibai's larger-than-life scaled glittering sculptures of commodities such as iPhones, diamond rings, handbags and cash (Chinese currency Renminbi). 

Though, obviously it meant to be a damning take on the (Chinese people's) ever-increasing consumerism, it invited joy and giggle.  The thoughts behind the shining surface was so well sealed behind the metal sheet, that it was largely lost in the initial glances.  It demanded the penetrating cerebral power to see past the superficial attraction.  Unfortunately that concentration was hard to come by in this crowded neighborhood, where visitors tend to gallery hopping.  Most visitors gleefully snap pictures of these whimsical artifacts.  This fault with this set of collection was the same as Tom Otterness's Life Undergroud series.  They meant to criticize but the results seemed rather quite delightful and complimenting. Or a celebration. 

Undeniably, the concept behind the show was interesting but the philosophy didn't come cross as genuine and was just as the title claimed, Real Fake.  This group of work, however interesting, hardly generated any debate and intellectual exchange or meditation therefore didn't much real impact.  Even the criticism struck me as too simplistic and rather a cheap shot.  The show lacked Mr. Ai's profundity and mesmerizing effect.  Execution failed the design, or perhaps the design was the flaw. 

I do like the drawings and designs by Liao.  I also overhead similar sentiments from a fellow visitor.  She understood the value of this exhibit well.









>> New York City Report, September 2010, Part XVII: Barry McGee Mural, Soho, New York 2010
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