The sculpture garden at the Museum of Modern Art

By Jack Brummet, Visual Arts Editor

On my last day in New York, I finally got to the Museum of Modern Art.  I never miss a visit to MOMA.  I was especially eager to see the huge Willem de Kooning retrospective, and it did not disappoint.  The number of canvases and drawings was just astounding--from early students drawings and paintings to works he created in old age.  I was especially knocked out by his 50's post "Women Series" paintings, where he took his abstraction to a new level.  Those paintings are just gorgeous and kinetic.



Since it was such a warm day, I spent my last half hour in the sculpture garden.

Aristide Maillol. The River.

 

One of my favorite Joan Miro sculptures - Moonbird

Pablo Picasso's She Goat

 Auguste Rodin (you know, The Thinker guy) - Monument to Balzac

Alberto Giacometti - Standing Woman

Max Ernst  - The King Playing with the Queen

Katharina Fritsch. Figurengruppe (Group of Figures). I think this

is new--at any rate I didn't remember it.

Henry Moore - Family Group

Yoko Ono's Wish Tree (with contributions by many others)

Auguste Rodin again - Saint John the Baptist Preaching

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Dan Perjovschi at the Musem of Modern Art in NYC (includes video of him at work)

I went to MOMA a few days ago, mainly to see the new building, more of the collection on display, the fascinating Richard Serra show (and Van Gogh's Starry Night, the Monet, Picasso, Pollock, Brancusi's sculptures, Jasper Johns, Motherwell, De Kooning, Talouse-Lautrec, Rothko, Klimt, et al), and all the other great paintings. And then I stumbled onto Dan Perjovschi's fantastic, politically charged, and humorous wall mural. He creates these publicly on the spot--like Keith Haring did with paint, back in the day. I saw a lot of great art that day, but it took this Romanian to make me laugh.

You can download the newspaper Perjovschi created for the modern exhibit here. The New York Times review today of the show pointed out that his work is far more casual, and less formal than that of Haring's. This is true. It is a pictorial jumble of fragments that bludgeon's you with its politics. That's OK too. In some ways, this reminds me of a lot of Jonathan Borofsky's work in the 80s, where there really wasn't a message, but just deep images that spoke for themselves. Anyhow, if you're in NYC, it's worth it to see this show. The New York Times also pointed out this fascinating tidbit: people spend far more time staring at this wall that they do in front of Starry Night...arguably, the most famous painting in MOMA (or at least right up there).

Video: Dan Perjovschi creates his wall art

Note: The Richard Serra show was excellent as well. I like his epic piece at the sculpture park in Seattle, but one of these--Torqued Torus Inversion, was a real mindf'er. I know some people don't think welded rusty steel plates are a work of art, but then they are probably the same folks who think Jackson Pollack can't paint.
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