During a recent business trip to New York City, I stopped by the Museum of Modern Art for an afternoon. Talk about time well spent.
The museum recently reopened after an extensive renovation. The renovation has been panned in several sources, but it worked fine for me. I was more focused on the art, though I have to admit the architecture wasn’t all that impressive, with perhaps one cool feature: There’s a central open space that allows you to stand on the third and fourth floors and look down on the Marron Atrium, where Monet’s “Reflections of Clouds on the Water Lily Pond” dominates the space. It was really cool to see it from each level and then to go down into the atrium for an up-close look.
There’s so much there to marvel at that I drifted through the galleries for a few hours. A few highlights were Picasso’s “Girl Before a Mirror” and David Alfaro Siqueiros’ “Collective Suicide,” which reminded me vaguely of a few pieces we own by the Jamaican Rastafarian artist Guilty.
But overall, I was most impressed by the abstract expressionists, especially Kandinsky’s colorful works. Also, seeing a photo of Jackson Pollack’s art just doesn’t do it justice. His work fills entire walls with intense complexity. Great stuff.
Now playing: Largo from “Winter,” Op. 8, No. 4, RV297 from The Four Seasons from the album “Vivaldi’s Cello” by Yo-Yo Ma, Ton Koopman & Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra