I’ve never really been super into art to be honest, but I thought why not go
to a museum? I mean, I love the arts, but not specifically art. Or so I thought.
We all tend to have our own preconceived notions as to what art is or what it may be, and that goes for anything, but when I walked into The Museum of Modern Art, I was right.
But I was also wrong.
I mean, of course they had the usual paintings and whatnot. The famous “Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh (and I took pictures of it), but then there were the spiders.
There were literal giant sculptures of spiders, one in the center of the room, and one suspended on the wall. Right next to a life size helicopter, and adjacent to a scale model of the building itself.
They have theaters and stores, photography and design. And an entire floor dedicated to fashion, the most commonly seen form of art.
And honestly the most beautiful thing in the entire museum to me, was actually sitting outside of it. A 50 ft tall sculpture of a rose, that I could not take my eyes off of. It just captivated me.
Just yesterday in my History 1003 class, my professor was telling us about how people view art. Asking us whether or not certain things qualify as art, and for some things (like a can with the ‘artist’s’ poop in it) I was quick to say no. But after coming here, and seeing this…I don’t really know what art is. It all depends on you and how you see it. I guess that’s why people like art, and I guess I never really understood that.
I mean, how could it not catch your eye?! The piece is huge and always attracts a huge crowd of people standing around it gazing with awe. Naturally I went to the crowd, mostly to see how people reacted to it but then I was caught too. The piece never fails to disappoint, It gets me every time. It’s simplistic and beautiful. The black and white compliment each other well on top of the cream background. It’s a piece you could spend a lot of time just looking at the details.
Franz Kline’s “Painting Number 2” (1954) also had a similar effect on me but in a different way. The piece feels grim and uneasy.
which completely caught me off guard. His art seemed similar, too similar, like I’ve seen something like it before. This piece is riddled with random unrelated objects while having a Greek bust as the attention grabber. I came to the conclusion that the piece could pass off with the surreal vaporwave aesthetic. After a moment it hit me. I was looking at a piece made by the founding father of the strange art style, the style that the vaporwave sub-genre took much inspiration from. Metaphysical and surreal art. This artist was creating this type of art almost 100 years before the internet meme pop culture embraced the vaporwave art style. This museum actually taught me about the origins of vaporwave art.
Shirana Shahbazi’s “[Composition-40-2011]” (2011) deserves a shout-out too because it easily catches the eye with its saturated colors popping out of the black darkness. Unlike the other pieces mentioned this piece is actually a photograph which I didn’t expect. At first glance I thought it was a painting but I was wrong. Her piece is not part of the exhibition but it still deserves recognition nonetheless.