I visited MoMA today, for the second time in my life. I’ve been there once before about 2 years ago and I hated it the first time I went there. I’ve never liked modern art and have always enjoyed visits to the Met way more than my only MoMA trip. My friend Kate and I have had the conversation about modern art, classical art, and what we like and dislike about them. We came to the conclusion that we were not deep enough to understand modern art and really appreciate it. Just today on Good Day New York, I saw a story that a piece from MoMA was sold for millions of dollars. It was a white, vertical line going through a blue background. Neither I, nor Rosana Scotto, nor Gregg Kelly understood where the talent was in that piece of art. Having my doubts about going to the museum from the get-go, I didn’t expect to find anything I thought was amazing. And I didn’t. But I did find things I didn’t think were horrible.
One piece I liked was Port-en-Bessin (“Entrance to the Harbor” in French), by Georges-Pierre Seurat from 1888. I actually liked the piece because it seems very peaceful and relaxed with all the sail boats in it. Some of the other pieces I saw were very busy and almost difficult to look at because of all the different bright colors and shapes. My eyes almost couldn’t find a place to focus on. This piece stood out to me because I didn’t think it was so busy. The colors are very calming and it’s a piece I wouldn’t mind having hang in my house somewhere because it doesn’t annoy me. Some of the other pieces annoyed me because I couldn’t understand what they were trying to portray. When I see one red line, I don’t get it. There’s no sign of artistic talent there, in my opinion. Yes, maybe the artist is very deep and wants the viewer to see meaning past its physical simplicity, but I’ve always thought that art should not only be about the message, it has to be about talent. A red line, or a black square, are not talent to me.
My aunt has criticized me before about my opinions on modern art. She once said to me “well YOU didn’t think to draw something like that” when I mentioned that I’ve been able to draw shapes since before I started first grade and that the pieces didn’t impress me. I responded with “why would I think of drawing something so stupid?” But maybe it’s simplicity is what makes it complex in a sense. This outing made me think about this, but I still like my sail boats on the French harbor thats depicted in Port-en-Bessin more than a red line painted on a canvas.