Soothing rhythms stoke the fire in my belly. I'm going to get on my daughter-of-an-antiquarian-art-book-dealer high-horse for a second and agree with this article. I love modern art and was so excited for my first trip to MoMA after my modern art history class last winter. But what I encountered was not the celebration of art that I'd anticipated but an elitist, overpriced, overcrowded mess. Yes, the new MoMA is a beautiful space with an astounding collection, and, yes, I spent most of my time there going "Wow!" But my main problems with MoMA resembled my complaints about the Centre Pompidou. MoMA failed to display most of its permanent collection. If you have Duchamp's "The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelor's Even," you display it, damnit!
Saltz mentions the MoMA's hegemonic treatment of Modern Art, and this stance's failure to challenge the viewer. He juxtaposes this banal approach with the more inventive Tate Modern, and considering that the Tate Modern is one of my favorite museums, he's absolutely right. The Tate chooses themes--e.g. love and death, the body, or advertising as art--and organizes its collection around them. Consequently, you find Rodin and Dali in the same gallery, something completely unheard of in the stale environment of MoMA.
So I have to say, Saltz makes some excellent observations. Plus, points for mentioning Foucault's Penopticon.
Friday, November 18, 2005
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3 comments:
Remember, kids, Jeremy Bentham invented the concept of the Panopticon - Foucault just ran with the idea.
I say this not because it's important, but because the Panopticon was the subject of the one intelligent comment I managed to make in the past year. Fortunately, I happened to be on a pivotal second date at the Museum of Contemporary Art at the time. A clutch play, indeed.
Yes, well, the internet may be impressed by your "moves," but I know what happened at the end of that "infamous" second date, and all I have to say is LAME!
I'm always prepared, dude. Take notes.
I'll keep that in mind for next time, and I'll let you know how it goes - expect to hear from me sometime in the vicinity of spring 2011.
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