normally a trip to MoMa is one of the following:
BUT NOT TODAY!!!!!
I went to check out the Ensor show and saw so much more. I have rarely been so inspired by a visit. It was such a tug-of-war between wanting to go home to make work and wanting to see one more room of exciting reminders and new ideas.
Ensor’s show was informative and fun. I do not know his work and it was exciting to see both the balance between humor and skill and the dexterous handling of formal painting considerations with fascinating subject matter.
(to take nothing away from it) it was after the Ensor show that things really got interesting. Ron Arad’s No Disipline show made me want to go home and start making furnishings for my cabin, the In and Out of Amsterdam exhibit of conceptual art made me want to plan my next action, and the Judith Rothchild Foundation drawing exhibit in the contemporary galleries simply blew my mind. (The inclusion of Jan Mancusca, whom Wendy and I fell in love with in Prague several years ago utterly made my day.)
Here’s the low-tech tour.
3 Skin chair, Ron Arad
Song Dong’s amazing “Waste Not Want Not“. The installation is the entire contents of his parents’ house+the house. The bags reminded me of Generation Jeans from last year’s Under the Radar Festival, where shopping bags were an indicator of “cool” during earlier communist times in Eastern Europe.
(detail of one panel of a triptych)
somewhere in here is my name, with the date (today) on which a gallery assistant marked my height. This killer project by Roman Ondák takes a gallery to “measure the universe.” This brilliant project makes me proud of my Slovak heritage — and aware of my average height! (check the link for a great video description of the project.
And speaking more of Eastern Europe, here’s Jan Mancuska’s piece plus a detail (a butterfly drawn in sugar).
