Modern Madness
Written: May 29 '02
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: An incredible selection of highly-recognizable art.
Cons: Long lineups outside due to upcoming renovations.
The Bottom Line: The walls were covered with highly recognizable art by Picasso, Seurat, Cezanne, Dali, and their contemporaries. This museum definitely deserves its high reputation.
|
|
|
| sulkn's Full Review: New York Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) |
Although we were only in New York City for a short weekend, we decided to make the Museum of Modern Art one of the few real "tourist" destinations that we visited. A quick thumb through our guidebook told us that there was more famous art on display in the Museum of Modern Art than I'd probably seen during all my other art gallery visits combined.
Cleverly, we realized that Friday evenings are "pay what you can" so we tried to save a few bucks by timing our visit correctly. Unfortunately, it seems we timed it a little too late and were faced with a lineup winding around the block. Not willing to sacrifice too many hours of our short visit standing on a sidewalk, we decided to return the next day and pay full price. Imagine our shock when we found the lineup almost as long on Saturday; it was only then that we realized the art was about to be moved to a new home in Brooklyn for a few years while the normal building was totally renovated. Everyone, New Yorkers and tourists alike, were lining up to visit or re-visit the current gallery before it closed. The grand re-opening of the original Manhattan location we visited isn't scheduled until 2005.
And so, we waited in line. It turned out that we didn't have as much to be worried about as we'd initially thought as the line moved fairly quickly.
The second floor of the museum was where the big-draw art was displayed. The walls were covered with highly recognizable art by Picasso, Seurat, Cezanne, Dali, and their contemporaries. While standing in front of Van Gogh's "Starry Night" I had to remind myself that I wasn't in yet another IKEA store admiring another cheap knock-off print of the painting; this was the real thing. And, as familiar as it was to me in books and prints, there is nothing like seeing the detailed brush strokes of a famous painting up close and in person. How much different the experience was to seeing the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris, tiny and dark, buried in a glass case behind crowds of visitors.
Despite the lineups outside, the Museum of Modern Art was laid out smartly with open concept rooms. There was no set "route" that a visitor needed to follow. This allowed you to work around the biggest crowds. Only a few times did I feel cramped or pressured to move away from a painting to allow someone else to see it.
Next to the main attractions, most people were there to see the New York City photography exhibit on the third floor. This collection was initially assembled near the site of the WTC disaster and contained hundreds of photos of pre- and post- September 11th New York City. The photos were sent in by anonymous photographers. Most of them were fascinating, and it was interesting to see all the different aspects and eras of the city's existence mixed together.
As I write this, the museum's art is probably in transport to it's new temporary home in Brooklyn. If the core collection remains the same, however, I'd highly recommend a visit once it re-opens. This museum definitely deserves it's high reputation.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
sulkn
|
|
Member: Gary
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Reviews written: 27
Trusted by: 29 members
About Me:
A 30-year-old web developer in Toronto, Canada.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.