4/7 painting
[Stenographic Figure (c1942) Jackson Pollock]
MoMA is full of people enjoying themselves. Even though it's a serious place with serious art, visitors move about, talk, and react with animation and energy; it doesn't feel like a place where you have to be all reverential, hushed or overawed. I'm sure it's to do with the nature of the collection as sometimes you just can't help laughing (a shiny pink plank = sculpture?/what looks like the contents of a huge mattress = meaningful installation?), but you just can't get too bogged down when you are looking at Campbell's Soup Cans and odd collections, and seeing people queuing in the pouring rain to get into the Rain Room.
At the moment there's a wonderful exhibition of Bill Brandt photographs, but the highlight for me was this painting by Jackson Pollock. It makes me laugh, the colours are wonderful, it's witty and strange and clever.
And my second favourite was this painting by Matisse which I hadn't seen before. In fact, coming out of MoMA, the overwhelming impression for me (once again) was that Matisse changed everything and that he was the great artistic genius, not Picasso.
[The Rose Marble Table (1917) Henri Matisse]
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