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04/06/2005: "Back to MOMA" by Michael Corbin
NEW YORK - Introspection is perhaps the most important tool available to an artist and yes, also an art collector. If you don't exercise the courage to look within, you cannot create a truthful work of art, nor will you be capable of recognizing one.
This makes the experience of the "new" Museum of Modern Art even more intriguing. MOMA did some serious self-examination and took the bold step toward reinvention. The result is a transformation of international proportion for people who appreciate art.
The updated MOMA is a cavernous conglomeration of boxes and rectangles made of concrete, glass, steel and wood, all dressed in white, the perfect backdrop, of course for the masterworks on display.
In this building, air, light and space lift the art and allow it to soar before your very eyes. Where else can you find walls expansive enough for gargantuan pieces like Claude Monet's, "Reflections of Clouds on the Water Lilly Pond" sharing space with Cy Twombly's chalkboard-like, "Untitled 1970" among many others?
As for the people, it's true. Renovate it and they will come.
The art is almost upstaged by the crowds. During my visit, I heard accents that sounded American, Caribbean, French, Italian and Scandinavian. While browsing the furniture exhibit, I heard a man with a German accent excitedly blurt out, "Bauhaus!" Bauhaus indeed.
Why so many people?
Well, who doesn't want to bathe in the glow of Picasso's, "Three Musicians" or Jackson Pollock's frenetic, "One: Number 31, 1950"?
MOMA has always been world renown, but that is increasing tenfold. It's an international coming together of people who take part in an activity that requires the ultimate in solitary contemplation; appreciating art for life's sake.
I overheard one woman say, "I always want to paint after I go to the museum!" And who wouldn't want to paint after beholding Robert Motherwell's, "Elegy to the Spanish Republic" or Jasper Johns', "Map" or Roy Lichtenstein's, "Post Visual"?
MOMA is one of the museums of my childhood. Now, as an adult, I'm still filled with childlike wonder in this place. As a collector, I saw so many pieces that I wish I could own. Andreas Gursky's huge colorprint, "Tote Hosen" rocks in more ways than one. And who wouldn't be charmed by Alex Katz's "Upside Down Ada"?
I nearly fell off my Wassily chair when I spotted what is presumably the original prototype of Erno Rubik's, "Rubik's Cube". A serious retro moment. I'm kicking myself for throwing away the one I had as a teenager. Clearly, this was a puzzle that I would never figure out!
Anyway, after three hours and twenty minutes inside (closing time), I was awakening from my collector's fantasy. Time to leave.
In short, MOMA, even more than before, is a happening place where coolness and culture collide. Speaking of collisions, how about John Chamberlain's "Essex"? A beautiful monstrosity. No home should be without a car wreck on its wall.
Introspection certainly has its advantages.
You know, I think MOMA should consider producing a television show. I have the perfect title.
How about, "Extreme Makeover: Museum Edition"?
MICHAEL CORBIN IS A WRITER AND AVID ART COLLECTOR
