Love from NYC

Last week, we had a day of art at the MoMA and a good dose of reality.

I talked the good talk with my kids about the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) being one of the ultimate "Yes, you can break it" destinations.

Pink cows, anyone?

 

 

We walked from room to room with no shortage of artists who carved unique paths that brought them to this space.

 

Jean-Michel Basquiat



Rene Magritte



Piet Mondrian



Claude Monet



Marcel Duchamp

 

From style and expression to technique and color to perception and imagination, it was an extraordinary collection to take in - too bad my kids weren't interested.

(What you and Reese do not see here are the famed Water Lilies by Monet.)

They were mostly aghast or giggling at anything remotely nude (but they thought the bathrooms were really, really nice.) 



 

For a moment, Ethan was impressed to see "Starry, Starry Night"...and then the moment passed.



Van Gogh

Thank goodness for the Art Lab.

On the lower level of the Education Center is a space devoted to kids getting their hands involved in creative projects. The day's project was to build a shelter.

Using random pieces of corrugated cardboard, pipe cleaners, paper straws and tissue paper, my kids sat and constructed for well over an hour on what their "shelter" would be. There was thought and attention, precision and innovation, vision and imagination.

There was much inspiration; all around were examples left by other young architects. 

I have to admit, it was pretty amazing to see what all these imaginative minds had dreamed up with just a few scraps. Do I see a tree growing in the background??

Inside Ethan's shelter.

In the end, my kids didn't care a fig about art's trailblazers of the past - it was ok - I saw their focus for the present and in that moment there were no limits.