Day 7

This trip has been such an amazing art-filled week, I can't believe its already over!!! I have never been to so many museums or seen so many great artists in such a short time before in my life! It is almost overwhelming for me to think about what amazing artists I got to see up close and personal, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Jasper Johns, Van Gough and Monet just to name a few. I had my first emotional attachment to a piece of art on this trip, and Im sure everyone at the MOMA that day saw it too... crying after seeing "Starry Night".

On top of the amazing art experience, I had an amazing cultural experience as a part-time New Yorker in the city living in a "Grande hostel" with new-found friends and became an expert Subway passenger. One of my highlights was when a couple from the south came up to me and asked for directions. My face lit up, and I was very eager to be able to help them!

I can not get over how energetic and lively the city is at all hours of the day! We had adventures at 4am in an attempt to get on SNL, and take full advantage of nightlife the city has to offer. I envy those who live and work in New York with their dream job, specifically artists and designers who are making a living for what they love doing there. I have gained inspiration through this entire experience for my future as an aspiring graphic artist and I will never forget this exhilerating adventure in New York City!

Day 6

Today was a very fun full day of exploring and visiting a multitude of galleries in Chelsea, that I would not have been able to see if it wasn’t for this trip. There was such a different artistic atmosphere in each of the galleries that we visited today, which was fun, but a few of them were the same old boring blank canvas escapade. Some of my favorite galleries were the “max lang” gallery, and DJT Fina Art ‘Robinsons Gallery’, with works by Andy Warhol and Tom Kent, another Disney-Pop artists that had very interesting and fun paintings.
“Nothing in the World has more stupid remarks than a painting in a Museum”
–Tom Kent.

I really liked this quote because it’s so true, especially after a week of visiting museums where everyone has their own opinion and appreciation for different artistic styles. Chuck Close had very interesting paintings where from far away, they looked like realistic portraits, but up close there were obscured shapes and circles with different colors and outlines. It made me dizzy to look at after awhile.

The Carol Dunham Gallery of very vulgar images of nude cartoon females, and guns were not exactly on my list of interesting or even worthwhile art to be visited. Matthew Marks Gallery had an amazing video and photography installation of cross-dressers and images of crazy hair and outfits called “The Other Side”, from 1972-2006. It was a very eclectic and entertaining piece. I really enjoyed getting to see a whole other side to the art world than just museums everyday, it was a nice way to see what current artists are doing and the difference in times between now and decades ago. The next time Im in NYC, I definitely want to go on another gallery adventure in Chelsea!

Day 5

Today was by far the best day of art and museums of the whole trip! We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, (MOMA), and then the Whitney. Just before the trip I had finished taking a Modern Art History course, and so I was uber excited to see all the works I had been studying for months. With every room I walked into, my eyes lit up like Christmas Morning. (Weird, I know). Two of my favorite works of art in the world were at the MOMA, and I didn’t even know it until I walked around and magically found them.
One of them, Jasper Johns “Flag”, was incredible! The Abstract Expressionist created a piece that looks so simple from far away but has a collage feel with newspaper underneath which adds an amazing aesthetic and textured quality to it. The highlight of the MOMA, was when I walked into a room where I saw a few Monet paintings, (always thrilling)… but then I saw it. All alone and quite petite in the corner. My favorite painting of all time. I had no idea it was even here. And then it happened. My eyes welled up faster than I could comprehend what I was seeing. Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”. Yes, I did in fact cry tears of joy, but I have never in my life been affected by a work of art until then. I had just written an 8 page paper on the painting, and so to see it in real life was unforgettable.
Lucky me, not only did I get to see my two favorite paintings, but my favorite Assemblage piece was there was well, Max Ernst “Two children are Threatened by a Nightingale”.

A The rest of the MOMA was amazing all the same, with Andy Warhol, Piet Mondrian, and Pablo Picasso. Not to Mention the biggest Pollock painting I have ever seen! I could have spent so much more time there!


Next we went to the Whitney where the only work that really caught my attention were Lorna Simpson’s photographs “Disclosure”, with ambiguous text and image relationship. She has a very conceptual way of breaking boundaries between gender equality, and racial issued in the US with her work. I enjoyed the video installations as well, but at this point in the day, I was so exhausted from looking at everything all I could think about was resting my feet!

Day 4

Today was by far the most exhausting, art-overloaded day of the week, but well worth it!I We ventured off to the Metropolitan Museum of Art followed by the Guggenheim. I have been to the Met before, but it was so many years ago I had no knowledge of many of the artists and their pieces. What I loved most about the Met was the diversity in exhibitions it has, and that is something there for everyone to be drawn to, and seen. I wanted to see everything I could in the time we had, but my favorite exhibition there by far was the Modern Art exhibits. I tended to linger around the avante-guarde artists works more than others, such as Bridget Riley’s “Blaze”, and Jackson Pollock’s “Lavender Mist”. That was my first time ever seeing a Pollock painting up close, and I was in utter awe of it. To some people who don’t know about Pollock it was entertaining to hear their reactions to it, “Mom, I could paint that myself! That’s not a hard painting!”. I probably stood there for a good 10 minutes just staring at it before I moved on.
I also enjoyed seeing some of the classical sculptures and French Revolution paintings such as, Jacques-Louis David’s, “Death of Socrates”. For me, after I study a specific painting or work of art for a long period of time in class, it is so rewarding to finally see it in person and appreciate it even more than before. A very exciting thing that was happening were guest artists who set up an easel and were painting the most beautiful, realistic versions of other paintings in the Met. I always love seeing Andy Warhol's work, he is one of my biggest inspirations, and favorite Pop artist ever for his ability to use consumerism and mass culture to create works of art unlike anyone else.

Next, we headed off to the Guggenheim which unfortunately had the exterior under construction, but the inside was just as neat as the outside! Although I enjoyed the series of works from “el Greco to Picasso”, they are absolutely phenomenal artists, I must say my favorite exhibition today at the Guggenheim was the photography exhibition, “Family Pictures”. Sally Mann is one of my favorite photographers of all time, and her photographs of her children are so breathtaking. I noticed a lot of humor and comedy in many of the photographs which was a nice break from the seriousness of the paintings I had seen all day. What an amazing art experience! Two of the best museums in NYC, all is one day! I am POOPED!

Day 3

Today we journeyed off through Grand Central Station and took a train out to visit the Dia Beacon. I had no idea what to expect visually, except for a few artists such as Joseph Beuys and Bruce Nauman that I knew had pieces there. Such a very desolate location for such “High Art”. After walking around the museum, with almost no one else visiting, I realized the importance of the location and why its such a unique experience to walk around with no one around you, and with blank white walls all over making the building seem already bigger than it already was. There were so many amazing artists that I admire that had work there. Donald Judd’s “untitled” piece of the synchronized steel boxes with colored Plexiglas was a favorite of mine, along with Robert Smithson’s “map of Broken Glass”. This glass, was beautifully broken in shards, sticking up at every angle, and making me feel slightly uncomfortable in an uneasy, threatening way. The pile of glass together makes for an interesting color and layout. I so badly wanted to pick up a piece or move it around.
Although called “Conceptual minimalists”, I would not justify all of the work as highly conceptual, but minimal, yes. Since I love color and anything that incorporates bright changing colors, I enjoyed Andy Warhol’s “Disco Décor” a series of screen prints he referred to as merely “shadows” or what could justify a shadow. They all contained only 2 colors on each panel, black, and another vibrant color. The other great sculpture I absolutely loved, and spent the longest time with was Richard Serra’s “Torqued Ellpise” Series. I ended up running in and out of all three of the sculptures and was so amazed at how massive they were in person! I did however get turned off from the conceptual minimalists art that consisted of black white canvases, string installations, and a serried of patters incorporating geometric shapes. Those pieces were very boring for me, and I walked through them pretty quickly.
Lastly, I was so excited to see Sol LeWitt’s Drawing Series with the numerous walls filled with hand drawn patterns, shapes, and mathematical forms in graphite. It amazes me to see such detail in large scale work. The only other artist who turned me onto their work almost immediately was Bruce Nauman’s neon light pieces. They were playful and humorous which drew my attention much faster than the walls elsewhere.

Day 2

Today we went to Brooklyn to visit the Artist studio of David Kramer, followed by numerous gallery visits around Old Williamsburg. I was very excited to go to an Artist studio and witness the manner in which they live with and by their work and how their own creative process comes to life in their own environment. I was a huge fan of Kramer’s work, and enjoyed the time we spent there watching his DVD’s and browsing through his pieces. I am amused by the conversation in his work between text and image and the humor that he adds to them. His work makes you sit back and think about life on a less serious note and to laugh at the things that we rarely think about in our everyday lives but are true. One of his paintings in particular (of a couple in a heart shaped-jacuzzi), struck my fancy: “I am desperately trying to hang onto my notions of life…. But I am afraid that all that does is make me seem more and more CREEPY”- D. Kramer. After visiting David Kramer’s studio, we left and went to see our first NYC art galleries. I had mixed feelings about the work in the galleries we visited today. Some of the galleries were full of blank canvases, and installations that looked as if they were painted and decorated by a 5 yr old. I’m sorry, but tying string around a black canvas in different directions, and dangling stuffed animals and other creepy childhood objects from it does not constitute as art, but rather a bad dream that came to life and resides in Brooklyn.

There was one really fun installation at a gallery called “ROCK IRAQ” an it was a miniature set up of a rock stage for a music concert with miniature instruments, backstage, clothes, bathrooms, everything! There was a surround sound of noise playing to go with the piece of an audience screaming at the stage, a very surreal experience.

Day 1

Today was incredible! Not only did we get to go to the PS1 museum and Sculpture Center, but we got to explore an entire block full of amazing graffiti. Our first stop of the day, the Sculpture Center, was interesting but not my favorite of the day. I really enjoyed the outdoor sculpture towards the entrance of the building, a metal reflective sculpture in the word: DESIRE. Because it acted like a mirror, it reflected the brick of the building on the letter, and the blue sky on part of the letters. I was expecting a multitude of pieces when I walked into the building, but instead there was only one big light-sculpture with blinking lights that spelled out “BUILT FOR CRIME”. I wasn’t sure how the words and the sculpture itself correlated, but I like how the lights blink continuously. It wasn’t the words or the lights itself that had an impact on me, but the massive size of the piece itself that struck me in awe. Another piece that caught my immediate interest was a video installation set up in a tiny space, which the artist created to make you feel more connected to the video. The video itself is of a roller coaster ride and 2 men in what looks like winter time in a deserted place, and the space is built to look like part of the Roller Coaster.
I absolutely love the building that makes up the PS1 museum. The side stairs had art going up and down the walls, and the basement even had an installation. One of the most interesting installatios in the museum was the basement in fact, with a motion detector for passersby that started a recording of cat noises from purring, to a slight defensive meow, with pumping noise that shook the ground. Lastly, as an avid drawer myself, I was very engrossed with the realistic graphite and ink drawings by Marlene McCarty, especially one called, “Planned Assassination”. I am easily drawn to pieces that have a lot of fine detail to them, and these drawings were amazing!
I cannot express how lucky we were to come by such an amazing black of buildings and garages with mind-blowing graffiti art plastered everywhere! I have never seen anything like it. There were images of famous rappers, to tiny ghosts and alien like creatures. It was almost overwhelming, like an over stimulating experience but so worth it!