Guggenheim...more highlights from NYC

As mentioned in an earlier post, the collection can’t really compare with MoMA’s, not the exhaustive mass of definitive works, but there are some gems. Post-Impressionists, Fauvists, Modernists,- a lovely little Kandinsky stood out as did Vuillard’s Place Vintimille. A great painting in two panels, very fresh, there is a lovely loose painterly feel, wonderful splashes of light and colour, a range of beautiful greys, movement – a real treat and top of my hypothetical art-theft shopping list for the day (though would be quite hard to hide both panels up my jumper).

What was also a treat was a gallery dedicated to works from the inaugural 1959 exhibition on ‘young’ international painters of that period. Not just Pollock, De Kooning, but Brooks, Baziotes, Feito, Tapies, Yamaguchi, Dazama, Sagai. Some real crackers and a reminder that painting was in rude health in the mid to late 1950s.

Carry On Ramping...So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright

The Guggenheim (full name Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum) is a different museum altogether. The architecture (Frank Lloyd Wright’s) is iconic inside and out, the collection not to the standard of MoMA (but then where is, it is still chockfull of goodies); the space is so eyecatching that there is a general view that this can detract from the exhibits. It is a fair point, but once you get accustomed to the rampways and relatively low ceilings in the gallery walls, it does become a lovely environment for seeing some topnotch art. Having said that, it is disappointing that curators don’t appear to notice shadows cast over the paintings, surely these could be rectified with some sympathetic spotlighting.

The last time I saw the Guggenheim it was getting shot to bits by euro-banking-assassins in the International with Clive Owen strangely less easy to hit than contemporary glass sculpture. Evil banks destroying a private art collection and risking the lives of the public. Must be some social comment there somewhere.

Anyways, the main exhibit running up those famous ramps was in honour of the 50th anniversary of the unveiling of Frank Lloyd Wright’s building, showcasing Wright’s career with a mix of models and drawings.

A treat for any architecture-geeks (a group to which I sadly don’t fully subscribe), but for me most interesting was the uniform emphasis on both completed and unrealised Wright projects. Fanciful developments that would have been extraordinary had they been built: vast lobby areas of a civic building containing enormous glass globes acting as exotic aquaria; a hilltop drive-thru planetarium also unbuilt. You can just imagine Bond villains lording it in these places, and maybe that’s the sort of clientele that Wright needed at some stages of his career as his ideas exceeded the briefs he was given. What was missing for me, was the context and the reality of architecture on this scale – if they didn’t build this or that, why not? And what did they build instead?

I had visions of a sit-com with the chief character being an over-enthusiastic architect – each episode ending with his wealthy but sensible patron turning up at a building site to find the original plans had been changed and now sees 1000ft glass towers/Escher staircases/invisible doors/an extra 60 revolving storeys that detach from the main building on flamingo-legs… cut to wealthy patron shouting and shaking his fist: ‘FRANK!!!!!’…credits roll.

MoMA, you been on my mind

Just got back from New York, thought I’d blog a tad on visiting the Guggenheim and the mighty MoMA.

Last time I was in NYC was 7 years ago and MoMA was out of commission then, in between relocation (temporarily and but partially in Queens) and full refurb. Its current set-up dates from 2004 onwards, and it looks bloody great. Just awesome (to borrow a phrase from P90X punter on the infomercial that seems to be constantly playing on US telly).

[Yes I know, watching telly when on vacation in the States – but hell, it’s one of the most American things to do. Apparently the P90X exercise sytem is based on the principle of 'muscle confusion', though personally I won’t be investing in it as my muscles are quite easily confused enough as it is.]

Anyway, back to MoMA, what an amazing space - on 6 floors, great hanging (generally), beautifully lit. It's quite something to wander in off busy humid midtown Manhattan into the cool spacious white n bright lobby - central atrium soaring up the entire height of the interior. They do like their atria over there, and the bigger the better. Updike described the new architecturally refit MoMA as an invisible cathedral and certainly the scale of it and the air of detachment that its minimalist look carries is mighty impressive, and its contents sacred stuff.

$20 admission price is not cheap but you do get a lot of artbang for your buck. Incredible collection of Matisse’s, Picasso’s, Gaugin's, Cezanne's – a friend wondered how the French feel about how many of their art treasures ain’t at home no more. They are the sort of thing one would miss that's for sure. The array of Matisse's in one vast room was staggering. This included the beautifully balanced 'Piano Lesson', the use of colour in which is particularly gorgeous. Really inspiring to see all these great (seminal, iconic... pick an adjective) paintings in one place. Chuck in the most definitive representation imaginable of every significant 20th century artist and MoMA's has to be the best collection of modern art conceivable in the world.

I had also never seen the famous Wyeth painting 'Christina's World' in the flesh. It was in fact disappointly hung in almost the only cramped alley in the building, but it was lovely to see it. There is a real humanity to this painting, and a soulful presence that transcends both its current hanging and its own mass-reproduced ubiquity.

By the way I know that puns aren't always appropriate but damn that’s a good song and somehow a good fit for the feeling you can get from great art, whether at MoMA or somewhere else:

perhaps it is the colour of the sun cut flat, and cov’ring the crossroads I’m standing at. Or maybe it’s the weather or something like that. But Mama you been on my mind.

At least I resisted the temptation of punning on Moma Mia - here I go again, how can I resist you…aah maybe I didn’t resist it after all...

I'll do a Guggenheimy bit in a while.