The Museum of Modern Art

Dancing festivals may not seem the most normal place to start increasing your vocabulary, but believe it or not, it was during one of these long drawn out affairs, whilst sitting in pink church in Blackpool in costume with full stage make up waiting to go on stage that I learnt a thing or two. In dancing festivals you have categories for style, as well as for age and level, so you might find “Baby Ballet” or “C Tap”. On this ...
...offering Contemporary and not knowing the difference, I turned to Mummy dearest to ask. Do you know the difference? Sorry if you do, just skip to the next paragraph. If you don’t, though, bear with me for a few, well, words. Contemporary, it appears, means modern to the time. Modern means modern now. See? So while all modern dances are currently contemporary, not all contemporary dances are modern. This does tie in to the museum, but you have ... more

Dancing festivals may not seem the most normal place to start increasing your vocabulary, but believe it or not, it was during one of these long drawn out affairs, whilst sitting in pink church in Blackpool in costume with full stage make up waiting to go on stage that I learnt a thing or two. In dancing festivals you have categories for style, as well as for age and level, so you might find “Baby Ballet” or “C Tap”. On this particular day I noticed that as well as Modern, they were offering Contemporary and not knowing the difference, I turned to Mummy dearest to ask. Do you know the difference? Sorry if you do, just skip to the next paragraph. If you don’t, though, bear with me for a few, well, words. Contemporary, it appears, means modern to the time. Modern means modern now. See? So while all modern dances are currently contemporary, not all contemporary dances are modern. This does tie in to the museum, but you have to read on a bit first to find out why...

Anyway, onto the MOMA. The MOMA is famous – so famous it got mentioned in 3 of the Babysitters Club Books, a Sweet Valley High special, several Paula Danziger ones and a number of others I’ve forgotten. Knowing I was off to the States that term, I arrived back at uni with every book I owned that mentioned the city in question, and believe me, there are a lot (even if most do have a target reading age or, erm, age 10). So now you know it’s famous, and I’m guessing you know what the initials stand for (Museum of Modern Art – see, you do now), so what else do you need to know?

### Getting There and Getting In and not Getting Kicked Out ###

11 West 53rd Street is the official address. Basically it’s just off 5th Avenue, not too far from FAO Schwartz and the lovely little Lindt Shop. Catch the Subway to 53rd St (line E and F) or Rockefeller Centre (lines B, D, F and Q). Busses M1, 2, 3, 4, 5 all stop at 53rd Street too. There are carparks nearby, but with rates starting at $12 per hour I’d recommend not driving.

Current entrance prices are $8.50 for students (no ID needed in my case – maybe I just look young – but take it to be sure) and $12 for adults. Senior citizens (age 65 + ) also get discounted entry and under 16 s are free if accompanied by an adult.

To avoid getting kicked out – well, go when they’re open and staying open for a bit. The opening hours are:

Monday 10:30-5:45
Tuesday 10:30-5:45
Wednesday CLOSED
Thursday 10:30-5:45
Friday 10:30-8:15
Saturday 10:30-5:45
Sunday 10:30-5:45

I went on a Friday just after lunch and although it was fairly busy, it wasn’t unpleasantly crowded.

The museum is closed on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day but apart from that are open all year round.

### Works On Display ###

This is where the linguistic note above comes in. On offer you can find everything from 17th and 18th century pieces right through to works created last year. Surely the former cannot be counted as “modern”?Still, I’m not complaining because they did have some incredible things to see. It might be overhyped but I liked Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles D’Avignon” (the hooker one) – we even had a copy of it done by our head of Art on the common room wall in 6th form. As well as that there’s Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” (most bon) and Monet’s “Water Lillies” which is either so wonderful or just so large (3 full sized canvasses) that they give it a room of its own. There were a lot of “proper” modern pieces too and one name that sticks in my head (because I like it and, ok fine, bought the postcard) is “Broadway Boogie” by a chap called Mondrain who I think is Dutch but might not be....

### Not Picture Pieces ###

There are a number of temporary displays on throughout the year, the one I saw being some of Alberto Giacometti’s sculptures. These were a bit like the El Greco exhibition in Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum – over advertised and under impressive. There was a nice sculpture garden though which is permanent and well worth a glance, and bits and bobs dotted around the place.

### Layout ###

The walls are white, the floors are brown. Anyone who knows German might think that sounds like a certain little children’s rhyme but it’s not (and how dare you for thinking my translation skills are that bad :p ) But it’s true, the place it like that. More importantly, there are places to sit and, well, look at the paintings. The works are spread over 4 floors, with most being situated on the upper 2. The place is airy, the staff isn’t scary. Sorry, just had to get it out of my system.

### Boring but Necessary Details ###

There are toilets on all floors – if you’re desperate go straight to the top floor since it seemed to be the only one with no queues. Lifts are available but if you are physically mobile then the escalators are a better bet as they deliver you straight to the centre and take a lot less time.

Shops (‘Hang on – how can they come under “Boring but Necessary” ?’ you ask) are boring (See – you asked too soon). There’s a main one when you go in, and a little mini thing up on the first floor but as museum shops go, neither is wonderful. Postcards start at 75c, but be warned - don’t buy first and then go looking for the works in question, as a lot are “temporarily unavailable” as the lovely signs say. Aside from these, there are books and posters and other art stuff, but nothing particularly inspired.

Terrorism-wise (ah, I love writing that) not much seems to have changed – large bags need to be checked when you arrive (and although you can’t take pictures, you have to keep any cameras with you which I found a bit cheeky) but that’s basically it – no searching or x-raying that I could see at any rate.

There is a restaurant but it’s a bit too fancy (the food and the prices and the outfits of the waiters) for my taste. Then again, the type of people who go into art galleries for 3 course meals could probably afford it.

### Can you believe it? ###

They accept cash, travellers cheques and credit cards. This I can cope with. The thing is, they are desperate for you to become a member of the museum (which results in free entry for you, and money for them) – so desperate in fact that they have complicated little brochures available which detail the many, many ways in which you can do this. For example there are retirement plans and bequests and life income plans all set up for you to help them. The best bit, though, has to be the page when they start explaining the tax deduction benefits to you of donating to them – as if they’re doing you a favour by taking your money... another case of OINY I guess.

So there you have it. Some wonderful pieces of art in a wonderfully modern setting (even if the pictures themselves aren’t). Much better (and more affordable) than the Guggenheim, but only gets 4 stars as it’s really not a patch on the Met.
 

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