New York City is home to the infamous Vincent Van Gogh painting Starry Night, which sits within the walls of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). This infamous museum was founded on November 7th in 1929 on 11 West 53rd Street, Manhattan, New York. This art museum is something that myself and three of my fellow Captains Log editors attended whilst we spent four days in the heart of New York City thanks to the college Media Convention. Our Trip will be covered in both our snapshot section (page 7) as well as our Lifestyle section (on pages 10 – 11.) The beauty of the MoMA was not lost on any of us as we entered the incredible building. However, that was only the beginning of the art we would soon witness. We decided to begin on the top floor of the museum, anticipation in our hearts as our eyes sought out the magic the artists before us had created.
The beauty of museums such as the MoMA is that they have rotating galleries, allowing an array of paintings to find their homes here.
The MoMA connects people from all over the world with a multitude of different backgrounds, histories, cultures and lineages. Its collection stems from early 19th century art pieces to modern day pieces. The most notable of these pieces being the multiple works by Vincent Van Gogh, including ‘starry night’ an oil canvas painting Gogh painted in 1889 as well as Claude Monet’s ‘Water Lillies’ painted in the 1890s. Within the MoMA’s nearly 20,000 pieces of art, there are an array of other memorable pieces from painters such as pieces from Salvador Dalí. There were several pieces that I found particularly impactful, for a multitude of reasons, such as ‘The Retrospective Bust of a Woman’ , a sculpture created in 1933 by Dalí.
My personal favorite piece we came across was on the top floor of the MoMA, by Paul Signac, titled ‘Opus 217. Against the Enamel of a Background Rhythmic with Beats and Angles, Tones, and Tints, Portrait of M. Félix Fénéon in 1890.’ An oil painting crafted in the neo-impressionist movement depicting the french critic Félix Fénéon. What I particularly enjoyed about this piece as well as many others is the use of color to depict emotions and portray with colors and oil paints where words fall short. I found my heart reaching out to the exposition of how the world feels and looks through the eyes of Paul Signac, someone who existed hundreds of years before myself, yet I feel so connected to the work he blessed us with in his wake. I found myself relating and feeling connected to pieces that were made hundreds of years ago, as did my fellow editors. Even as our energy dwindled, our feet grew sore and the people began to congregate around the pieces, we remained amazed by the works that decorated the walls.
Our favorites ranged from Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘starry night’ which gained a great deal of enthusiasm from the four of us as we gazed at it starry eyed to Claud Monet’s ‘water lilies’ as well as an array of more obscure pieces. Some pieces unsettled my companions while they seemed to speak to me, drawing on unsettling emotions to evoke feelings as impactful as the art at hand.
Our Editor in Chief’s, Breanna Dorrian, stated her favorite is Van Gogh’s ‘Olive Tree’s’ , a series of paintings that the famous artist created in 1889. It is the June – July collection that is up for viewing at the MoMA, whilst the September/June renditions appear at Nelson Atkins Custom Prints.
Something I particularly enjoyed from my time within the MoMA is that the architecture is not only stunning but I greatly enjoyed the amount of seating options available for differently abled individuals who may need to sit more frequently. This makes the MoMA a great experience for older individuals and youngsters of all different abilities and accessibility needs. The staff was welcoming and kind, ready to answer any questions we had and made sure that the environment was safe, creative, and an experience one would never forget. The art did not end at the pieces that lined the exhibits, the creativity spread into the decorations of the building and even leaking into the gift shop where the four of us completed our trip to the MoMA, with weeping credit cards.
Art has always been something that draws to myself and many people around the world. In every way art exists it brings us as people together. Through museums and the way that they preserve the parts of peoples souls who have been created and left to touch people’s hearts where hands and words couldn’t. As people who enjoy art, literature, cultural interactions, and knowing people as a whole, the four of us found the Museum of Modern art a beautiful collection of fragmented souls, shared with the world.
