Visit to the MoMa

Last Friday I visited the MoMa by myself and overall it was a great experience. At first I was uncomfortable going to the museum alone but I was surprised how helpful people who work at the museum are. They informed me about free movies, extended Friday hours and the summer program. The museum was filled with tourist and I found it little annoying because there was not enough space and time to observe any art piece. 

I started my tour from the fifth floor, at which I stayed the longest. The painting that I found interesting and unusual is made by Gino Severini in 1912. “Dynamic Hieroglyphic of the Bal Tabarin” is oil painting on canvas with sequins. The painting is pretty large and I observed it from a longer distance. I liked that Severini used actual sequin.

·         The art work is covered with shapes and elements so there is no negative space.

·         Presence of organic shapes, colors and the little woman in the left corner of the picture makes the art work abstract.

·         I did not have the opportunity to touch the painting but in my opinion the texture is real, smooth and I would be able to feel difference between the actual pain and sequins.

·         All these objects (triangles, real lines, hats, the horse, the scissors, the flags,…) constantly  are overlapping .

·         Severini filled the picture with rhythmic forms and colors so it gives power of sensations of movements.

·         Also by looking at this painting you cannot really tell what is foreground, middle ground or background because the size of all these shapes is similar. Maybe the man with the black hat and glasses is foreground, the woman and the young man are placed in the middle ground and the national flags and the white man riding a camel are representing background.  

·         In my opinion the art work is historical painting because it pictures the night life theme, a specific scene. (The woman with brown curls and  a pink, white, blue dress, next to her we see the young man that  made me think there are a couple.)

As I put my thoughts together and thought deeper into the story of the painting I asked my sister to help me with this assignment. First I asked her to tell me what she sees in the art work and I was surprised that she easily observed some elements for which I needed more time to observe. I told her more about organic shapes, forms, style and other visual elements. Also I further explained that this painting belong to  a 2D from and that  we see presence of cool colors which are associate with shade, sky and water. In addition I explained what is contour line and that in this painting almost all these shapes have a visible contour line. She asked me why would someone decide to paint a naked woman riding a scissors (the top left corner of the painting) but I didn’t have any answer so I laugh. It was really hard for me to connect all these elements from the art work into the story but a little research helped. I told her that “Dynamic Hieroglyphic of the Bal Tabarin” pictures a night life at the Paris nightclub Bal Tabarin.

 I realized that teaching is not easy as I thought because even though you seem ready to talk about the painting someone can always ask you something that you are not able to answer. But I liked how my sister gave me a different way of looking and understanding the story of the art work. We may be looking at the same art work but it is interesting how we may get totally different message from it.