Recently, me and a few of my idc colleagues went on a visit to see the Tim Burton exhibit at the MoMA during our extensive Tuesday break. After journeying to the MoMA, we arrive to see a nice sign outside the museum saying that it was closed. We were very disappointed, but we were there to go to a museum and we were going to get it. We ended up at the American Folk Art museum, not very far away and luckily got inside for free although they were giving us a hard time with our cultural passports. 

The museum was about the least exciting museum I've ever been to. The painting and drawings were ordinary, somewhat plain and bland. It looked like it all belonged on an Amish farm deep in Pennsylvania. I was not very pleased with what I saw and it didn't strike the least bit of intrigue in me. One painting I saw that was sort of okay was called Watergate. It portrayed New York during the Watergate scandal. It included many famous landmarks and streets in New York, with written messages al over it. It was very colorful and vivid, but not so visually appealing. The painting looked like it could be a mural. Another piece of art I did enjoy was the empire state building, created out of small cherry colored wooden sticks. I thought it said a lot about modernity vs tradition, taking a skyscraper that revolutionized construction in the city of New York and everywhere else in the United States and making it seem more traditional, more primeval and archaic. I thought it was a very interesting juxtaposition made by this sculpture and it was indeed effective. Another worthy piece of art consisted of three saws and on each, there was a painting of the same piece of land, evolved through time. In each successive painting, there was obvious signs of progress and modernism. The saws also differed and I made an observation that each of the saws belonged to the time when the paintings were drawn. The saws were not only part of the painting and held the painting, but they represented the construction occurring within each of the paintings. The saws were part of the presentation, but yet they existed inside the painting and as a separate entity outside of it as well. 

I was not that pleased with the museum and would have much rather went to the Tim Burton exhibit. Nonetheless, it was somewhat enlightening.