The Arts in New York City

Repicturing the Past/Picturing the Present at MoMA NYC
(Running from June 13–November 5, 2007)

Just by walking up the first flight of stairs in the recently built and state-of-the-art Museum of Modern Art you get the idea that you’re in for a special treat (may I add that it is an even better treat for CUNY students who get in free). Now, once you reach the first floor you might be quickly attracted by the Richard Serra sculpture exhibit, but on the opposite side of the floor, in what is almost a little niche there is the Repicturing the Past/Picturing the Present exhibit. This exhibit examines how artists from the late 1800’s to today have explored contemporary concerns by challenging, redeeming, or personalizing historical subjects. Many of the works take a narrative approach, referring to events in history, ancient mythology, the Bible, or centuries-old fables. Now this was something that seemed like it could be interesting; art with a meaning behind it everyone can understand, instead of some rusty circular sculptures or blank canvases. This exhibit has the capability to entertain the everyday art admirer as well as the professional art critics with pieces that relate to historical events. The first piece in the exhibit that jumped out to me is one by James Ensor called “The Entrance of Christ into Brussels”(1898). This piece illustrates a similar atmosphere as of when Jesus entered into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Instead, Ensor illustrates masses gathering in Brussels holding banners, political signs, and advertisements. Ensor used this piece to criticize the political and social injustices of the times. As you move along the next piece that catches the attention is Kiki Smith’s “Innocence”(2002). This piece depicts the well-known fable of Little Red Riding Hood and adds the additional element of religion by depicting the child and her grandmother in the world famous pose of the Virgin Mary holding the Son of God. The piece emphasizes the innate innocence and goodness of a child and its supremacy over evil and the slain wolf. Next comes a piece that could be spotted as soon as you enter into the exhibit, but you wanted to save for last because something told you that it was a major piece. The work is by Christian Boltanski and is called “Gymnasium Chases” (1991). The piece is made up of 24 blown up pictures of people hanging in succession with the last frame being a class picture from which the other pictures were taken from. Each frame shows close-ups of members of the graduating class of 1931 from a Jewish high school in Vienna. It seems as if each face indicates each member’s fate in the coming Holocaust. The final room of the exhibit is laden with the theme of slavery, incorporating pieces about the slave trade, the fugitive slave laws and the civil war. The honors of the most entertaining piece in that group belonged to a work by Glenn Ligon entitled “Runaway” (1993). The piece has to do with and teases the fugitive slave laws in the south with parodies of posters that called for the arrest and returns of runaway slaves. To give a comic effect to the whole situation the descriptions gave funny details on each fugitive, poking fun at those who would write such posters.
This exhibit proved to be a very interesting and educational experience. I strongly recommend it to all art admirers who are interested not only to get an art lesson, but a history lesson as well.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 8:52 pm and is filed under Lino Demasi, WRITING ASSIGNMENTS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.