Miles's blog

I spent the past weekend in New York City and had a really good time.  I went to a Broadway show, and a museums and the public library.  One of the most amazing things about New York is the incredible attraction the city contains.

On Saturday we went to the Museum of Modern Art.  I had forgotten how much world-famous and historic art MOMA contains.  First and foremost is the huge, and breathtakingly beautiful, painting of water lilies by Monet.  He painted it on three gigantic canvasses, each about six and a half feet tall by almost 14 feet long.  Merely describing it can give no real sense of how big this painting is.  Even photographs cannot come close to the visceral effect one has upon seeing this work.  It is unclear to me how Monet could have painted such a gorgeous work on this scale.  Truly, the word “masterpiece” is insufficient.  This painting, along with another by Monet—smaller, but sill big—share a single room (along with a painting by another artist whose name escapes me). 

When you walk into the room, the magnitude of what you are seeing makes you stop and stare for a few seconds.  Your mind is just not accustomed to art like this.  Sure, you have just walked through a gallery containing other masterpieces, but the sheer size of Monet’s vision, and the subtle but powerful beauty of his impressionist representation of something as mundane as flowers in a pond, sends your senses into temporary tilt.  When you finally take in all you are seeing, you are compelled to get closer; in part, I think, to assure your mind that what it is seeing really exists.  Of course, standing next to the canvas (it is not behind glass or even a rope) you can’t visualize the entire work, but you can take in the vibrancy of the colors, even 100 years after it was painted.  Like most visitors to this gallery I sat down on the bench in the middle of the room, just to let Monet’s genius wash over me.  Seriously, a trip to New York is worth it just to see works of art like this.

Of course, Monet is not the only great artist displayed at MOMA.  Picasso, whose works are everywhere it seems, is well-represented.  What is possibly Van Gogh’s most famous painting, “Starry Night,” has a prominent spot, and is surrounded by picture-taking tourists.  Still, seeing the work right there (this one is behind perhaps the cleanest piece of glass in the world, so that when you stand in front of the painting you cannot see the glass) makes you stare.  I love impressionism, and post-impressionism, so I spent a lot of time in that gallery.  Seurat, Chagall, Calder, Pollock, Braque, all the greats have at least one piece on display.  The sheer quantity of the art is imposing.

MOMA, of course, displays lots of other art, including some contemporary pieces.  While many current artists display incredible skill and creativity, other artwork I think is just a scam.  I will, maybe, grant you that a customized bag of kitty litter is art, but I fail to see how taking a canvas, putting on a coat of whitewash and then sticking it in a frame constitutes art, no matter what “statement” the artist is trying to make.  Or how about the guy who wakes up every day, paints the date, and then sells those canvasses.  I bet he is laughing hysterically at the “experts” who put one of these date paintings in a world-class museum.

But the one that took the cake for me was something that is so vacuous and lacking in any technical skill or creativity that I am convinced the museum was trying to put one over on us to see who is stupid enough to call this art.  They had on display a 100 gallon fish tank about two-thirds filled with water.  Floating in the water were three basketballs, two Dr. J brands and one Wilson.  Thatwas it.  No description, picture, nothing.  No drawings on the balls nor fish swimming in the tank.  No castle on the bottom of the tank, nor a deep sea diver.  Nothing.  Basketballs and water.  Seriously!  Monet painted his masterpiece 100 years ago. Do you think people 100 years from now will write home that they saw three basketballs floating in a tank of water (which I assume has to be replenished every day)?  

We also went to the main building of the New York Public Library.  The building itself is historic.  Built 100 years ago it contains detail which is unheard-of today.  Painted and carved ceilings and massive marble staircases.  The entry is a massive marble rotunda.  The main reading room on the third floor is perhaps my favorite place in New York. 

The library is celebrating the building’s 100-year anniversary with a display of some of its most historic artifacts.  This display is free.  You just walk into the gallery on the first floor.  There is no security screening (as indeed there is not for any museum).  The first case contains a copy of perhaps the most important book in history—a Gutenberg bible.  

Throughout the exhibit are unbelievable items to be in possession of the library:  Jack Kerouac’s journal of his experiences which he drew on extensively to write “On the Road,”  also his eyeglasses and harmonica; Beatles trading cards from the early 60s, signed by the band members and containing the only picture I have ever seen of the four of them with crewcuts; typewriter e.e. cummings’s typewriter; illustrations from the “Wizard of Oz;” and a full Ku Klux Klan robe.  

The library is displaying a handwritten score by Beethoven.  You can see his composition in his handwriting. Wow.  A few feet away rests George Washington’s final draft of his farewell address.  This is the actual paper he held in his hand while he read this famous speech.  

Were this a traveling display, cities across America would by vying for a chance to show this exhibition.  They would charge $25 or more, and people would willingly pay it and not feel ripped off.  Yet there it is on the first floor of the library.  

Susan and I were talking about the value of everything we saw.   We realize that is no way to evaluate art, history, or culture.  But when you stop and think about how incredibly valuable these items were it is mind-blowing.  A Gutenberg bible is worth about $25 million, I read on the internet.   In 2006 a Jackson Pollock painting sold for $140 million.  In 1990 a Van Gogh went for $82.5 million.  What is “Starry Night” worth?  Can a value be put on “Water Lillies?”  $200 million?  More?  We figured between the artwork and the library exhibit, what we saw had to be worth $1 billion.  Can you imagine?  

I don’t think the three basketballs in the fish tank accounted for a large percentage of that total.