One of the favorite artworks observed at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is Vincent van Gogh’s, The Starry Night painting. The painting portrays nature in a unique manner. It is an oil on canvas painting that projects a star-filled night sky with a moon. Van Gogh’s artistic inclinations depict the objects in the painting are swirling or in turbulent waves. Moreover, the artist chose to use concentric circles and lines painted with yellow and white colors as well as green colors scattered throughout to illuminate the night sky (MoMA). Also, the painting’s key feature is the presence of the impasto texture, which is created using a loaded brush. The village and the Bell Tower appear to be in harmony with the night sky as they are painted using the same tone as the sky. The Cypress tree is also a significant element in the painting as van Gogh projects it as a rising flame from the ground to the night sky. Such elements in the painting create an emotional and mental awakening in the audience.
While MoMA features many artists from the past and modern times, a few of them stand out. Berenice Abbott is one of my favorite artists, as she is renowned for her extensive work on built landscape photography. In particular, she popularized architecture and urban design photography with her popular New York City photographs of the 1930s. Besides Berenice Abbott, Vito Acconci also stands out as a great artist. Acconci was popular with landscape architectural photography (MoMA). However, unlike many other featured artists on MoMA, Acconci was an all-around creator as he had other interests in poetry, and video and dance performance. Given their similarity in architectural photography, Acconci and Abbott are my favorite featured artists on MoMA.
Fredric Bruly Bouabre is another favorite artist found on the website. Bouabre focused on transmitting knowledge about what is known in the universe in his paintings. He majorly codified this knowledge from different sources, usually spiritual belief systems, folklore, popular culture and philosophy (MoMA). His works were simple, consisting of colored pencils, ballpoint pens and pencils as well rectangular cardboard. Majorly, he focused on drawing everyday items and scenes he labeled as the Alphabet Bete. He created his unique way of painting, providing a new perspective on the idea of art. His works projected that paintings do not have to be done on canvas using paintbrushes. Rather than that, he chose to use simple instruments to become an artist.
Visiting MoMA also expanded my horizons and perspective on how art is viewed. In most cases, art can be taken at face value where a person is only interested in the authenticity of the art and its aesthetic elements. However, MoMA was an eye-opener to other horizons as I was able to place myself in the shoes of the artists and imagine what they intended to portray to the audience. For instance, MoMA features Claude Monet’s works and demonstrates how she was intent on not only giving the audience aesthetic paintwork but also effectively capturing the impressions in a given scene. As a result, one is able to see and observe the paintwork superficially and explore it through the eyes of the artists and what they felt at the time of its making. Therefore, by studying artwork more keenly, a unique story behind its development is revealed.
While visiting the website, the most unexpected thing was that there were audio and video attached to different paintworks. For instance, on the website, one could always go on a tour and search for any artists they would prefer to look up their words. As long as that artist is featured by MoMA, their works will be attached and a brief description of the artists and their style is described to enable those who visit the website to have a clear picture of what kind of work the artists did. While that is expected, the website has gone the extra mile of attaching audio videos from the internet about the artists and their work. Such videos and audios are not limited to the artist themselves, but to other people giving their opinion on them. Such an unexpected feature was pleasantly surprising as one could learn as much from a website visit as one could learn from a physical museum tour.
The exploration of the MoMA website allows one to experience a great deal of insight concerning art. The website provides information on various forms of art, such as architectural art and photography. It illuminates on both modern and historical artists’ works enabling one to have all the research data they need on the website. Learning that a comic book such as Ellen Lindner’s Teen Art Adventures is also part of art was an eye-opener. In essence, the MoMa allows one to see art not just from one angle – that of canvas paintings and sculptures alone – but perceive it with an open mind.
Works Cited
MoMA. “The Museum of Modern Art.” 2021, Web.