Sunday, December 9, 2001

Philistines 'R Us

I finally went to the Museum of Modern Art today. Maybe I'm ignorant, though I like to think I'm a fairly well-educated person. I just didn't get it.

I think I may be spoiled by the Met. The Met is fairly cheap ($5 for students), extremely large, and consequently, guaranteed to have something for everyone. It is also the museum that I visit the most.

The MOMA, by contrast, is $8.50 for students (that's a lot of Ramen Noodles, friends), three floors high (one of which is entirely dedicated to a single exhibit), and can be torn through in well under an hour. The most famous painting in the collection, Van Gogh's The Starry Night is on loan. Plus, I'm afraid modern art just doesn't thrill me.

I'm sure I'm missing something. Modern art comprises so very many movements and genres that it seems unfair to toss off the lot of it. But golly gee, if I'm already paying so much to get in, I'm not about to shell out another $4 for the headset that will explain it all to me. I'm all for letting the viewer draw their own conclusions, but if you're gonna present me with a plain white canvas as a finished work, may I please have a dinky little write-up of some kind by the artist's name telling me why? Just a clue? No? Okay. I'm obviously a flaming philistine.

If anyone feels like they could take me to the MOMA and help me try to see what I'm missing, I'm completely game. Let's just please go on Pay-What-You-Wish Night.

Ignorantly Yours,

Robyn