Greetings!
Today is Friday! And Fridays, MoMa is free! (from 4pm to 8pm)
So, we didn’t start right off the bat by going to the MoMa, okay, first, we went near Williamsburg in Brooklyn to visit the Jewish neighborhood (because Friday, just before Shabbat starts when the sun sets, most of the Hassidim are outside wearing their traditional garments)…
Well, we got some strange looks! No, really, some kids grabbed their little brothers and sisters and hid when they saw us! It was super weird… Especially as we weren’t really wearing anything provocative like super short shorts or mini-skirt-and-deep-cleavage, promise, we were in jeans and sweat-shirts, but we got some looks, especially from children, it seemed like they’d never seen two 25 years old girls…
Anyway, it was a disconcerting walk, and I didn’t feel particularly welcome in the neighborhood… People (both men and women) didn’t seem at all approachable and I thought it was a pity because I would have loved to learn more about how they practice their religion and about their traditions.
As a result, we went to Manhattan and bought something to eat before deciding to sit down in Central Park! (close to the South entry) So yes, we WILL go for a whole day in Central Park, it’s scheduled, we are just waiting for the leaves to show their Fall colors, that’s all… But still, we were psyched to see a (very small) piece of it today! There were carriages pulled by horses everywhere, and squirrels, and people taking selfies.
Then we went to the MoMa (Museum of Modern Art), where there was a looooooot of people (evidently, it was free!) and where we saw beautiful marvelous things!
We started by the contemporary gallery, where some of the work left me a bit skeptical (like the one where the room was covered in black frames each containing a page from a phone book, and in the center of the room, a garland of light bulbs hung from the ceiling… Personally I didn’t get it…), and some work are quite strong, and often a bit harsh…
(here I give you a short video of one of the artwork that I liked)
There also was some paintings by Andy Warhol!
Then, we went to the 5th floor: the floor of paintings and sculptures, and there, we really enjoyed ourselves. There were works from Gauguin, Picasso, Chagall, Cézanne, Magritte, Matisse, Miró, Klimt, Jackson Pollock, Paul Klee, Van Gogh, Marcel Duchamp, Monet, Frida Kahlo, Calder, or even Henri Rousseau to name only the most famous (and I probably forgot some of them)…
So, I didn’t do like those who took pictures of EVERY SINGLE PAINTING (I can’t even describe how difficult it was to just REACH « The Starry Night » by Van Gogh!), but I still took a couple to show you a bit of the exhibition… (the rest is in my head)
I also like this a lot, from an artist I didn’t know at all whose name is Umberto Boccioni. The painting is called « The City Rises ».
So we wandered about in the MoMa until we couldn’t take it anymore (ouch my back, ouch my feet) and it was wonderful. Mom, I would have loved for you to see this, you would have adored it (hey, we’ll come back together, just try and win the lottery would you…)!
There it is for today, a great day once again in the city of the Yankees!
See you soon, little baboons!
Gabrielle
PS. We still can’t believe it’s been a week already…
NYC Nostalgie 