Carolime Time

A visit to the MOMA: American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life

I visited the MOMA (Metropolitan Museum of Art) today and wandered around this massive building for almost three hours. We started with Egyptian art and mummies, moving on to the Byzantium period and then European art. We were not so into these exhibits, not till we reached, maybe,  the European Renaissance section.

Our goal, however, was the “American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life exhibit.” Don’t ask me why I was so magnetically focused on finding this exhibit, but I think it had something to do with having watched the Gangs of New York a couple of days back,  and perhaps because I am desperately seeking a way in to New York. I have also just generally developed a curiosity for the States because the country has, to me, become a bit of the underdog of late, and you know how I am about underdogs. Forget saving Africa and India– the US is close enough that I can do my good deeds here!

Anyway, I also realize that the US has had a profound effect on our Canadian economy and politics, not to mention our pop culture in general– any preconceived notions of lifestyles and relationships built from television and movies have been drawn from favoured films and books like The Godfather, Citizen Kane, the Outsiders, Grease, Breakfast Club and many, many other memorable movies. So, why not check out some American history, since we weren’t taught it in our Canadian classrooms?

Upon arriving at the American Stories exhibit, I was first delighted to see very detailed captions accompanying each painting– all putting each piece into context. It did not go into such detail that I was learning about the most minute curve and arch of the painter’s brush, but rather simple text defining the times and inspirations of the artist.

At times, I wondered if the writer was putting too many words in the artist’s mouth, so to say, in that they freely assign the artist reasons for their creative choices–i.e. if, in a painting, there was a mirror in the background behind a woman, and a glass in the hand of the father, it was suggested that the photo showed the family had problems with alcohol and vanity.

Then again, I am not an art critic nor a curator by any means– these are simply my gatherings from the exhibit, and the questions I derived from it. I would love to know how the art historian/writer concludes such things when preparing these captions. If there are
any art historians out there who can answer this, please comment!

I was drawn to several paintings from the American Stories exhibit, and I’ve included a few of them in this entry.

“Sunday, Women Drying Hair” by John Sloan: The easy, lighthearted camaraderie and freedom of young girls, I envy. I found the above painting to the right, The Ironworkers’ Noontime, really graceful and strong, almost like the stage setting of a musical or movie, a la The Newsies. The rough edges of the working class, the onset of industrialism, etc.

This one is called The Card Trick, by John George Brown. I enjoy it for exactly the reasons the MOMA caption has put forth: “sentimental depictions of industrious immigrants, especially street urchins who project optimism and good cheer despite the hardships of city life” ..children enjoying the simple things. Of course, they also lived a far more difficult life than me, probably far less fatted. But I do wish I could bring up my children with some ounce of this challenge–I think I see more opportunity for one to be ’self-made’ in these days than I do see in our current times, and it is that which I envy about the past.

It is this one, however, that particularly caught my eye with its dusty luster. There’s something shadowy and aged about this darker image, Cremorne Gardens, No.2, by James McNeill Whistler. It might have been the caption which finally got me, stating: “Whistler’s principal goal, however, was to imply with his brilliantly colored, ghostlike forms the ephemeral charm of an evening’s gathering in the veiled atmosphere of an indistinct setting rather than a legible narrative.”

All images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art website,  “American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life”