MOMA

We took Metro-North to NYC on Friday ($25 round trip, off peak per person)... to see the Modern Museum of Art. If modern art appeals to you--this museum would be heaven. We especially enjoyed the outdoor sculpture garden (see upper left). Six floors of very open galleries--hardwood floors, bridges that cross from one part of the floor to the next (hint: don't look down). huge glass windows. There was a whole lot of abstract art--with one Andrew Wyeth, a Paul Klee (the expressionist artist who captured nearly all of my adolescent attention to art for a season).

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We also visited the Flax Art store... (see photo of nearby skyscraper). I actually prefer perusing the catalog to the store... but we had a blast! It is veeery near Grand Central Station, so if you ever want to go... look for it on the map before you do.

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I and the Village (Chagall, 1911) at MOMA

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I was quite familiar with Marc Chagall's I and the Village (1911, oil on canvas). My sister had this print in her room when I was a child. Chagall was a gifted Russian Jew, an artist talented in many media--stained glass, sculpture, ceramics, painting. He married Bella and fled Paris with the deportation of the Jews during the Holocaust. He moved to America in 1941--and Bella died in 1944. He would later remarry to Valentina. His painting is remarkable. He lived to 97 and died in France. Note: some of Tori Amos's music was inspired by Chagall!

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"All colors are the friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites."

--Chagall

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Gas Station (Edward Hopper, c. 1940)

Edward Hopper's Gas Station (see above) especially caught my attention with its linear expression, bold colors, intense illumination. Hopper, an American oil painter who painted until 1923 when he became a commercial illustrator, was gifted in portraying the loneliness and despair of America during the Depression. His realism is striking; he painted many scenes of streets, rooms in houses, and landscapes. In every painting, there appears an emptiness of sorts. A sense of alienation.

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I have really enjoyed this class! All the best, Gwen