Modern Art is different than Regular Art

I adore modern art.  The days Anna and I  have spent at the Musee l’arte Moderne and today at the Pompidou Center were amazing.  But I realized several things:
1. It is work to understand modern art. See example below.

If I was going to name this I'd call it "Motorcycle Skeleton" or "Hey, I lost A Wheel"

I would call this piece “Hey, I lost my Wheel” or “Motorcycle Skeleton.”

2. Maybe I’m a little slow. When I saw a piece that was an entire wall of telephones, cell phones, chargers, cords, computer cords,  I had to ask myself “what does it mean?” Anna shouted out “ too much technology”.  I thought it was a message that electrical items need recycling. When I read the exhibit notes it was about how technology is taking over our world.

3. Modern art is noisy. At the exhibit today we heard a saw, a bathtub being filled, a static-y radio, a tantric choir. At other museums, I’ve heard tour groups talking and the random lone ring of a cell phone but they aren’t part of an exhibit.

4.  Modern Art can use anything it wants in a work of art: video, twigs, pots and pans, wooden feet. See example below.

Example of wooden feet

In a special exhibition called “Paris, Delhi, Bombay”, one installation called Ali Babba took up a whole room.  It looked like a stall you might find at a marketplace piled floor to ceiling with stainless steel pots of every size and shape.  It was a cook’s dream.  I watched a woman pick up a pot and turn it over. “Excusez moi?” a guard said kindly. (I was surprised she didn’t say it with more indignation like “Excusez moi!) The woman asked how much the pot was. The guard responded that it wasn’t for sale.  I read the note card about the exhibit and it said it was modeled after the abundance of a bazaar, where so many come with their money to shop–so much excess–while millions in the world are hungry.  I thought the artist would have been amused by the woman offering to buy a pot. But I have to admit, I wanted to buy a pot too.

When we walked back to our hotel from the Pompidou we saw a yellow balloon in the river Seine. It wasn’t moving  like one would expect to see a balloon on the river float, more like a balloon that had an anchor on it.  “Hmm that’s unusal,” we said as we watched it.  Modern Art installation we agreed as we walked home.

1 comment to Modern Art is different than Regular Art