EXHIBITIONS

Early Viewing Hours - Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925

Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925

Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925

Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925

Kelly Nipper with Japanther: Tessa Pattern Takes a Picture

In this new commission, Kelly Nipper delves into thematics such as focus, contrast, exposure, gradient, and ritual, tracing the ways in which these notions run through—and shape—both the medium of photography and 20th-century choreography and movement theory. The piece is partially inspired by Nipper’s research into various subjects, including the choreography of Mary Wigman, Laban Movement Analysis, and the processes and formal qualities of photography and the camera. In parallel to the working methods of certain turn-of-the-century avant-gardes, the development of this work has been pointedly and profoundly collaborative; each choice is made in response or counter-tension to the existing dynamics of the performance, with each collaborator working into, through, and against the others.

Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925

Fabian Barba: A Mary Wigman Dance Evening

For A Mary Wigman Dance Evening—a program of nine solo dances—Fabian Barba takes as his starting point choreographer Mary Wigman’s celebrated first tour through the United States (1930–31), during which she performed nine dances. Of these, only three were preserved on film, and so, to “reconstruct” the remaining six, Barba has resorted to photographs, hearsay, written records, the historical imaginary, and subjective interpretation. Ultimately, the work proves less focused on recuperating any kind of authentic original, and more engaged in testing the possibility of transporting some of the atmospheric, gestural, and affective qualities of Wigman’s dances—all while acknowledging both the supplement and the loss incurred by translation, and taking pleasure in the fundamental differences between bodies.

Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925

Kenneth Goldsmith reads Blaise Cendrars' "The Prose of the Trans-Siberian"

Kenneth Goldsmith reads poet Blaise Cendrars's "The Prose of the Trans-Siberian and of Little Joan of France" in the Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925 exhibition galleries, in front of the influential book illustrated by Sonia Delaunay. The display includes Delaunay's original painting for this book, Delaunay and Cendrars's working maquette, and a unique printed copy from the collection of Guillaume Apollinaire.

Abstraction, Architecture, and the City

Kenneth Goldsmith Reads Luigi Russolo's Futurist Manifesto "The Art of Noise" (1913)

Kenneth Goldsmith reads Luigi Russolo's Futurist manifesto "The Art of Noise" (1913) in Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925

Consonant Abstraction: Claude Debussy and Steve Reich

In conjunction with the MoMA exhibition Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925, Bang on a Can presents a pair of concerts that reveal how pioneering European composers of 100 years ago forever changed the music in New York. Each concert pairs two composers—an early-20th-century innovator, and a New Yorker they influenced. The music is performed by alumni and faculty of the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA, a program dedicated entirely to the creation, study, and performance of the most adventurous music of our time. This evening, the first in the series, features works by Claude Debussy and Steve Reich. It is a rare performance of the chamber ensemble arrangement of Debussy's landmark orchestra piece Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, which was made by one of Schoenberg's students for his private performing society in Vienna; plus two Reich classics, Electric Counterpoint and Different Trains. Following the concert, Steve Reich joins David Lang for a conversation.

Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925

Dissonant Abstraction: Arnold Schoenberg and Morton Feldman

In conjunction with the MoMA exhibition Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925, Bang on a Can presents a pair of concerts that reveal how pioneering European composers of 100 years ago forever changed the music in New York. Each concert pairs two composers—an early-20th-century innovator, and a New Yorker they influenced. The music is performed by alumni and faculty of the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA, a program dedicated entirely to the creation, study, and performance of the most adventurous music of our time. This second evening in the series features one of Arnold Schoenberg's shortest, oddest, most intense pieces, Herzgewächse, a shockingly expressive vocal miniature originally written for Vasily Kandinsky's journal The Blue Rider. Morton Feldman's meditative work Three Voices, for solo voice and two prerecorded solo voices, a luxurious, introspective setting of a poem by Frank O'Hara, has a much slower tempo than the Schoenberg piece, but is ultimately no less intense.

Inventing Abstraction: 1910–1925

A Guerilla Reading by CA Conrad

CA Conrad reads (Soma)tic poetry in front of a Giacomo Balla painting in Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925.

Uncontested Spaces: Guerilla Readings in the MoMA Galleries
As part of Kenneth Goldsmith's "Poet Laureate" program, he invites renowned writers to choose works in MoMA's collection, develop a response, and then select a space in the Museum galleries where they will perform the resulting readings and texts on Wednesdays. On selected Fridays, Goldsmith himself will contribute readings in the galleries. Visitors can meet the writers directly in their selected gallery.

A Guerilla Reading by Heidi Julavits

Uncontested Spaces: Guerilla Readings in the MoMA Galleries
As part of Kenneth Goldsmith's "Poet Laureate" program, he invites renowned writers to choose works in MoMA's collection, develop a response, and then select a space in the Museum galleries where they will perform the resulting readings and texts on Wednesdays. On selected Fridays, Goldsmith himself will contribute readings in the galleries. Visitors can meet the writers directly in their selected gallery.

Julavits tells stories about her own objects—from a typewriter to a nutcracker—in the exhibition Inventing Abstraction: 1910–1925.

The Mind's Eye: Inventing Abstraction

Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925

A Guerilla Reading by Charles Bernstein

Uncontested Spaces: Guerilla Readings in the MoMA Galleries
As part of Kenneth Goldsmith's "Poet Laureate" program, he invites renowned writers to choose works in MoMA's collection, develop a response, and then select a space in the Museum galleries where they will perform the resulting readings and texts on Wednesdays. On selected Fridays, Goldsmith himself will contribute readings in the galleries. Visitors can meet the writers directly in their selected gallery.

Bernstein reads Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Gertrude Stein, Elsa von Freytag Loringhoven, the Russian Futurists, Marsden Hartley, Francis Picabia, Wasily Kandinsky, Kurt Schwitters, Guillaume Apollinaire, F.T. Marinetti, and his own work in the exhibition Inventing Abstraction: 1910–1925.

Abstract Currents: An Interactive Video Event

In conjunction with the exhibitions Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925 and Abstract Generation: Now in Print, the PopRally committee has been collecting hundreds of submissions of one-minute abstract videos created by the public. These video minutes open a broad window into the ways that abstraction endlessly inspires artists, designers, and anyone observing the peripheries of their own daily life. The captured imagery, ranging from the bizarre to the contemplative, is made from small observations in nature, flowing psychedelic mutations, and digitally imagined spaces.

Join us for a special party and see all of the submitted videos displayed on various screens and projections in MoMA’s lobby and on the Marron Atrium walls. Dream-pop queen Tamaryn will DJ the event, providing a hypnotic soundtrack to the collectively built abstract videoscape.

There is still time to make a video and see it at MoMA! The deadline for submissions is Monday, April 1. To submit your video, follow these instructions:

• Sign in to your Vimeo account or create a new account at vimeo.com. You must comply with the Vimeo Terms of Service.
• Go to the event group page at vimeo.com/groups/PopRallyAbstract and join!
• Go to "Upload a Video." For help with uploading, please visit the Vimeo Helpcenter.
• Add your video to the "PopRallyAbstract" group.

Please note that this group is moderated and videos that do not relate to the project or that the Museum otherwise deems inappropriate will not be played at the event and may be removed from the group page. By posting your video in this Vimeo group, you are giving The Museum of Modern Art permission to display the video in the Museum, and to edit it as necessary. Videos longer than one minute in length will not be accepted. At the event, videos will be screened without sound.