Kathleen Hanna, Billy Karren, Tobi Vail, Kathi Wilcox. Bikini Kill: A Color and Activity Book, no. 1. 1991. Photocopy; cover by Hanna.
During the world premiere of Who Took the Bomp? Le Tigre on Tour, which we screened in April in conjunction with Looking at Music: 3.0, we got a great response to the riot grrrl fan zines in the exhibition.
Tina Barney. Mr. and Mrs. Castelli, W Magazine. 1998. Chromogenic color print, printed 2010. The Museum of Modern Art. Acquired through the generosity of Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder. © 2011 Tina Barney
We reinstall the permanent collection in the first five rooms of The Edward Steichen Photography galleries at least once a year, in order to continuously have on view a selection of outstanding works from the Museum’s collection. Each new display is organized differently, but all of them aim to suggest the vitality and richness of photography’s creative traditions.
Installation view of 26.05.2009, 8:43. 2009. Chandelier from the former ballroom of the Hotel Majestic, Paris, dimensions variable. The Museum of Modern Art. Gift of The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art and the Fund for the Twenty-First Century. © 2011 Danh Vo
Upon entering the first room of The Paul J. Sachs Drawings Galleries, where the exhibition I Am Still Alive: Politics and Everyday Life in Contemporary Drawing is currently on view, visitors will encounter a crystal chandelier methodically disassembled and laid out in pieces directly on the floor.
Laura Levine. Afrika Bambaataa, NYC. 1983. Gelatin silver print. Image courtesy of the artist
With so much talk of royalty in the air, it’s fitting that this week we salute another monarch: Afrika Bambaataa, the king of electro funk and godfather of hip-hop. In Looking at Music: 3.0 we feature “Planet Rock,” the influential 80’s disco hit he made with the Soulsonic Force. Although Kool DJ Herc is credited with creating hip-hop’s signature sound, specifically the “break,” or extended instrumental beat, it was Afrika Bambaataa who pushed hip-hop into new territory as both a musical style and a cultural movement.
The Looking at Music 3.0 exhibition includes Lee Quinones’s 1991 Century of the Wind screenprint from the YOUR HOUSE IS MINE portfolio, which decries New York City’s skyrocketing real estate prices. Considered one of the most influential artists to emerge from the city’s 1970s subway art movement, Quinones continues to produce work ripe with provocative sociopolitical content and intricate composition.
The Off the Shelf series explores unique MoMA publications from the Museum Archives.
Right: Cover of A Partridge in a Pear Tree, illustrated by Ben Shahn. Second ed. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1951. Left: Frontispiece from 12 Fables of Aesop, illustrated by Antonio Frasconi; narrated by Glenway Wescott. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1954.
April is National Poetry Month! To celebrate the final days we thought we’d look at MoMA poetry books. MoMA has published a number of books of poetry, from the lyrically illustrated and hand-lettered A Partridge in a Pear Tree (1951), by Ben Shahn, to 12 Fables of Aesop (1954), illustrated by Antonio Frasconi and narrated by Glenway Wescott. One of my favorites is Three Young Rats and Other Rhymes, the delightfully illustrated book of 83 nursery rhymes selected by former MoMA curator James Johnson Sweeney and illustrated by Alexander Calder.
We caught up with Cey Adams, founding creative director of Def Jam Recordings, in MoMA’s Looking at Music 3.0 exhibition gallery, and he talked to us about his work, the emergence of hip-hop, and his unwavering allegiance to the possibilities of culture.
Virgilio Forchiassin. Spazio Vivo (Living Space) Mobile Kitchen Unit. 1968
Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen addresses the role of the kitchen in 20th-century life. But what does modern design mean if you don’t have a kitchen? If you live, say, alone in a wagon in the Nevada desert? Or you reside in your taxicab, and you want Brazilian food that reminds you of home?
Reading the “I went to MoMA and…” notecards, we’ve started to notice the guitars… a lot of guitars. People draw guitars of all shapes and sizes; realistic guitars, Cubist guitars, abstract guitars; guitars by kids, guitars by grownups, guitars by people from many different countries. The inspiration, of course, for this outpouring of guitar drawings is our current exhibition Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914.
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