MoMA | Category: Collection & Exhibitions

Posts in ‘Collection & Exhibitions’

November 10, 2010 | Collection & Exhibitions, Counter Space

What Shall I Cook? The Dessert Competition

Posted by Juliet Kinchin, Curator, Department of Architecture and Design Aidan O’Connor, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design

Contestants competing in the Pillsbury Bake Off baking contest in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York. 1949. Source: Google/LIFE Photo Archive. Photograph by Lisa Larsen

At our recent Kitchen Culture event, a public program in conjunction with the Counter Space exhibition, over 100 people enjoyed an amazing dinner prepared by Executive Chef Lynn Bound of the Art Food cafés and the Cafe 2 team. (Video of the dinner and accompanying entertainment, plus an interview with Chef Lynn, to come in future posts!) The delicious meal was inspired by a recipe book, shown here, with significant ties to the centerpiece of our exhibition, the Frankfurt Kitchen.

November 9, 2010 | Artists, Collection & Exhibitions, Viewpoints

Life in a Bubble

Posted by Paula Hayes, artist

Glass egg in situ

Working with glassblowers is an interesting process for me because there are technical drawings that communicate the eventual use of the vessel (what size, where is the opening, what are the relationships of the opening to volume in general, aesthetic ideals, etc.), and then there is, for me, a gestural kind of communication—a type of mime: I draw the shape with my entire body through gesture while standing with the glassblower.

November 8, 2010 | Artists, Collection & Exhibitions, Videos

Jackson Pollock Asks: “Is This a Painting?”

Posted by Beth Harris, Director of Digital Learning, Education

Jackson Pollock. One: Number 31, 1950. 1950. Oil and enamel paint on canvas, 8' 10" x 17' 5 5/8" (269.5 x 530.8 cm). The Museum of Modern Art. Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection Fund (by exchange). © 2010 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Pollock at MoMA, uploaded to Flickr on Feburary 11, 2009: http://www.flickr.com/photos/plathfan/3271119503/

In one of the videos we produced for the current Abstract Expressionist New York exhibition, Ann Temkin, Chief Curator of MoMA’s Department of Painting and Sculpture and the organizer of the exhibition, tells this story about Jackson Pollock:

November 4, 2010 | Artists, Collection & Exhibitions

At Home with Zarina

Posted by Alexander Fang, The Louise Bourgeois Twelve-Month Intern, Department of Prints and Illustrated Books

Zarina. Home Is a Foreign Place. 1999. Portfolio of 36 woodcuts and letterpress, mounted on paper. Publisher: the artist, New York. Printer: the artist, New York. Edition: 25. The Museum of Modern Art.

My exposure to architecture can be partially summarized in this way: 1) As a child, my dad, who was once an architect, guided me through drafts of his blueprints; 2) In school, I took a few art history classes that focused on architecture, from the cathedrals of the medieval period to the designs by Frank Lloyd Wright, all of which included copious slides of floor plans; and 3) I live in New York City, where trying to avoid charming Manhattan brownstones, landmark monuments, and skyscrapers-in-development is just downright impossible. But I never considered how any of these experiences relate to my perception of my everyday surroundings until this past summer, when I was reminded of Zarina’s Home Is a Foreign Place (1999) while exploring MoMA’s recent exhibition Mind and Matter: Alternative Abstractions, 1940s to Now.

November 3, 2010 | Collection & Exhibitions, Counter Space

In the Bag

Posted by Aidan O’Connor, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design

The research subject: a brown paper bag. Simple, right? Nope.

After Counter Space opened, an AP reporter brought it to our attention that a reader was disputing the attribution of a brown paper bag on display in the exhibition.

November 2, 2010 | Artists, Collection & Exhibitions, Viewpoints

Getting to Z (Another Kind of A): “Egg” Acrylic-Casting Process

Posted by Paula Hayes, artist

Egg Pedestal 3-D Screen

Getting my initial epiphany of forms for Nocturne of the Limax maximus, which will be installed in MoMA’s lobby on November 17, into its physical manifestation was a multilayered process, with each step leading to the next—and in strange ways going backward at times to maximize the potential of the previous step’s efficiency and interconnectedness with the subsequent steps of production.

October 28, 2010 | Artists, Collection & Exhibitions

The Ordinary and the Monumental: Recent Photography Acquisitions at MoMA

Posted by Tasha Lutek, Senior Cataloguer, Department of Photography

Carleton Watkins. Late George Cling Peaches. 1887–88

I’ve recently had the good fortune to assume the role of cataloguer in MoMA’s Department of Photography. The greatest perk of my position is simply that I get to work with the photographs in the Museum’s collection on a daily basis. One of my first tasks in the department was to catalog a number of important works that recently entered the collection—some by purchase, some by gift. Among my favorites were three photographs by Carleton Watkins, including this awe-inspiring albumen silver print of a crate of peaches; works by Judith Joy Ross and Inge Morath; and a collection of snapshots that came in as the generous gift of New York collector Peter J. Cohen.

October 27, 2010 | Artists, Collection & Exhibitions, Viewpoints

In the Bathysphere

Posted by Paula Hayes, artist

Paula Hayes. Slug and Egg (digital rendering of the installation Nocturne of the Limax maximus). 2010. Installation: cast acrylic, hand-blown glass, cnc-milled topographical wall and ceiling attachment, full-spectrum lighting, and tropical planting. Commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Courtesy of the Artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery. © Paula Hayes

A little over a year and a half ago, Ann Temkin, MoMA’s Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture, asked me to consider an “intervention” in MoMA’s Fifty-third Street lobby. Of course I was very excited, knowing that no work of ambitious scale had been installed in this very populated, chaotically inhabited area of the Museum, with only a few indications of the etiquette of how to be in the space—information here, tickets there, some moving image screen projects that can be indicative of information regarding the interior exhibitions. Doors revolving, air and environmental aspects of the outdoors spilling in with the visitors. Perfect!

October 26, 2010 | Collection & Exhibitions

Autonomy as Engagement

Posted by Hashim Sarkis, Principal, Hashim Sarkis ALUD

Hashim Sarkis ALUD. Housing for the Fishermen of Tyre. Tyre, Lebanon. 1998–2008. Image by Joumana Jamhouri

MoMA’s exhibition Small Scale, Big Change exposes the fallacy of opposing architecture’s autonomy to its social engagement.

Over the past twelve years, our office has been working with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in rural Lebanon, designing projects related to social and economic development. After the 1975-1990 wars, many relief-based NGOs have shifted their attention to development.

October 20, 2010 | Collection & Exhibitions, Counter Space

Mystery Solved: Counter Space Film Stills Identified!

Posted by Juliet Kinchin, Curator, Department of Architecture and Design Aidan O’Connor, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design

Many thanks to the Counter Space fans who contributed over the past few weeks to our Mystery Film Still Contest. We were thrilled by the speed and enthusiasm of your responses! Now we are happy to announce—and sincerely congratulate—the winner, Richard Finegan of Framingham, MA, who identified ALL of the film stills.

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