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.

The Grapes of Wrath. 1940. USA. Directed by John Ford

These notes accompany the screenings of John Ford’s </i>The Grapes of Wrath</a> on April 27, 28, and 29 in Theater 2.</p>

Orson Welles once told Peter Bogdanovich, “John Ford knows what the earth is made of.” Although Welles probably did not intend this to be a cryptic observation, it does lend itself to several interpretations. It could have certain geologic connotations, referring perhaps to the Paleocene epoch, when complex life began to form. It could also refer to the even more complex development that came after—those troublesome bipeds that became us. If all this sounds a bit pompous for a director who spent much of his early career making mostly mindless two-reel westerns, so be it.

Cameron Platter. Life Is Very Interesting. 2007. Digital print. Publisher: the artist, Shaka's Rock, KwaZulu-Natal. Printer: Orms ProPhoto Lab, Cape Town. Edition: 5. The Museum of Modern Art. General Print Fund

It’s not common to hear an artist being described as “the delinquent love child of Quentin Tarantino and Dr. Seuss.” So when I read that about artist Cameron Platter, my interest was immediately piqued—specifically in relation to two recently acquired works by the artist, currently on view in Impressions from South Africa, 1965 to Now in the Prints and Illustrated Books Galleries.

Five for Friday, written by a variety of MoMA staff members, is our attempt to spotlight some of the compelling, charming, and downright curious works in the Museum’s rich collection. In honor of Earth Day, here are some eco-friendy—and eco-scary—works to help you get your green on.

No matter one’s specialization, there are certain questions that all art conservators are asked, including:

Aren’t you scared to do what you do? The answer to this question is sort of a bluff: Our training and experience greatly inform our decision-making about conservation interventions, which are preceded by extensive testing. Nonetheless, some treatments are still a little scary.

Aesthetic emotion puts man in a state favorable to the reception of erotic emotion. Art is the accomplice of love. Take love away and there is no longer art.

Pinocchio. 1940. USA. Produced by Walt Disney

These notes accompany the screenings of Walt Disney’s </i>Pinocchio</a> on April 20, 21, and 22 in Theater 3.</p>

As this is being written, the number one film at the box office for the second straight week is an animated work, Hop, about the picaresque adventures of the long-eared heir to a chocolate bunny factory. Hopping out to see Hop is not high on my agenda (hopping of any kind has not been on my agenda at all since the five-minute “Bunny Hop” craze over a half-century ago), but there has been a proud relationship between bunnies and the cinema for a long time, from John Bunny (the silent clown) to Bunny Lake (Otto Preminger’s abducted little girl). And of course, we can never lavish enough praise on that 14-carrot genius, Bugs.