Yasumasa Morimura. Aimai-no-bi (Ambiguous Beauty). 1995

For Ambiguous Beauty, Japanese photographer and appropriation artist Yasumasa Morimura photographed himself as Marilyn Monroe in her first Playboy pin-up, complete with wig and fake breasts. The reverse side of the fan shows the Japanese character for “love,” and the fan is packaged in a box made from Paulownia, a type of wood historically used by the Japanese for the presentation of formal fans.

How well do you know your MoMA? If you think you can identify the artist and title of each of these works—all currently on view in the exhibition On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century—please submit your answers by leaving a comment on this post. We’ll provide the answers—along with some information about each work—in two weeks (on Friday, December 17), along with the next Do You Know Your MoMA? challenge.

ANSWERS TO THE NOVEMBER 19 CHALLENGE:

Jim Hodges. Untitled (Double-Sided Blanket). 1998

For this piece, New York City–based artist Jim Hodges wanted to create an imaginary landscape in the form of a blanket meant to resemble a body of water. The blanket “reflects” a poem-fragment written by Hodges, which reads, “If there had been a pool it would have reflected us.” The blanket measures 52 x 72 inches, the exact dimensions of the artist’s own bed, and comes in a half-silvered sleeve.

An installation view of Compass in Hand at IVAM, October 2010. Photo: Maura Lynch

On October 28 the exhibition Compass in Hand: Selections from The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection Gift opened at the Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM) in Spain. If this exhibition sounds familiar to our frequent visitors and blog subscribers, that’s hardly a coincidence—from April 21, 2009, through January 4, 2010, this exhibition was on view in MoMA’s Contemporary Galleries.

Lawrence Weiner. Untitled (Stars Don’t Stand Still in the Sky for Anybody pin). 1991

Conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner’s enamel pin printed with the phrase “Stars don’t stand still in the sky for anybody” draws on a recurring theme in his work: language and typography. His exploration of words and phrases extends across the wide variety of mediums in which Weiner works, including film, video, book art, sculpture, performance art, installation art, music composition, and graphic design.

One of a series of WWII propaganda posters in MoMA's collection encouraging the British home front to raise rabbits at home on a diet of kitchen scraps...and then eat them. Poster designed by Frederick H. K. Henrion (British, 1914–1990), c. 1941

Everyone likes rabbits. Their fluffy tails. Their twitchy noses. From Peter Rabbit to Roger Rabbit, Bugs Bunny to the Easter Bunny, Watership Down to David Lynch’s surreal 2002 series Rabbits, the creatures have been anthropomorphized constantly in literature, film, and popular culture. Because they are so widely appealing, we feel extremely uncomfortable when we see rabbits encounter cooking pots, like in Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero, or at the hands of Glenn Close as manic bunny boiler in Fatal Attraction. Small wonder then that during World War II the British Government had to persuade reluctant consumers about the nutritional and money-saving benefits of raising rabbits for food.

Vik Muniz. Untitled (Medusa Plate). 1999

Each year since 1988, art collector, software entrepreneur, and MoMA trustee Peter Norton has commissioned an art edition to celebrate the holiday season. Created by well-known contemporary artists represented in the Norton family’s own collection, and sent as gifts to personal friends and members of the art community, these highly collectible art objects are interactive and playful. With the holiday season nearly upon us, we thought it would be fun to share some items in the collection with a weeklong series of blog posts.

Paula Hayes's assistant, John Gray, installs the plantings for the installation Nocturne of the Limax maximus

When Hermes and Aphrodite had a son, Hermaphroditus, who was fused with a nymph, Salmacis, the resulting person possessed the physical traits of both male and female—hence the term “hermaphrodite,” used in biology as a description of similarly dual reproductive traits in both plants and animals.

Modern Times. 1936. USA. Produced, written, directed, edited, and scored by Charles Chaplin

These notes accompany screenings of Charles Chaplin’s </i>Modern Times on November 30 and December 1 and 2 in Theater 3.</p>

If City Lights represents Charles Chaplin (1889–1977) at his romantic zenith, Modern Times most admirably displays his prescient satirical gifts. The relationship he began in the early 1930s with Paulette Goddard, which culminated in a secret marriage in China, began to relieve his obsessive loneliness and self-absorption. This, together with extensive travels through Europe and Asia, caused him to turn outward and consider problems beyond the personal.

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A small portion of student artwork from the Food & Art class

For this Educator Journal, I asked teaching artist Alan Calpe to reflect upon the last seven weeks of his Food & Art class. Working with a diverse group of NYC teens, Alan has been investigating the Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen exhibition and exploring the various cultural and social connotations that artists bring to the table (so to speak) when addressing the idea of food in their work. The class has been up to their elbows in paper maché, and we’re all eagerly awaiting their final food-based projects.

-Calder Zwicky, Associate Educator, Teen and Community Programs