After my irrefutable conclusion at the Tate Modern in London that modern art is cr*p, we decided to give it another go, and see if the French can convince me otherwise. So off we went to the Pompidou Centre, Paris' modern art museum.
So far, so good.
The building is avant-garde, with exposed pipes and structures on its exterior. According to its architects, the intention is to show how buildings operate, so they put the infrastructure - structural steel frames, escalator tubes, utility pipes - on the outside, climbing all around the building, giving it a crazy snakes-and-ladders look. The utility pipes are colour-coded - air-conditioning ducts are blue, water pipes green, and electricity lines yellow.
View from the top-most floors were also great. You can see the Sacre Coeur in the Montmartre hills in the distance.
After that, it was all downhill (figuratively and literally).
First, let's admire this piece that Ju made in his sleep.
And here's Soph's masterpiece.
All right, now let's admire some of the masters.
It's so deep, and I'm only an ignorant shallow mess. Read it for yourself.
Now at least this one takes a bit more effort to create. It's supposed to represent the different kinds of light that filters into a typical Parisian room. Something of that sort...
This one is named "Six Round Wooden Barrels". Tell me, where is the art in that? Where is the inspiration that it is supposed to invoke in me? Or am I just an ignorant shallow mess?
Some stuff I got from my local IKEA. (you believed me, right?)
This installation highlights the tumours (violence, wars, pollution, etc) growing all around the world. The "tumours" were made from plain old masking tape.
I have no words for this. I didn't even realise it was an art piece.
Last Light by Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1993), a Conceptual and Minimalist piece.
I am serious. These things are displayed in the museum.
Now Sophie, tell me, what do you see here? What do you think it is?
Me neither.
OK, Ju, what do you see here? Me neither.
A rake. What else do you want to know?
The urinal, displayed in 1913 in New York by Duchamp.
It is the genesis of Dadaism, where an "ordinary object is raised to the dignity of a work of art by the mere decision of the artist". Yup, that pretty much explains all of modern art.
At least the architecture was stunning.
Modern art is still cr*p.
6 comments:
The funny thing is I see the urinal everyday when I go the the Men's, I have bought 3 empty canvas and hanged it before and I had accidentally smudge a canvas and submit to my art teacher and got a E-. Maybe the message is everyday modern things (which we saw in the display) are works of art ... cr*p. whichever you prefer. Between you and mean. I am for the later.
Art done by dead people are more valuable...can I have your 3 blank canvases and smudged canvas?
funny. i used to think modern art is cr*p until i went to tate modern. and somehow fell in love with joan miro.
i do agree some stuff at pompidou are mind boggling but i like that colourful room as well as the part of the painting sections upstairs. the globes with masking tapes - terrible. the weird recycling pieces across from the globes (with dead branches, soil etc) is even worse.
none of these triumph a recent modern art "self-discovery" i saw in luxembourg where a girl ("the artist") who got herself injected with equine serum to be at one with animal, then have her blood samples taken and freeze dry and displayed. that's the modern art installation. hmmmm...
Hi Pau Lynn,
No I was not at the Deepavali party, and yes, it will be nice to meet up! Perhaps you can ask someone from MAF for my contact?
Hi 3Fireflies,
I would like to definitely meet up with you and your family (I love how you write each blog entry, cracks me up all the time!) but er, what would be your name please so that I can ask our Dai Ga Che of the MAF (aka Aunty Karen!)
Sincerely,
Pau-Lynn.
paulynn _ lim (at) yahoo dot fr
Hahahaha!! This is exactly the kind of thing we learnt at architecture school at The Bartlet - How To Bullshit!
Thanks for sharing. The pieces are very different from the time when I was there, seems they have become more.....err.....'modern'.
I don't blame you for equating modern art & cr*p!
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