The New Modern

I never thought I'd experience a crowd-free Museum of Modern Art, but that was the case when I visited a year after a major expansion and a new approach to displaying the collection.  The layout may be confusing but the aggregation of works by theme is nothing short of revelatory.  It felt as if I were seeing an entirely new collection, featuring many unfamiliar artists.

"Martin, into the Corner, You Should Be Ashamed of Yourself" by Martin Kippenberger

"Watchtower" by Sigmar Polke

Detail

MoMA-Wool "Made in West Germany" by Rosemarie Trockel.

Detail

"Skin" by Pawel Althamer

"Transparent Self Portrait" by Maria Lassnig

"Lung" by Jac Leirner (detail).  It's made of Marlboro cigarette packs.

Silvered water bottles by Kiki Smith

"No More Games" by Benny Andrews

"Hippopotamus Poison" by Paul Thek, a close friend and lover of Susan Sontag, although both were gay.

"Mme Kupka among Verticals" by Frantisek Kupka (detail)

"Standing Youth" by Wilhelm Lehmbruck

Faith Ringgold keeps pretty good company.  "American People Series #20," is surrounded by Picassos. She quilts, too.

MoMA's curators give people of color get a lot of overdue attention, as both artists and subjects.

"Children" by William H. Johnson

Jacob Lawrence's bold compositions in his "Great Migration" series inform the mind and please the eye.

Alice Neel met "George Arce"when he was a child.  They became friends and she painted him many times.

This early 20th century motion picture footage of a Harlem-based theatrical production was intended to depict a more progressive image of Black social life than previously had been seen.  The cast, including Bert Williams in blackface, performs the cakewalk, a popular dance among African Americans at the time.

Folk art is given its due, too.  These works by Morris Hirschfeld definitely put a smile on my face even if he doesn't rate a Wikipedia page!

There's still plenty on offer from the crowd pleasers but it's often displayed in a new context.

Keith Haring, untitled.

"Fulang-Chang and I" by Frida Kahlo

"Object" by Meret Oppenheim

"Self Portrait I" by Joan Miro (detail).

"Two Women on the Shore" by Edvard Munch

"Handles" by Haegue Yang, a Korean artist, occupies the atrium.

Hard to believe I've still never set foot in the sculpture garden, which was closed.

"Cinematic Illumination," an enveloping multi-media installation by Shuzo Azuchi Gulliver incorporates slides he shot in a Japanese disco during the 1960s.  "Love Is Blue" is among the many contemporary chestnuts on the soundtrack.

Another temporary exhibit on the fifth floor pays tribute to Donald Judd.  He's much more interesting when his works are seen in aggregate.

A bicycle parked outside the museum could not have looked more modern.