When New York Lets You Down

New York City has a lot of stuff. Lots of great restaurants, lots of parks, lots of tourist attractions, and lots of museums. I've made it my mission to visit every single museum in New York City - and I mean in all five boroughs (though I admit I've been slacking on Staten Island). Some of them I've liked so much that I've gone back to visit them multiple times. The New-York Historical Society, the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of the City of New York have all gotten me to come back not just once, but twice! And I loved Hamilton Grange so much that I ended up volunteering there!

And some of them have... well, let me down. (For example the Neue Galerie, which has beautiful works on display but everyone on the staff is a total bitch - not going back when y'all are that rude to everyone!)

This past Saturday, I had my third date with an incredible girl. (Our fourth is on Friday to the opening of the NYPL's Love in Venice exhibition - which I am most excited about, and will probably write a blog entry about!) For dates number one and two, we had gone to the Met and to Grand Central Station respectively. For date number three, we decided to check out a museum we had both heard a lot about but never gotten to. I'm talking about Queens' MoMA PS1.

MoMA PS1 is an offshoot of Manhattan's MoMA ('Museum of Modern Art' for those of you who don't know the lingo). The 'PS1' of the title comes from the fact that the museum is housed in a space that was once a public school. After the school was shut down, instead of tearing it down, it was converted into an art museum, with classrooms and cafeterias turned into art galleries.

It's such a cool idea, isn't it? I really wanted to like it because of that. I love the idea of MoMA PS1. (This is, of course, the same problem I have with the High Line. I love the idea of converting old elevated train tracks into a public park, and I want to love the High Line, but the reality is that I've had a bad time every time I went.)

And it's not that I don't like Modern Art. I do. I'm still dying to see the original MoMA (which houses both "The Persistence of Memory" and "Starry Night", as well as "Christina's World") and back in California, I loved San Jose's Museum of Modern Art.

Where MoMA PS1 suffers is in its choice of what art to display.

When we went, about three or four of the exhibits - which is probably at least half of the museum - were devoted to the work of one artist. An example of his work is pictured above. And it's not necessarily that he is a bad artist, but...

...but it was so pretentious. It was the type of art that revels being incomprehensible, that seems to be saying 'ha ha I dare you to understand me - but you can't and that makes you dumb!'

That's not what art should be. Art should not be a circle-jerk for the elite. Art should be for the people. That's kind of the reason why institutions like the Met only have 'suggested' admission - so the common people can be exposed to great art.

'Oh Nym, that's just how modern art is.' No! No it's not! See, I'm going to bring up the San Jose Museum of Art again. Because you know what they're really good at? They're good at creating exhibits that are both thought-provoking and accessible. I remember once going to an exhibit where there was a digital art piece that juxtaposed a map of Iraq with one of Washington D.C., and there was a nearby blurb that explained the political connotations of not just that art piece, but the whole gallery. That's just an example. They've had multiple exhibits that may make one question what art can be, but at the end of the day provoke conversation and aesthetic appreciation.

A piece from the San Jose Museum of Modern Art, in an exhibit they had last August devoted to Hispanic artists

MoMA PS1 provoked one conversation between me and my date, one we had over and over during the course of our visit:

"...I don't get it."
"Me either..."

Nobody likes to leave a museum feeling stupid.

So what do I do with that?

In my case, I've chosen to at least try and see the bright side of the day. I refuse to let any day be a total loss. This is what I did with the High Line and the Neue Galerie, too.

"Well, the High Line was disappointing and way too crowded. But at least it's nearby Chelsea Market and I got to try some delicious food!"

"Well, the Neue Galerie's staff was extremely rude not just to me, but to everyone I saw them interacting with. But at least I got to see Gustav Klimt's paintings, and they're more gorgeous in person than I ever imagined!"

So. How do I look on the bright side with my visit to MoMA PS1?

Well first off, while I was displeased with most of the galleries, they weren't all bad. The museum, being in an old elementary school building, has opened the school's old boiler room up as an exhibition. They painted some of the machinery gold, but other than that it's unaltered, as if it's saying the once-functional machines themselves are the art.

I liked that room, at least. Since I only spent a dollar to get into the museum, I like to think my dollar went towards seeing that room.

Second off, the girl I was with? Instead of us deciding to let it ruin our date, we bonded over how pretentious this all was. It was a good date because of that. We bonded over the sheer incomprehensibility of it all, left, walked around Queens a bit, and ended up in a park making each other playlists on YouTube. (I've never had a girl I'm seeing make me a playlist before.) That was nice.

And hey, something must have gone right, if I got a fourth date.

I wonder if the fourth date is the kissing date.

So MoMA PS1, while I was disappointed with most of what you offered, I do not regret going. And hey, maybe this museum wasn't for me. But if it's for someone else, then more power to them.

-Nym