Window views of the now whitewashed 5Pointz?
Art in the stairwells?
Art in the basement boiler room?
You gotta love edgy, contemporary art especially when it’s housed in a castle-like brick Renaissance Revival structure dating back to 1893. That’s exactly what you’ll find at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, New York. All it takes is cracked paint and patina and I’m there!
Then of course there’s the artists…the one that most definitely caught my attention….Maria Lassnig.
Ms. Lassnig’s work gives a whole new meaning to selfies. Rarely did she work from photography or observation, but from what she called “body awareness” – her mental perception of herself and her feelings. She never felt her art was accepted in New York during the time she lived here, so it’s sad to think that she was too ill to attend the PS1 opening in March of this year and unfortunately passed away just a couple of weeks ago at the age of 94.
She focused on her imagination of the inside of her body, but not meant to represent organs and such. “I come after all from a tradition of looking…and then I began to look inside myself…which was actually quite a radical thing to do…was true avant-gardism.” Lassnig is an artist that really made me think about her work and what it represented.
Even though MoMA PS1 has been on my list to visit for a long, long time…full confession…here’s the real reason for my Long Island City visit…
Remember my visit to graffiti mecca 5Pointz and how it was whitewashed?
Stay tuned for an up close and personal tour with Meres One, curator of 5Pointz Aerosol Art Center…
Cracked paint and patina…I’m right there with you, Robin. Nothing like it anywhere. But then comes along someone like Maria Lassnig and you get your education! How sad, like so many other artists in life, that her magnificence wasn’t discovered till posthumously!
I love cracked paint and patina on anything too. And I love the way YOU captured the images here.. but you know me…I just can’t get into the Ms. Lassnig’s kind of art. Just doesn’t do anything for me… XoXo MORE!!
A beautiful post.
Beautiful image of the gilded boiler @ MoMAPS1 in the afternoon light.
And your pics in general !