art museum | CANDY ANTHRASAL

I think of Modern Artists as my greatest influencers in creating.

I grow up seeing their oeuvres in google, learning how to paint like them, reading different interpretations of their works, and constantly wondering about their muses to produce such powerful pieces, that one way or another may have spoken about the era of their time.

A lot of them continue to shape the way i perceive things, even when they are always a medium away.

Recently I am humbled by the opportunity to visit MoMA Collection Galleries that exhibits range of art pieces between the span of 1880s-1950s. Twas like a cloud of dream to me!

Claude Monet- Water Lilies, Agapanthus

Experiencing the great works of century flaunting before my eyes, not behind the computer screen or another textbook page, with only thin air filling the gap in between…my mind were in such great great abstract!

star treatment to starry night

It’s like having this group of superstars jam-packing a one level space, you don’t even know which one to admire first. And despite the air tight space, you can’t help but put your eyes on 5x magnifying mode to lurk over the slightest stroke that made up each piece so distinctively.

There were mani-manifold feels right there.

It’s not that I suddenly feel connected personally with these artists had I seen their artworks in plain sight as supposed the extension of their beings. It’s more like this ‘takjub’ revelation of seeing its total presence and how potent, real they are despite the familiarity I’ve developed towards some of these images over the years. These pieces, they really are immortal.

Imma overshare some of my favorites down below: (taken non professionally with an I5s, non edited to maintain authenticity)

Mark Rothko- Red, Brown, and Black

“Often, towards nightfall, there’s a feeling in the air of mystery, threat, frustration—all of these at once” – This is a friend’s personal favorite artist, and my first impression of it was in Mad Men Cooper’s office!

Joan Miró The Birth of the World

Geometric Abstraction- Bauhaus influence

Alexandra Exter, Theo Van Doesburg, Josef Albers, László Moholy-Nagy

top left:

Barnett Newan- Vir Heroicus Sublimis (Man, Heroic, and Sublime)

“There is a tendency to look at large pictures from a distance. The large pictures in this exhibition are intended to be seen from a short distance.”

bottom left:

Joan Miró- The Birth of the World

(a bird/kite, shooting star, ballon, and white head figure)

Piet Mondrian-Trafalgar Square, Broadway Boogie Woogie

Broadway Boogie Woogie is both New York’s city grid, and rhythms of jazz at the same time!

(left) Alexander Calder- Gibraltar

Mixed media: Lignum vitae, walnut, steel rods, painted wood

(right) Frida Kahlo-My grandparents, my parents, and I (Family Tree)

Henri Matisse

Matisse is a personal favorite of mine. The vividness of his color palette takes part in setting up spatial depth and in addition to the element of somewhat obscured lines, which altogether alter them into flat architectonics form in contrast to the traditionally linear perspective.

The Red Studio, Composition, The Blue Window, Dance (I)

Giorgio De Chirico

The juxtaposition between the uncanny arrangement and the geometric city-scape, am real hooked.

Georges-Pierre Seurat – Grandcamp, Evening, The Channel at Gravelines

p.o.i.n.t.i.l.l.i.s.m (ZOOM pls pls)

Vincent van Gogh- The Starry Night, The Olive Trees

From where I stand, I see a passionate dreamer with his rhythmic dancing lines and a playful palette.

Andre Derain- Charing Cross Bridge (left)

I remember reading about this piece, it’s interesting that behind its radical technicolor palette portraying an evening London sky, it’s actually a protest against the use of photography in which he claimed to produce work resembling a snapshot of real life that doesn’t quiet challenge one’s imagination.

Paul Cezanne- Chateau Noir (right)

capturing aged ruins structure