Museum of Modern Art

After lacrosse practice on the afternoon of March 21st Joe, Ryan and myself made our way to the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan where we explored the Gauguin, Frank Lloyd Wright, and John Cage exhibits. I was very surprised with the amount of people that were in attendance at the museum that afternoon; I guess when one of the most famous museums in the country gives out free tickets everyone takes advantage of it. At first I just wanted go to the specific exhibits, but once I started looking around I staying for another hour looking at almost everything. I always thought that art was just paintings and drawings; not architecture and music, but my experience that afternoon truly changed my perspective on art as a whole. The first exhibit we saw was Paul Gauguin’s “Metamorphoses”, this specific exhibit gave us insight into his history as an artist, as well as the techniques and themes that were used in his works. In this exhibit there were many types of mediums used, which included wood sculptures, ceramics, oil transfer drawings, painting, and woodcut. One particular medium I was drawn to was his paintings because of their saturated colors, flat planes, and clearly outlined forms. One of Gauguin’s later paintings caught my eye more than the others; it was called “Hina tefatou” (1893) which translates to “The moon and the Earth”. This was a painting of what I believed to be a nude islander in the forest, I didn’t really know what was going on in the picture but I was drawn to the amazing colors and mysterious face in the background. Another painting that interested me was a painting from his earlier works, “The vision after the Sermon” (1888). I liked this painting because I thought it was funny and depicted a group of nuns watching angles fight in a field after church. These two paintings differed very little in style but were similar in that the colors were so defined and sharp. I really enjoyed this exhibit because it had so much to offer and I learned a