Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Chacun à son goût

Here are a few pieces of art in the Pompidou Center's permanent collection that I thought made for interesting photos. I am not a student of art, and I didn't write down, let alone remember, the titles of these pieces or the names of the artists. Except for the Warhol. So I looked them up on the museum's web site. I found all of them except for the light bulbs.

This was sitting on the floor in one of the dark rooms. I really liked it. It's called Identité (no. 2) by Piotr Kowalski, 1973.

The permanent collection is installed on two of the upper floors of the building. One level is for contemporary works, 1960 to the present. The other level is for pre-1960 modern art. I could even tell the difference.

Eight of the "Ten Lizes" by Andy Warhol, 1963.

The three of us kind of split apart and wandered around. We saw each other here and there, pointed out something that we thought was cool or weird, and continued on our ways. It was a nice way of doing the museum. My cousin is a professional artist and I'm certain that he was looking at things very differently from the way I was.

This one cracked me up. My favorite part is the cord on the floor. Very artistic.

There were several "dark rooms" among the exhibits. They were rooms with video or specially lighted art works in them. In one of these rooms, I noticed that I and a small girl (about nine years old or so) were alone. I quickly made my way out of there. It doesn't look good for a middle aged guy to be alone in a dark room with a little girl. Dang if she didn't follow me right out into the light. I wonder why her parents (or whomever she was with) let her go wandering around alone.

This was a set of 3 video screens showing British schoolkids reacting to Picasso's "Weeping Woman" at the Tate museum in Liverpool, England. The work is by Reneke Dijkstra, 2009.

This week's Image of the Week is also from the museum. It's called "AGAM Aménagement de l'antichambre des appartements privés du Palais de l'Elysée pour le président Georges Pompidou," 1972 (The Redecoration of the Vestibule in the Presidential Palace's Private Apartments for President Georges Pompidou).

I also wandered up to the roof to check out the museum restaurant. They have an outdoor terrace with tables up there and, silly me, I thought it might be a nice place for our lunch. I changed my mind very quickly when I saw the menu. I wasn't sure if they were selling food or works of art, the prices were that high. Other plans would have to be made.

But we were in no hurry and had the time to linger a bit before heading out to find some lunch.

11 comments:

  1. When I look at all these works of art, I can't help myself thinking I'm surrounded by my own. I even have trash [garbage, as in garage, for the initiates] that I forgot to throw away last year. Now that's an antique and I should get a good price for it! LOL

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with chm... I wonder how much the loops of light bulbs are worth... given that the GiFi pub [brochure] that just came through the door has [a] the same thing at 7,99€ and [b] a much nicer one using little plumes of LED illuminated feathers at 8,99€.
    And as for the British schoolkids... 45 years on and they still force us to dress like nerds!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I prefer splitting off when I visit a museum with others. But, not everyone understands that, which makes it not as pleasant for me. Glad you were able to do so. As someone with an art degree who never really tried to make a living as a fine artist, but wishes he had, that string of lights on the wall just pisses me off.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have that same wire hanging down from my wall. I wonder if it's from the same Artist?
    m.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The restaurant must have made some drastic changes because it wasn't at all expensive the several times we had lunch there. And the view....fantastic!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have a torn curtain drawstring that is hanging like that cord.

    I'll look on it as a piece of art now rather than as a blemish on my furnishings.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Personally I prefer the Old Masters.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I like "Identite" as well. It's about how we see ourselves... each of the boxes sees itself in the mirror differently than it is in reality.

    I can't be the only reader here that likes modernists like Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko, David Hockney or Basquiat...though I do agree with everyone that the white lights from the prior post are a bit, well, "minimalist" in terms of artistic effort.

    ReplyDelete
  9. That cord dangling down to the wall socket from the oh so ordinary christmas lights really "finishes" the statement...not!
    Like the different sized light boxes though--I get that

    ReplyDelete
  10. I just noticed that my "replies" to you comments aren't here! I must have hit the close button before I hit publish.

    Rather than try to reproduce what I said, I'll just let it go and say thanks to all of you!

    ReplyDelete

Tell me what you think!