The show has received glowing reviews from a wide range of critics, including Peter Schjeldahl at the New Yorker who calls it "splendid" and Roberta Smith at the New York Times who calls it "magisterial". As someone who loves art (right brain) but makes a living in engineering (left brain), I was drawn to the geometric forms used by so many artists of the time, for instance the circles of Fernand Leger or Sonia Delaunay-Terk. It is most likely connected, at least in Leger's case, to the growth in industrialization and, I think, the belief people held at the time that science and engineering were going to bring great benefits to society. It must've felt that geometry - and science, and engineering - was everyone's business, and a necessary part of artists' visual vocabulary to capture their new, modern world. I also enjoyed viewing the work of more rarely shown artists such as Theo van Doesburg and Natalia Goncharova (although Goncharova admittedly is better known than most.) The show helped me remember why I love art so much and motivated me to refocus on what brings me joy. I can't praise it enough - it is certainly one of the key exhibitions of the year in the whole country, if you care about modern art.
The exhibition closes on Monday, April 15 - make sure to go and see it if you're in town! If you can't go, buying the catalog will make for a nice replacement. But if you're still waiting for that tax refund to splurge, you can also enjoy a playlist curated by WQXR (based on the fantastic idea of creating a stand-alone room in the exhibition on the theme of "reinventing music", where you can listen to the avant-garde music of the time, including Stravinsky, Webern, Schoenberg and Debussy) or browse through the exhibition website. I'm continuously amazed by how creative and innovative museum curators continue to be in bringing top-notch, multimedia exhibitions to the public. Can't wait for "American Modern: Hopper to O'Keeffe", opening August 17.
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