MoMA has the Van Gogh

One of the more popular paintings that the Museum of Modern Art in new York has is the painting The Starry Night by Van Gogh. This was at least eveident by the constant crowd of art appreciators gathered around the painting. I was excited to see the Van Gogh with my own eyes (if necessarily through the glass on the painting). Van Gogh did cut off his ear lobe, but there is a lively debate as to why and what medical condition caused him to do so.

here is the list from Wikipedia, all of these have advocates and naysayers:

• Epilepsy
• Bipolar disorder
• Sunstroke
• Ménière's disease
• Lead poisoning
• Acute Intermittent Porphyria
• Syphilis
• Absinthe Intoxication
  

I myself am a big fan of Acute Intermittent Porphyria because it sounds so cool.

How do you pronounce that name anyway? van go? van gawff? The dutch pronunciation is not "f" but more of a guttural h. It sounds pretentious when you pronounce it differently from everyone else in the English Speaking world (especially if you speak English). Or perhaps we should pronounce all names the way they are pronounced in the language of their origin. God help the Welsh!

MoMA has THE Dali

I had never been to the Museum of Modern Art in New York before, and we were not going to get to spend all day or the several days there as required so we wanted to see some of the most famous works. As we looked around I was star struck (art struck? start struck?) to find that they had the signature paintings of many of the world's most famous artists. I kept referring to them as the painting or the artist.

For instance, MoMA has the Dali, "Persistence of Memory"


I am awestruck. Surprisingly, this paining is very tiny, smaller than a regular 8.5"x11' sheet of paper. It was very detailed and vivid in real life. I am afraid that no picture I take will do these paintings justice.

This is not to be confused with the Dali Llama, which I coincidentally found today. (found here drawn by John).


Am I an art criminal for pairing these two together here? I don't think so, Dali would have perhaps approved, and the whole idea of the current post-modern age is to pair the sacred with the profane, or the transcendent with the banal.