we visited the met breuer museum today to see the special edvard munch exhibit with my sister and brother-in-law. this particular exhibit actually had been at san francisco's modern art museum during the summer when we were there, but we never went as we were so busy with other touristy attractions, and it was expensive. my nephew had seen it there and had highly recommended it, so i always felt a little sad that we hadn't been. however, chanda discovered that it was coming to the met breuer, and that it would be happening while her aunt and uncle were here for the show, so all of us were excited for the visit. it was also my sister and brother-in-law's first time seeing this new addition to the met museum (which used to be the whitney).
the exhibit had a lithograph rendition of his famous scream painting, borrowed from moma. i was intrigued by his writing in german on the bottom right: ich fühlte das grosse geschrei dürch die natur (i felt the great scream in nature -- though he uses dürch die, through the -- which brings a different feeling for me than in). it's a journal entry from a few years prior in which he had recorded an experience he had while walking along a road in his hometown of oslo (at the time called kristiania).
self-portrait by the window
the night wanderer (munch often couldn't sleep at night).
portrait sent to my nephew and to warren's norwegian cousins as proof that they made it to the munch exhibit.
we also enjoyed seeing the charles simonds exhibit dwellings, which was installed in 1981 when the museum was still the whitney. simonds work is fascinating and whimsical. he began in the 1970's in soho and on the lower east side, by creating small settlements that reflected an imaginary civilization of little people. he constructed these settlements in the brick niches of crumbling buildings, and in vacant lots, gutters and window ledges. i'd love to find more of these in the neighborhood, but i wonder if they are gone, or just well hidden, because i've never come across one on my own. supposedly, he has created hundreds of these constructions all around the world in shanghai, paris, berlin, dublin, chicago and houston.
he used clay, sand, sticks, stones, wood, plaster, cloth and chicken wire.
across the street, on the second story window ledge on the left, are two clay house clusters of a similar settlement, which is part of this exhibit. you can read more about charles simonds on his website here.
and now back to an outside portrait i took of everyone indicating the museum we were at . .
morgana trying to take a photo of dirty snow. i think she thought that her austrian family wouldn't believe how dirty it really was . . quite understandable!
of course everyone was hungry afterwards . . so on the way to the subway station we stopped for bagels . .
with different cream cheese spreads: vegetable, scallions, salmon . .
and then underground . .
fellow subway riders taking a selfie with the train coming into the station . .
morgana took one of us on the train . .
drummers at 14th street waiting for the l train . .
sunday night packing . .
and word game.
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