Iddo Tavory recently began teaching at the New School, in New York, after completing his Ph.D. at UCLA, in Los Angeles. His areas of research focus include the sociology of religion, temporality and interaction. -Jeff
Last week I went to MoMA. Since I came to New York I got more “culture” than ever before. It isn’t that Los Angeles had no great museums, but something about New York—or perhaps the fantasies of the city that I had—spurred me to go to museums much more. The exhibition I went to was Abstract Expressionist New York, which I was particularly excited about: New York art, shown in New York.
In other words, it is a bit like listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers in California, only far more highbrow. As my partner and I were walking around, we were trying to make sense of the paintings, to decide if we like De Kooning and Motherwell, to “get a feel” for this kind of art. Though we both come from middle-class families, neither of us feels really comfortable around modern art, say, after early Expressionism or Cubism.
It isn’t that we don’t like it, it’s just that we don’t feel like we know how to evaluate it. It isn’t that we aren’t moved, it is almost as if we don’t know how to be moved. It is a strange sensation, looking at a painting and trying hard to be moved. Being moved, after all, shouldn’t involve trying. That’s the whole idea with emotion.
In fact, we do learn to be moved. More precisely, we learn ways to open ourselves to the possibility of being moved. Through the process known in sociology as “socialization,” we learn the knowledge, skills and preferences that will shape the choices we make, the direction we take.
This isn’t only a nice sociological idea, but something that we found out first hand when we were leaving the exhibition. At the entry to the exhibition, we saw a little work sheet titled “Family Activity Guide.” On the side, to make sure we knew who it was intended to, it read “MoMA KIDS.”
In sleek paper, it had quotes from the artists and activities for children. On the first page, there were quotes by Jackson Pollock. Kids had to look at one of the paintings, and see where the paint is “Dripped, Splashed, Poured, Splattered, Flung, and Layered.” Next came a page dedicated to sculptor David Smith. Here children were asked to draw an animal (there was a blank space for that purpose) and then re-draw it “using just five lines.”
But the one that really got to me was the page dedicated to Mark Rothko. Kids were instructed to look at the paintings, and at the big floating rectangles (explained in the booklet as “color fields.” Useful, that). Then, they were asked to choose a painting, and told to “take turns sharing words you think of while you are looking at it.” Below, they had a quote by Rothko: “I’m interested in expressing basic human emotions.”
The fourth sheet was detachable, with perforations made so you can tear it into 12 blank cards. The Rothko activity was to take the 12 cards, and write “words that come to mind” as the kids are looking at the painting. Having written the words, children were told to scramble them, and voila, abstract-expressionist poetry was made.
Having done so, kids were suggested to look at a different Rothko painting, try to figure out the mood it conveys, and write another expressionist poem (on the back side of the cards they just used). Sitting in the MoMA café, we were puzzling over what it felt like to be a kid working on this activity sheet. Looking through it children obviously learned several things. They learned how to name elements of modern art—color fields, for example.
They were also told what aspects of the paintings they should pay attention to—how the paint was being splattered, and later (in a page dedicated to De Kooning) how the painter moved as he painted. In an elegant way, they learned what was of essence. It didn’t make them art experts, of course, but it made them conversant with the painting, a way to relate to them that my partner and I didn’t really have.
But this exercise provided more than instruction. Especially in the Rothko page, but in others as well, it taught children how they could feel. It taught them that when they looked at the pictures, they should have basic moods conveyed to them. More, that they should let themselves be swept up by these moods, to lose themselves in basic emotions. Sociologists often note that people learn to like different things, that this is part of being “socialized.”
Upper middle-class children learn about abstract expressionism, working-class children don’t. This is part of how classes are differentiated. As the activity sheet at the MoMA makes clear, it goes deeper than knowledge and skills.
It’s not only that children learn different things, it is that they also learn to enjoy them. They learn to enjoy them, by learning what kind of attitude they could take when looking at a painting, when sitting in a baseball stadium, when ordering sushi. They learn not only what to look for, but how they can derive pleasure—real pleasure—from it.
I appreciated your post and am looking forward to trying out the MomaKids once in NY with my girls.
Your post reminded me of an experience I had with my then 5 years old daughter in the Bruecke Museum here in Berlin. It is a small, pleaseant museum, and we find the Bruecke painters generally easily “accessible” for kids. Without being prompted to do so, my daughter imitated the movements and positions she saw in the sculptures and paintings around the room, thereby expressing her emotions toward the art she saw.
While none of the other visitors direclty said anything to us, it was interesting to observe their reactions, reaching from enjoyment, but surprise, to criticism that we as her parents would let her move around so freely in the museum. Learning to enjoy art, this experience taught us, clearly also comes with a lesson about the expected behavior in a museum – and the restrictions that we are expected to express our emotions toward art in words rather than through our bodies.
Thank you for triggering a delightful memory from my childhood. I grew up just outside of NYC and going into the city for a day of art was a very special part of my youth. I remember in particular, being dropped off at MOMA to spend time ‘making art’ in one of their classes while my mother went shopping. I had so much fun creating that I asked to have my 6th birthday party be just like it. Bin after bin of all sorts of wonderful stuff with which we made marvelous things out of…I loved it! Suffice it to say, I became an artist and attribute it to exposure to superb art and good teachers who know how to direct the creative process of children to an enlightened conclusion. – Belle Rose