Cultural Thursdays - MOMA

Yesterday P. and I went to the Moma. We arrived a few minutes before the Museum opened and it was already full. We headed to the 4th floor, because I wanted to see Cy Twombly's sculptures. There are only a few of them, and I actually prefer his paintings. Then, we went up to the 6th floor to try to take a look at de Kooning's exhibit, the real objective of our visit (it is there until January 9). However, the rooms were packed and I was pushing P.'s patience a little too far, since we ended up spending more time that I would like on the 4th floor. I decided to leave and I'll try to come back at another time. As we were heading towards the exit, I saw that on the 2nd floor there was a special installation of a white fabric hanging from the ceiling. So we went to check it out. It is actually an installation from Brazilian artist Carlito Carvalhosa (there until November 14), consisting of this white, kind of translucent material hanging from the ceiling to the floor in an elliptic way. You have to walk in the middle and it is a very interesting feeling. In a way, the experience is very similar to the Richard Serra's elliptic sculptures, but with a completely different approach of textures and colors. And I have to say that taking a 2 year-old there is a lot of fun. He loved it! He ran around twice, touched the fabric, played with it. It was really cute. I'm sorry that I can't share any pictures with you, but I was myself running after my son. This is something that I actually love about taking my kids to more "serious" places. You end up doing things that you would never ever do if you were by yourself, surrounded only by adults. It's as if you were allowed (at least under my perspective) to be a child again. It was absolutely delightful to run around all those white drapes and hearing him laughing.

We ended our visit by going to the Material lab. We had already been there once and it's a fantastic place to take children of all ages. There you'll find different materials to explore, books about art, construction and wood blocks to play with, art supply and also some computers with a digital painting program that really gives you the feeling of painting with oil on a canvas (you paint on the screen with a digital brush). However, you can't print or send your picture once you're done, which I found a little disappointing. Anyway, if you are planning on going to the Moma with your kids, it is worth spending some time at the Material lab as well. The entrance is on 54th street, right next to the Museum entrance (but it's a different building) and you'll need to show your ticket to get in.