A Visit To MOMA

Yesterday, fifth day here. decided to go downtown on the subway then walk up to MOMA on 53rd St. I saw the Willem de Kooning Retrospective then two floors of work from Cezanne through to late 70's. Not used to shelling out $25 per visit but it certainly makes you concentrate and you are immersed in more art works on three floors of this gallery than is imaginable. De Kooning's large expressive abstractions from 1955 are wonderful in fact that whole room is a blast, also the two paintings of 1960 the 'Door to the River' ones which are high key blue with strong yellow.
I think when he returned to abstraction after the violence of the figurative women series of which he did at least three, he could really hit his stride in paint. The most boomy boomy woman series is the one from the late 40's early 50's. 'Woman V',  part of the NGA's collection is on loan to MOMA. It was a treat to see how it stacks up against the other four works in the series and it looks really good.
On the 5th level you are straight into an excellent survey of paintings from French 1880's-90's, all the names. Multiple examples of Cezanne, Seurat, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Rousseau, a terrific nocturne by Munch and two wild Ensors. Overwhelming plus you are allowed to take photos - I can see the value of the $25. The second room a wonderful overview of Picasso with two figurative works leading up to Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and works concurrent and later. Just fantastic to see the lead in to the work he and Braque did after they saw the big Cezanne retrospective after he died in 1906. There are two Braques side by side both of views in L'Estaque a year apart, the earlier has the Fauve colour then the latter is a homage to Cezanne. Great to see how they learnt as they crept towards the works for which they are most remembered. The Cubist works on show were just wonderful.
Every painting is a treat to see because you remember they are objects not just small, smooth rectangles on a book's page.  The highlight in the end was the Matisse room. 'The Red Studio' which is a much stronger red almost an Indian Red that you see in a reproduction; the 'Moroccans' a huge and complicated work; many magnificent compositions; luminous colour and surfaces that he really worked, thin colour scrubbed even scratched in places - every mark is quite anxious and thoughtful nothing syrupy or over indulgent or over confident. Just wonderful.