Museum of Modern Art (New York City, U.S.A.)

Museum of Modern Art

The first place we visited, upon arrival in New York City, was the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA),  an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan. One of the largest and most influential museums of modern art in the world. MoMA’s admission cost of US$25 makes it one of the most expensive museums in the city.

The crowd that day inside the museum

However, it has free entry on Fridays, sponsored by clothing company Uniqlo, after 4PM and this we availed of. As such, the museum was more crowded (including the inevitable Oriental selfie snappers) than I would have liked and it was hard to move around but who can complain?

Photography (minus the camera flash) was allowed here, though my pictures didn’t capture the impact of the in-real-life viewing. There are 5 floors of artwork to admire and the huge galleries, whose overall chronological flow presents a perspective of stylistic progression and place in time, were well laid out. I allow a minimum of two hours to explore the museum.

The author besides Joan Miro’s The Hunter – Catalan Landscape (1923-24, Oil on Canvas)

MoMA  has been important in developing and collecting Modernist art and its collection offers an overview of modern and contemporary art, including works of sculpturearchitecture and designdrawingpaintingphotographyprintsillustrated books and artist’s booksfilm and electronic media.

A private non-profit organization, MoMA is the seventh-largest U.S. museum by budget (its annual revenue is about US$145 million, none of which is profit).

Andre Derain (Bathers, 1907, Oil on Canvas)

Vasily Kandinsky (Picture with an Archer, 1909, Oil on Canvas)

Rene Magritte (The Lovers, 1928, Oil on Canvas)

MOMA is considered, by many, to have the best collection of modern Western masterpieces in the world.  Its holdings include more than 150,000 individual pieces in addition to approximately 22,000 films and 4 million film stills (access to the collection ended in 2002 and the collection is mothballed in a vault in Hamlin, Pennsylvania).

Claude Monet (Agapanthus, Oil on Canvas, 1914-26)

Andrea Bowers (A Menace to Liberty, 2012)

All the classics were here and it was moving, inspiring, immersive and absorbing but also a bit overwhelming. The nicely curated collection at the fifth floor houses such important and familiar works as the following:

Claude Monet (The Japanese Footbridge)

Jackson Pollock (One Number 31, 1950)

It also holds works by a wide range of influential European and American artists including Georges BraqueMarcel DuchampWalker EvansHelen FrankenthalerAlberto GiacomettiArshile GorkyHans HofmannEdward HopperPaul KleeFranz KlineWillem de KooningDorothea LangeFernand LégerRoy LichtensteinMorris LouisRené MagritteJoan MiróHenry MooreKenneth NolandGeorgia O’KeeffeJackson PollockRobert RauschenbergAuguste RodinMark RothkoDavid SmithFrank Stella, and hundreds of others.

Fernand Leger (The Mirror, 1925, Oil on Canvas)

Fernand Leger (Woman with a Book, 1923, Oil on Canvas) (1)

Many of the paintings have an audio option which is great for some background information.

Vincent Van Gogh (The Starry Night, 1889, Oil on Canvas)

Seeing the original painting of Vincent van Gogh’s famous The Starry Night was certainly a moving experience that I shall not soon forget. I could actually see the layers and layers of paint, the small brush strokes and all of the colors of paint that are far more vivid on canvas.

Claude Monet (Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond)

Claude Monet’s Water Lilies triptych, breathtaking to see in person, was also a big highlight worth seeing. The Picasso’s were also stunning, It was also great to see the full set of Andy WarholCampbell’s Soup Cans.

Any Warhol (Campbell’s soup cans, 1962)

An acquired taste is required for the temporary exhibits at the 3rd and the 4th floors which were very contemporary and not to my liking. The perplexing abstract pieces, using garage components such as snow shovels and car tires hammered (which begs the question “what was that supposed to be?”), didn’t excited me but they were still worth seeing how imaginative (and indulgent) modern artists have become.

Check out “Unfinished Conversations: New Work From the Collection,” “Robert Rauschenberg: Among Friends” and Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction”  

Shirana Shahbazi (Composition 40 2011)

Certain pieces here challenged my preconceived ideas, making me scratch your head and ask the question “Is that’s art?” upon seeing 7 boards of wood painted white being called art.

Frank Lloyd Wright at 150

However, being an architect, the very informative Frank Lloyd-Wright exhibit, with its original drawings (painstakingly rendered the old fashion way), blueprints, sketches and models for many of his projects (both completed and proposed); was very interesting.

Check out “Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive” 

Frank Lloyd Wright

Articles about the the myth of the great American architect provide interesting insights into his thinking and inspirations, portraying how advanced his ideas were in many ways.

Henri Matisse – Music (Sketch, 1907, Oil and Charcoal on Canvas)

Henri Matisse (Periwinkles-Morrocan Garden, Oil, Pencil and Charcoal on Canvas, 1912)

Henri Matisse (Still Life with Aubergines, Oil on Canvas, 1911)

Henri Matisse (The Rose Marble Table, Oil on Canvas, 1917)

MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design, was founded in 1932, is the first museum department in the world dedicated to the intersection of architecture and design.  Philip Johnson, the department’s first director, served as curator between 1932–34 and 1946–54.

Henri Matisse (La Serpentine, Bronze, 1909)

Henri Matisse (Dance-1, 1909, Oil on Canvas)

Henri Matisse (The Morrocans, Oil on Canvas, 1915-16)

The collection consists of 28,000 works including architectural models, drawings and photographs and one of its highlights is the Mies van der Rohe Archive. It also includes works of legendary architects and designers Frank Lloyd WrightPaul László, the EamesesIsamu Noguchi, and George Nelson.

Pablo Picasso (Les Demoiselle d’Avignon, Oil on Canvas, 1907)

Pablo Picasso (Woman with Pears, 1909, Oil on Canvas)

Pablo Picasso (The Studio, Oil on Canvas, 1927-28)

The Design Collection contains many industrial and manufactured pieces, ranging from a self-aligning ball bearing to an entire Bell 47D1 helicopter.

Bell 47D1 helicopter

In 2012, the department acquired a selection of 14 video games, the basis of an intended collection of 40 which is to range from Pac-Man (1980) to Minecraft (2011). The world-renowned Art Photography Collection, founded by Beaumont Newhall in 1940, includes photos by Todd Webb.

Pablo Picasso (Nude with Joined Hands, Oil on Canvas, 1906)

Pablo Picasso (Two Nudes, 1906, Oil on Canvas)

Pablo Picasso (Ma Jolie, 1911)

Pablo Picasso (Bather, Oil on Canvas, 1908-09)

The building also features an entrance for school groups, a 125-seat auditorium, an orientation center, workshop space for teacher training programs, study centers, and a large lobby with double-height views into the beautiful outdoor Sculpture Garden, at the mile of the museum, which features Aristide Maillol’s The River, a great statue of a woman diva laying on her back above the water.

Aristide Maillol (The River)

Alexander Calder (Sandy’s Butterfly, 1964)

From about 1.5 million a year, MoMA has seen its average number of visitors rise to 2.5 million after its new granite and glass renovation. In 2009, the museum reported 119,000 members and 2.8 million visitors over the previous fiscal year.

Paul Cezanne (Still Life with Apples, 1895-98, Oil on Canvas)

Paul Cezanne (L’Estaque, 1879-83, Oil on Canvas)

Paul Cezanne – Château Noir 1904-06, Oil on canvas, 73.6 x 93.2 cm.)

During its 2010 fiscal year, it attracted its highest-ever number of visitors of 3.09 million. However, in 2011, attendance dropped 11% to 2.8 million.

Paul Cezanne (The Bather, 1885, Oil on Canvas)

Paul Cezanne (Pines and Rocks – Fountainbleau)

Since its founding in 1929, the museum was open every day until 1975, when it closed one day a week (originally Wednesdays) to reduce operating expenses. In 2012, it again opened every day, including Tuesday, the one day it has traditionally been closed.

Henry Rosseau (The Sleeping Gypsy, 1897, Oil on Canvas)

Henri Rosseau (The Dream, 1910, Oil on Canvas)

The museum’s awesome gift shop had a lovely selection of gifts such as magnets, prints and more unique items like socks and scarves with art on them as well that summed up all of the amazing art throughout the museum. 

Vasudeo S. Gaitonde (Painting No. 4, 1962)

Mademoiselle Pogany (Constantin Brancusi)

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA): 11 West 53rd St. (between Fifth and Sixth Ave.) , New York City, NY 10019, USA. Open 10:30 AM – 5:30 PM (8 PM on Fridays). Admission: US$25/adult, children below 12 years old is free. 

How to Get There:

Bus: Any line to 53rd Street

Metro: Any line to Fifth Avenue or 53rd Street

Incheon International Airport (South Korea)

Incheon International Airport

Incheon International Airport (IIA) (IATA: ICN, ICAO: RKSI), sometimes referred to as Seoul–Incheon International Airport, is the largest airport in South Korea. Located west of Incheon‘s city center, the airport is located on an artificially created piece of land between Yeongjong and Yongyu Islands.

Originally separated by shallow sea, the area between the two islands was reclaimed for the construction project, effectively connecting the two islands. The reclaimed area. as well as the two islands, are all part of Jung-gu, an administrative district of Incheon.

L-R: Jandy, Grace, Cheska and Kyle

The airport opened for business on March 29, 2001, replacing the older Gimpo International Airport which now serves mostly domestic destinations plus shuttle flights to alternate airports in several East Asian metropolitan areas including Tokyo and Osaka, both in Japan; Beijing and Shanghai, both in China; and Taipei in Taiwan.

A Duty-Free Shop

Incheon International Airport’s terminal has 111 boarding gates altogether, with 44 in Terminal 1, 30 in Concourse A (connected to terminal 1), and 37 in Terminal 2. The airport serves as a hub for international civilian air transportation and cargo traffic in East Asia. Located 48 kms (30 mi.) west of Seoul, the capital and the largest city of South Korea, Incheon International Airport is the primary airport serving the Seoul Capital Area.

The author and son Jandy

Here are some interesting trivia regarding this airport:

  • The airport is the main hub for Korean AirAsiana AirlinesJeju Air, and Polar Air Cargo.
  • In 2016, the Incheon International Airport was the fifth busiest airport in the world and third in Asia by cargo traffic, and 19th in the world and eighth in Asia by passenger traffic. In 2017, the airport improved to being the world’s fourth busiest airport by cargo traffic (and still third in Asia).  It remained the world’s 19th busiest airport by passenger traffic (but dropped to ninth in Asia).
  • In 2016, the airport served a total of 57,849,814 passengers. In 2017, it increased its total to 62,082,032 passengers.
  • It is ranked among the fastest airports in the world for customs processing. It is claimed, by airport authorities, that average departure and arrival takes 19 minutes and 12 minutes, respectively, as compared to worldwide average of 60 minutes and 45 minutes, respectively.
  • It is rated as the world’s cleanest airport
  • It is one of the largest and busiest airports in the world.
  • In 2012, in the World Airport Survey results published by Skytrax, it was ranked as the world’s best international transit airport.
  • Incheon International Airport claims that it has only a 0.0001% baggage mishandling rate.

Since its opening, Incheon International Airport has been the recipient of a number of awards including:

  • For 11 consecutive years, from 2005 to 2016, the airport held the record of being ranked the Best Airport Worldwide by the Airports Council International(ACI)’s Airport Service Quality Award.
  • Since 2012, due to the Airports Council International(ACI)’s decision to discontinue the Best Airport Worldwide category, it has also been rated the world’s best among airports of its size (25–40 million passengers) and region (Asia-Pacific).
  • In January 2007, it won the GT Tested Award for Best Airport in the World.
  • In January 2008, it was named by Global Traveler (GT) as the Best Airport in the World for the second straight year.
  • In 2013, Business Traveller rated its duty-free shopping mall as the world’s best for three years in a row.

Kyle watching planes landing and taking off

The airport has a golf coursespa, private sleeping rooms, an ice skating rink, a casinoindoor gardens, and a Museum of Korean Culture.