MOMA New York: Modern Stops at 1930

There has never been another Picasso. There are many who he influenced and whose styles were similar to one or another of the many phases he went through, but none whose entire body of work, from twelve years old all the way through into his late eighties, can match this extraordinary artist.

MOMA has six floors. Plot and Duck started at the top -- a Japanese post WWII retrospective on just how depressing art can be. Down the escalator to Floor Five and you run into the collection from 1870-1920. You could spend your life on this floor. Just when Plotnik had finally had enough Picasso, Ducknik pointed out this exquisite Matisse.

 The painting is small -- Plot passed it by initially because he didn't see the bather in the middle. After he realized what he was looking at, he couldn't take his eyes off it.

And then they saw "Starry Night," Ducknik's favorite Van Gogh. Someday, somebody's going to write a song about this painting.



They should have just gone home right then, but instead went down to Floor Four and Floor Three, which prove that Minimalism has absolutely nothing to add to man's artistic and emotional life. If MOMA's collection of contemporary art is the best they could do, several of The Great Dance-Nik's ex-companion Tom's paintings deserve to be featured in these rooms.

Plot took this picture in memory of the chief: three blank canvases take up one entire wall. Once he and the Chief had been shanghaied to see an exhibition at MOMA in L.A. There was one enormous canvas which was painted white with nothing else on it. The Chief lost it right there: "This is bullshit, boychik," he said. It may be the only time Plottie ever heard him swear. So Chiefie, this one's for you. Three of 'em this time.

So the bottom line is that as far as The Great Plotnik is concerned, anything decent that the Museum of Modern Art calls "modern" stops around 1930. After that there is little to look at, short of blank canvases and Andy Warhol soup cans. So says Plotnik von Pfingerpaint, famous Art Critic.

It has started to snow. We're supposed to get a foot by tomorrow. Plot is kinda looking forward to it. But today it's just rain, the almost-freezing kind that makes walking uncomfortable. Nonetheless, it is now time to get out on the street to wait for the bus to transfer to the train to meet The Great PD at Cousin Josh's lunch counter in Manhattan for lunch. Pastrami!