a visit to MoMA

 Several years ago I was in a museum, I no longer remember which museum it was and I saw two sculptures that just blew me away.

One was by Ruth Asawa 

and the other was by Gego (Gertrude Goldsmith)you can read more about here here.

I just loved how both of them blended the universes of textiles and sculpture. I loved seeing the work of both women in close proximity to one another.

Ruth Asawa has a big show at MoMA. I went yesterday. I was delighted and surprised to see a long time friend  in the lobby who just happened to be visiting the museum from out of town with her husband.

My friend who was supposed to meet me didn't show up so i saw the exhibit on my own. There are nice things about seeing an exhibit with a companion. I also like to go on my own not tied to the pace and likes and dislikes of another human.

When I was  younger and certainly when I was an Art History major I saw my job in an exhibit to look closely at every single piece in an exhibit. At some point I gave myself permission when at a museum to only look at the things that I wanted to look at and to spend as little or as much time as I wanted looking at any piece or any exhibit. I think I learned this as a mother trying to introduce my kids to going to museums when they were very young. 

Ruth Asawa's sculptures are breathtaking. The sculptures themselves and the shadows they cast are simply wonderful.

They look completely effortless, like a breath.  I can tell you as someone who has done some small scale crochet in wire, that creating this work is massively difficult work.

The shadows are part of the sculptures.

I was not drawn to her paintings at all, so I stopped looking at them .

I loved the metal used as a textile.