MoMA Talks: Conversations

September 6, 2007 6:00 p.m. Co-curator Lynne Cooke and Richard Serra discuss the artist’s work and the exhibition Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years. Photo courtesy of Paula Court

In conjunction with the MoMA exhibition Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925, Bang on a Can presents a pair of concerts that reveal how pioneering European composers of 100 years ago forever changed the music in New York. Each concert pairs two composers—an early-20th-century innovator, and a New Yorker they influenced. The music is performed by alumni and faculty of the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA, a program dedicated entirely to the creation, study, and performance of the most adventurous music of our time. This second evening in the series features one of Arnold Schoenberg's shortest, oddest, most intense pieces, Herzgewächse, a shockingly expressive vocal miniature originally written for Vasily Kandinsky's journal The Blue Rider. Morton Feldman's meditative work Three Voices, for solo voice and two prerecorded solo voices, a luxurious, introspective setting of a poem by Frank O'Hara, has a much slower tempo than the Schoenberg piece, but is ultimately no less intense.

In conjunction with the MoMA exhibition Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925, Bang on a Can presents a pair of concerts that reveal how pioneering European composers of 100 years ago forever changed the music in New York. Each concert pairs two composers—an early-20th-century innovator, and a New Yorker they influenced. The music is performed by alumni and faculty of the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA, a program dedicated entirely to the creation, study, and performance of the most adventurous music of our time. This second evening in the series features one of Arnold Schoenberg's shortest, oddest, most intense pieces, Herzgewächse, a shockingly expressive vocal miniature originally written for Vasily Kandinsky's journal The Blue Rider. Morton Feldman's meditative work Three Voices, for solo voice and two prerecorded solo voices, a luxurious, introspective setting of a poem by Frank O'Hara, has a much slower tempo than the Schoenberg piece, but is ultimately no less intense.

In conjunction with MoMA's presentation of Wolfgang Laib's Pollen from Hazelnut, Agnes Gund, President Emerita of The Museum of Modern Art, joins the artist in conversation about the installation and his creative process. Ann Temkin, The Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture, moderates.

In conjunction with MoMA's presentation of Wolfgang Laib's Pollen from Hazelnut, Agnes Gund, President Emerita of The Museum of Modern Art, joins the artist in conversation about the installation and his creative process. Ann Temkin, The Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture, moderates.

Media artist and filmmaker Scott Snibbe and his collaborator Lukas Girling discuss their work and its relationship to sound in space, with a particular focus on REWORK_(Philip Glass Remixed) [GLASS MACHINE], which is featured at MoMA Studio.

Media artist and filmmaker Scott Snibbe and his collaborator Lukas Girling discuss their work and its relationship to sound in space, with a particular focus on REWORK_(Philip Glass Remixed) [GLASS MACHINE], which is featured at MoMA Studio.

Artist Joe McKay discusses his work and its relationship to sound in space, with a particular focus on Light Wave and Tweetagraph, his interactive installations in MoMA Studio.

Artist Joe McKay discusses his work and its relationship to sound in space, with a particular focus on Light Wave and Tweetagraph, his interactive installations in MoMA Studio.

Claes Oldenburg reads from Writing on the Side 1956–1969 (edited by Achim Hochdörfer, Maartje Oldenburg, and Barbara Schröder), a newly published selection of diaries, notes, poems, scripts, and statements that the artist wrote in the 1960s. The event is introduced by Ann Temkin, Chief Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, and organizer of the exhibition Claes Oldenburg: The Street and The Store and Claes Oldenburg: Mouse Museum/Ray Gun Wing; and Maartje Oldenburg. The reading is followed by a book signing and reception.

Claes Oldenburg reads from Writing on the Side 1956–1969 (edited by Achim Hochdörfer, Maartje Oldenburg, and Barbara Schröder), a newly published selection of diaries, notes, poems, scripts, and statements that the artist wrote in the 1960s. The event is introduced by Ann Temkin, Chief Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, and organizer of the exhibition Claes Oldenburg: The Street and The Store and Claes Oldenburg: Mouse Museum/Ray Gun Wing; and Maartje Oldenburg. The reading is followed by a book signing and reception.

Curator Mathieu Copeland discusses the poetics of interstitial, neutral and otherwise overlooked off-spaces—and off-times—of museums and galleries. He envisages how they can be activated and seen anew through a variety of perspectives, and thus subvert the traditional role of exhibitions and renew the way they are perceived.

Curator Mathieu Copeland discusses the poetics of interstitial, neutral and otherwise overlooked off-spaces—and off-times—of museums and galleries. He envisages how they can be activated and seen anew through a variety of perspectives, and thus subvert the traditional role of exhibitions and renew the way they are perceived.

This half-day symposium explores the art scene and artistic production in Tokyo in the 1950s and 1960s through a series of film screenings and discussions with directors, curators, critics, and artists. The films, including ANPO: Art X War (Linda Hoaglund, 2010), Some Young People (Nagano Chiaki, 1964), and Japan: The New Art (Michael and Christian Blackwood, 1970), are followed by the roundtable discussion, “What Was So Avant-Garde about Tokyo from 1955 to 1970?”

This half-day symposium explores the art scene and artistic production in Tokyo in the 1950s and 1960s through a series of film screenings and discussions with directors, curators, critics, and artists. The films, including ANPO: Art X War (Linda Hoaglund, 2010), Some Young People (Nagano Chiaki, 1964), and Japan: The New Art (Michael and Christian Blackwood, 1970), are followed by the roundtable discussion, “What Was So Avant-Garde about Tokyo from 1955 to 1970?”