MoMA Talks: Performances and Readings

February 22, 2013 3:30 p.m. Kenneth Goldsmith reads Luigi Russolo's Futurist manifesto "The Art of Noise" (1913) in Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925 In conjunction with the exhibition Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925 As part of Kenneth Goldsmith's Poet Laureate program, he invites renowned writers to choose works in MoMA's collection, develop a response, and then select a space in the Museum galleries where they will perform the resulting readings and texts on Wednesdays. On selected Fridays, Goldsmith himself will contribute readings in the galleries. Visitors can meet the writers directly in their selected gallery. This program is a part of MoMA's Artists Experiment initiative.

February 20, 2013 12:30 p.m. Sheila Heti reads from her book How Should a Person Be? in front of Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon on the fifth floor. Sheila Heti is the author of five books, including the story collection The Middle Stories, the novel Ticknor, and the children’s book We Need a Horse. With Misha Glouberman, she wrote The Chairs Are Where the People Go, a book of “conversational philosopy” that The New Yorker chose as a Best Book of 2011. Last year, she published How Should a Person Be? A Novel from Life, which The New York Times Book Review called an “odd, original, and nearly unclassifiable book...unlike any other novel I can think of.” Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, The London Review of Books, n+1, McSweeney’s, Bookforum, and others. She is currently teaching a master class at Columbia called What Is Character? She is the interviews editor at The Believer and has contributed many interviews with writers and artists to the magazine. As part of Kenneth Goldsmith's Poet Laureate program, he invites renowned writers to choose works in MoMA's collection, develop a response, and then select a space in the Museum galleries where they will perform the resulting readings and texts on Wednesdays. On selected Fridays, Goldsmith himself will contribute readings in the galleries. Visitors can meet the writers directly in their selected gallery. This program is a part of MoMA's Artists Experiment initiative.

February 20, 2013 12:30 p.m. Sheila Heti reads from her book How Should a Person Be? in front of Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon on the fifth floor. Sheila Heti is the author of five books, including the story collection The Middle Stories, the novel Ticknor, and the children’s book We Need a Horse. With Misha Glouberman, she wrote The Chairs Are Where the People Go, a book of “conversational philosopy” that The New Yorker chose as a Best Book of 2011. Last year, she published How Should a Person Be? A Novel from Life, which The New York Times Book Review called an “odd, original, and nearly unclassifiable book...unlike any other novel I can think of.” Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, The London Review of Books, n+1, McSweeney’s, Bookforum, and others. She is currently teaching a master class at Columbia called What Is Character? She is the interviews editor at The Believer and has contributed many interviews with writers and artists to the magazine. As part of Kenneth Goldsmith's Poet Laureate program, he invites renowned writers to choose works in MoMA's collection, develop a response, and then select a space in the Museum galleries where they will perform the resulting readings and texts on Wednesdays. On selected Fridays, Goldsmith himself will contribute readings in the galleries. Visitors can meet the writers directly in their selected gallery. This program is a part of MoMA's Artists Experiment initiative.

Friday, February 15, 2013, 3:00 p.m. Kenneth Goldsmith reads selections from the minimal poems of Aram Saroyan (composed between 1968 and 1972) in the Minimalism Galleries on the 4th floor. As part of Kenneth Goldsmith's Poet Laureate program, he invites renowned writers to choose works in MoMA's collection, develop a response, and then select a space in the Museum galleries where they will perform the resulting readings and texts on Wednesdays. On selected Fridays, Goldsmith himself will contribute readings in the galleries. Visitors can meet the writers directly in their selected gallery. This program is a part of MoMA's Artists Experiment initiative.

Friday, February 15, 2013, 3:00 p.m. Kenneth Goldsmith reads selections from the minimal poems of Aram Saroyan (composed between 1968 and 1972) in the Minimalism Galleries on the 4th floor. As part of Kenneth Goldsmith's Poet Laureate program, he invites renowned writers to choose works in MoMA's collection, develop a response, and then select a space in the Museum galleries where they will perform the resulting readings and texts on Wednesdays. On selected Fridays, Goldsmith himself will contribute readings in the galleries. Visitors can meet the writers directly in their selected gallery. This program is a part of MoMA's Artists Experiment initiative.

Friday, February 8, 2013, 3:00 p.m. Kenneth Goldsmith reads poet Blaise Cendrars's "The Prose of the Trans-Siberian and of Little Joan of France" in the Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925 exhibition galleries, in front of the influential book illustrated by Sonia Delaunay. The display includes Delaunay's original painting for this book, Delaunay and Cendrars's working maquette, and a unique printed copy from the collection of Guillaume Apollinaire. In conjunction with the exhibition Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925 As part of Kenneth Goldsmith's Poet Laureate program, he invites renowned writers to choose works in MoMA's collection, develop a response, and then select a space in the Museum galleries where they will perform the resulting readings and texts on Wednesdays. On selected Fridays, Goldsmith himself will contribute readings in the galleries. Visitors can meet the writers directly in their selected gallery. This program is a part of MoMA's Artists Experiment initiative.

Friday, February 8, 2013, 3:00 p.m. Kenneth Goldsmith reads poet Blaise Cendrars's "The Prose of the Trans-Siberian and of Little Joan of France" in the Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925 exhibition galleries, in front of the influential book illustrated by Sonia Delaunay. The display includes Delaunay's original painting for this book, Delaunay and Cendrars's working maquette, and a unique printed copy from the collection of Guillaume Apollinaire. In conjunction with the exhibition Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925 As part of Kenneth Goldsmith's Poet Laureate program, he invites renowned writers to choose works in MoMA's collection, develop a response, and then select a space in the Museum galleries where they will perform the resulting readings and texts on Wednesdays. On selected Fridays, Goldsmith himself will contribute readings in the galleries. Visitors can meet the writers directly in their selected gallery. This program is a part of MoMA's Artists Experiment initiative.

Thursday, March 1, 2012, 6:00 p.m. Theater 3 (The Celeste Bartos Theater), mezzanine, The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building Revitalizing Frank O'Hara's legacy and MoMA's historical commitment to poetry, this series invites poets and performers to bring the literary tradition to the Museum's collection. They read historical works and their own work that reflects on modern and contemporary art. In early 2006, poet Robert Fitterman invited several other poets and artists to participate in a collective project: one participant would offer the group a new task on the first day of each new month, to be completed within that month, and participants would respond to any or all of the tasks. Tasks have ranged from "Create a piece around your first purchase of the month of March" to simply "One act." The group named itself Collective Task and published its task-prompted works in 2009. Collective Task is now in its second round, with many new participants, under the curatorial care of Lanny Jordan Jackson. On this special evening, members of the group present paintings, texts, sound pieces, and photographic works made in response to the tasks they have set for each other over the years. Participants include Chris Alexander, Kieran Daly, Mónica de la Torre, Gordon Faylor, Rob Fitterman, Kristen Gallagher, Lawrence Giffin, Sabine Hermann, Lanny Jordan Jackson, Josef Kaplan, Klaus Killisch, Patrick Lovelace, Kristin Lucas, Carol Mirakove, Yedda Morrison, John Paetsch, Kim Rosenfield, Andrew Sterling, and many others.

Thursday, March 1, 2012, 6:00 p.m. Theater 3 (The Celeste Bartos Theater), mezzanine, The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building Revitalizing Frank O'Hara's legacy and MoMA's historical commitment to poetry, this series invites poets and performers to bring the literary tradition to the Museum's collection. They read historical works and their own work that reflects on modern and contemporary art. In early 2006, poet Robert Fitterman invited several other poets and artists to participate in a collective project: one participant would offer the group a new task on the first day of each new month, to be completed within that month, and participants would respond to any or all of the tasks. Tasks have ranged from "Create a piece around your first purchase of the month of March" to simply "One act." The group named itself Collective Task and published its task-prompted works in 2009. Collective Task is now in its second round, with many new participants, under the curatorial care of Lanny Jordan Jackson. On this special evening, members of the group present paintings, texts, sound pieces, and photographic works made in response to the tasks they have set for each other over the years. Participants include Chris Alexander, Kieran Daly, Mónica de la Torre, Gordon Faylor, Rob Fitterman, Kristen Gallagher, Lawrence Giffin, Sabine Hermann, Lanny Jordan Jackson, Josef Kaplan, Klaus Killisch, Patrick Lovelace, Kristin Lucas, Carol Mirakove, Yedda Morrison, John Paetsch, Kim Rosenfield, Andrew Sterling, and many others.

Monday, March 15, 2010 7:30 PM Poets Joshua Beckman and Matthew Rohrer perform found poetry about works in the Museum’s collection after hours.

Monday, March 15, 2010 7:30 PM Poets Joshua Beckman and Matthew Rohrer perform found poetry about works in the Museum’s collection after hours.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010 6:15 PM The MoMA exhibition Rising Currents: Projects for New York’s Waterfront addresses some of the most urgent challenges of sea-level rise resulting from global climate change in New York City. It features five inter-disciplinary teams that have proposed solutions to rising currents at five different sites along the New York and New Jersey coastlines. On a cruise aboard the New York Water Taxi around these sites, poets Matthea Harvey and Lisa Jarnot read works about water, nature, and ecology, as well as newly commissioned poems that reimagine what the city might be like underwater, way above water, and with man-made islands and habitable piers. Barry Bergdoll, The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design and organizer of the exhibition, offers the architectural project briefs.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010 6:15 PM The MoMA exhibition Rising Currents: Projects for New York’s Waterfront addresses some of the most urgent challenges of sea-level rise resulting from global climate change in New York City. It features five inter-disciplinary teams that have proposed solutions to rising currents at five different sites along the New York and New Jersey coastlines. On a cruise aboard the New York Water Taxi around these sites, poets Matthea Harvey and Lisa Jarnot read works about water, nature, and ecology, as well as newly commissioned poems that reimagine what the city might be like underwater, way above water, and with man-made islands and habitable piers. Barry Bergdoll, The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design and organizer of the exhibition, offers the architectural project briefs.

December 01, 2009, 6:30 PM The interdisciplinary innovations in design, movement, and performance that were characteristic of the Bauhaus had a great impact on the era’s musical vanguard. Several significant composers had ties to the Bauhaus and many others were represented in Bauhaus performances, forging an entirely new musical language that incorporated the school’s unique ethos. In this concert, which accompanies the exhibition Bauhaus 1919–1933: Workshops for Modernity, Maria Tegzes, soprano, and Geoffrey Burleson, pianist and Director of Performance Studies and Coordinator of Piano Studies, Music Department, Hunter College, City University of New York, perform selected Bauhaus musical compositions. The program includes pieces by George Antheil, Ferruccio Busoni, Paul Hindemith, Ernst Krenek, Arnold Schoenberg, and Oskar Schlemmer. Burleson also offers introductory commentary, setting the historical context for music at the Bauhaus.

December 01, 2009, 6:30 PM The interdisciplinary innovations in design, movement, and performance that were characteristic of the Bauhaus had a great impact on the era’s musical vanguard. Several significant composers had ties to the Bauhaus and many others were represented in Bauhaus performances, forging an entirely new musical language that incorporated the school’s unique ethos. In this concert, which accompanies the exhibition Bauhaus 1919–1933: Workshops for Modernity, Maria Tegzes, soprano, and Geoffrey Burleson, pianist and Director of Performance Studies and Coordinator of Piano Studies, Music Department, Hunter College, City University of New York, perform selected Bauhaus musical compositions. The program includes pieces by George Antheil, Ferruccio Busoni, Paul Hindemith, Ernst Krenek, Arnold Schoenberg, and Oskar Schlemmer. Burleson also offers introductory commentary, setting the historical context for music at the Bauhaus.