James Gaston

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Marx Freud Mao 23 Oct 2021 Marx Freud Mao 23 Oct 2021 Paris --

Today we visited the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, which specializes in 20th century art. It is in a large building fronting the Seine. Visiting the museum's permanent collection is free. As with all museums in France, you must show your vaccination passport.

I missed loading the museum's app prior to our visit so instead of listening to a commentary on the art works I resorted to reading the text posted next to each work. Sometimes I find this text amusing, sometimes puzzling. For example, today I encountered a particularly spare work, too spare to be captured in a photo, accompanied by the text "the painting expresses nothing beyond its own materiality and that of the place of which it is part" which I suppose pretty well summed it up.

Here is a sampling of the many pieces we saw today.

Marx Freud Mao by Henri Cueco, 1969

The thinker, the psychoanalyst, and the revolutionary rest on a bed of cobblestones as a "metaphor for the construction of a philosophical, societal, and political system."

Marx Freud Mao by Henri Cueco, 1969

The thinker, the psychoanalyst, and the revolutionary rest on a bed of cobblestones as a "metaphor for the construction of a philosophical, societal, and political system."

Marx Freud Mao by Henri Cueco, 1969

The thinker, the psychoanalyst, and the revolutionary rest on a bed of cobblestones as a "metaphor for the construction of a philosophical, societal, and political system."

Three by Robert Delaunay

Symbiotic Consciousness, film by Louidgi Beltrame, 2021

This ten-minute film circulates between three themes: a desolate moon-like landscape, a fiery sun-like globe, and a giant eyeball.

Symbiotic Consciousness, film by Louidgi Beltrame, 2021

This ten-minute film circulates between three themes: a desolate moon-like landscape, a fiery sun-like globe, and a giant eyeball.

Symbiotic Consciousness, film by Louidgi Beltrame, 2021

This ten-minute film circulates between three themes: a desolate moon-like landscape, a fiery sun-like globe, and a giant eyeball.

Tour Eiffel by Robert Delaunay, 1926

Femme aux boucles d'oreilles by Amedeo Modigliani, 1917

Interieur americain no 1 by Olafsvik, 1969

"By superimposing North Vietnamese communist imagery on a peaceful interior scene from a decoration magazine, he conveyed both the fears of society in the context of the cold war and the fact that, despite the geographical remoteness from the violent conflict, the trauma it generated resurfaced in people's homes."

Interieur americain no 1 by Olafsvik, 1969

Chariot by Peter Klasen, 1972

"A condemnation of a sick, conformist, and alienating society."

Chariot by Peter Klasen, 1972

"A condemnation of a sick, conformist, and alienating society."

Chariot by Peter Klasen, 1972

"A condemnation of a sick, conformist, and alienating society."

Map of Paris

Bois de Boulogne