modern art

I may or may not have mentioned in a previous post that I went in to town last week and had lunch with a pretty lady named Monika. Our dates seem to be few these days so we try to sneak out when we can. This one was over Mon's lunch hour from work. Mon suggested Thai. One thing we both love is Thai food - any day of the week. And good thing Swedes love Thai because there are probably as many Thai restaurants as pizza parlors. Okay, that may be an exaggeration but there is no shortage. Heck, our local gas station out here in the country was even offering Thai food one weekend. Unfortunately we didn't get to check it out. Yet I digress.

Sandwiched on either side of our Thai feast were solo visits to the Three Kronor Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, both walkable from Gamla Stan but I'd suggest you wear gym shoes if you do walk. My feet were hurting when I got home and I wore flat soled shoes. I figure I'd better be a Stockholm tourist while we're here and strive to see what we haven't seen. The Three Kronor Museum is a museum about the middle ages and how Stockholm got its start back in the 1200's as a fortress guarding the harbor and fresh water lake that feeds it. Most of the museum is housed in a dark brick arched basement of the main palace in Old Town. It's short and sweet and now that we've been here for a year+ the nuts and bolts of Swedish history click a lot more. I'm a bit of a history buff so I find it interesting. For some reason I think we may have visited it the very first time I came to Sweden back in 2001. I may be wrong though.

After lunch I took in the Modern Museum. Not much to say. Even after three quarters of art appreciation in college I just don't get some of the 'modern' artists. One guy created a video exhibit of him bouncing washers in the museum lobby. Where the washer would land he'd walk over and pick it up and bounce it again. Maybe I'm a philistine, but secretly I think I just want that guy's job. And I don't mean to insult philistinekind, but are we suppose to take this performance art seriously? I mean, give me a break. Maybe I was a little disappointed. I think I may have been expecting ooo and ahh but came out wondering how much I had paid.

If you do visit the Modern Museum do yourself a favor and put your book bag in a locker because you are not allowed to put it on your shoulder while in the museum. Don't ask me why, you're just not. And they will remind you if your natural instinct to put it on your shoulder gets the better of you. Also, I was looking at one display of building materials - building materials I say - arranged in a 3 meter stack like legos or lincoln logs. I couldn't figure out what they were made of so I gave it a quick finger tap. Looked like fiber glass but it also looked like concrete, neither of which would be offended by a finger tap.

Down comes the hammer: Usäkte mig! a volunteer swooped in on me right away.

But I didn't know what it was made of...

Sir, don't touch it, it is ART!

But, but...

I didn't think the artist would mind, really. In fact I think he might have even felt down right complimented that someone stepped out of the stream of gawkers and cared enough to finger tap his uncordoned pile of industrial concrete fiberglass looking lincoln logs. But maybe that's just me. I'm not sure which offended me more - this guy passing the building yard supplies off as art or this volunteer coming down on me like I was thug. I think somewhere in this exchange is where the terms 'artsy fartsy' and 'hoity toity' were born. I'm sure the volunteer was just doing her job. But then again, maybe I've spent the last six years in all the hands-on fun museums with the boys and I had forgotten I was in the no-fun house. I'm no expert lady, but if this is art, I got a pile of 2x4s at home that will knock your socks off.

Do yourself a favor and don't finger tap the big concrete lincoln logs if you go to the Modern Museum in Stockholm.

One highlight from the Museum that I liked was an Andy Warhol print of Mao Tse Tung. I don't think I've seen any real Warhol prints in person before. Maybe, back at a museum in Cincinnati. I don't know if this is picture of Mao is the exact one hanging in Stockholm since Andy did it in at least 10 different color combinations. Remember my trouble with the dots? I wonder if Andy was colorblind too? I wonder if old Mao would have been proud or appalled at his Andy Warhol doctored photo in the Modern Museum in Stockholm. Or, for that matter, I wonder if he would have liked the recent Beijing Olympics.

We have a couple artists of our own back home. Jake's had a huge gallery since I can remember. Sammy has just taken to drawing and wanting to post up his artwork like big brother. As a parent you take stock in every drawing and wonder which ones to keep. These two are from Sammy.

Every time I lie on Sammy's bunk to read a book or to tuck him in he points at this one at the foot of his bed and tells me with conviction, that is upside down.

I believe it if you do Sammy. I believe it if you do.