FROM GOMA TO MOMA: APPEALING TO THE MODERN & CONTEMPORARY

Many of us enjoy the aesthetic appeal and delight in the skill and intention behind works of art. What is it that makes modern art in particular so appealing? Is it the colour and shading, or the connection to our own soul and intellect? Are we naturally voyeuristic?

For thousands of years humans have engaged in artistic endeavours. From cave paintings up to the present day, it is a natural part of the way that we communicate. Modern art helps us to communicate our fears, social issues, important historical events and relationships with others.

Modern art usually denotes the time period 1860 – 1970 approximately, highlighting a shift from the traditional renaissance–style paintings of old to the likes of Surrealism, Fauvism and Cubism.

Often modern art galleries will have both modern art and contemporary works, the latter referring to anything produced post 1970. Many of us will be familiar with Dali, Magritte, Warhol and Lichtenstein as being typically modern: the bright colours of Lichtenstein and comic strip style pieces especially his infamous piece In the Car (1962), the strange and warped shapes of Dali and the ostentatious and culture-breaking work of Warhol with his eminent Campbell’s Soup Cans and Marilyn Monroe screen-prints.

Often contemporary artists are influenced by the modern period, and their works tend to showcase a particular moment in time, or a cultural attitude of a time. The aim is to preserve these ideas that people were exposed to and which changed the way art was viewed historically. With contemporary art, what we see are our present attitudes and reactions to the Zeitgeist, such as the nature of our identity, our place in the world, globalisation and technology.

GoMA is a striking building in Glasgow’s city centre; with huge pillars reminiscent of the Parthenon, it is the centre-piece of Queen Street. A house of contemporary exhibitions, GoMA has a permanent feature Stones Steeped in History which explains the controversial history of the building; the building was first a townhouse for William Cunningham (1776), a famous tobacconist, and has some links to the slave trade.

Another exhibition at GoMA, Domestic Bliss, highlights an unusual take on the domestic scene, questioning what domesticity really is, while drawing on themes of feminism, isolation and identity. It gives the viewer an insight into other people’s domestic spaces with works from 27 artists including Grayson Perry.

The viewer is exposed to a photograph (Nick Waplington) of a family in a messy living room, with toys strewn on the floor, and a lady sitting in her pyjamas holding a baby. This scene presents the ‘inner life’ of people we may never meet and enables the viewer to consider a behind the scenes take on a family in Glasgow. What we see on the outside is not always the full story.

The exhibition also has a book collection that viewers can peruse, including Nathan Connolly’s ‘Know Your Place’ and Helen Molesworth’s ‘House Work and Art Work’. Beside the book collection, there is an old television set in front of which the viewer may relax in an old chair and become part of the domestic scene.

Installation art especially allows us to fully engage with a thought, a situation or place that we may never encounter in our everyday lives. A form of escapism, we become part of the idea itself.

Art allows us to see something on the surface which then represents a wider message. As Grayson Perry stated: ‘I want to make something that lives with the eye as a beautiful piece of art, but on closer inspection, a polemic or an ideology will come out of it’. We are offered an opportunity to enter another person’s worldview and to question our own conceptions and perceptions of the world.

GoMA also hosts regular rotations of work by artists including Andy Goldsworthy, Bridget Riley and Sir Eduardo Paolozzi.

Comparatively, if we journey to New York, art enthusiasts will often be drawn to The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

Here you can find a similar selection of both contemporary and modern art collections including work from Picasso, Braque and others as part of the early avant-garde movements. Currently, an exhibition of Alex Katz’s work explores the changing seasons with colour palettes matching the mood of each particular season. For example, we see a rich and vibrant palette portraying spring and summer, and a darker perhaps more sombre palette showing his interpretation of winter and the falling leaves of autumn. Inspired by Monet, Katz aims to represent the natural world in his paintings and produces work on a large scale.

Whether we are drawn to works of art for their striking beauty, or for the underlying messages, it is a pursuit that survives technological advancements and AI. Art allows us to take a break from the demands of instant messaging and avatar lives, we can engage with the processes of real individuals and their interpretation of the world. We can directly see the brush strokes of modern artists who are no longer with us, revealing thoughts and feelings that are still pertinent to us today.