Disco at the Guggenheim

OK, here's my kid activity review of "The Shapes of Space" exhibit at the Guggenheim. I saw this online and saw it in Time Out Kids and decided to take Elana. In short, it's worth every penny I spent. I had free tickets. If you have to spend the $18 or $20 a head that people normally spend to get in... go elsewhere.

If you've never been to the Guggenheim Museum in NYC, I'll tell you the description that I tell everyone. The building is almost always more interesting than the actual exhibits. This new exhibit doesn't disappoint... the building is still more interesting than the actual exhibits. If you want crazy modern art wierdness, spend the extra $2 and go to the MOMA. If you're looking for a kid activity, spend the money on "Baby Loves Disco" instead.

The show is mostly the usual Guggenheim fare of giant solid black canvases and lots of empty space. I guess this show is targeted at the NYC dweller, who really appreciates the value of large, wasted, empty space. The one installation of any interest is the one pictured above. No surprise, every article about this exhibit shows a picture of this room because the rest isn't much to speak of. As we all know, with modern art the quality of the work is inversely proportional to the length of the bullshit explanation that comes with it. The above piece had a lengthy explanation. Summarized, the artist is making some weak association between moden artists like Piet Mondrian... e.g.


...and a disco. Oh see! He took a lighted floor that you could find in numerous dance clubs across the world and he put it into a museum? Isn't that clever? Um... no. The fine line here between clever and stupid would be that if it floor was a lot more like a Mondrian painting, (i.e. different sized boxes, black border lines, Mondrian's pallet etc) then it might be cute. At least Elana had a lot of fun running around in this room and screaming.