If you look closely, this outfit is really just this outfit with a sweater over it, but then again, one item can make a big difference in an outfit. And why a sweater you ask, when I was complaining online about the unbearable combination of heat and humidity (seriously no idea how people cope with that, as my hair  here clearly indicates)? That was to combat the Aggressive Air Conditioning, capitals totally warranted.  Anyway, this is what I wore to the Museum of Modern Art (The MoMA), which I think rather suited the place, or at least suited the sculptures featured here by Henri Matisse. As the name implies, the museum houses Modern Art (roughly art 1860s-the 1960s or 70s; more recent art is called contemporary art or post-modern art), but also has some more contemporary installations as well. 

Truthfully, this visit was a bit of a bust. It is a fantastically active and ambitious museum, but I got a migraine pretty early on, and a lot of contemporary art exhibits featured sound, flashing lights, and strong smells- all things that can set off or worsen such headaches. One exhibit was purely about the history of recorded sound, which would have been fascinating, and the MoMA considers film an art, so it has a huge collection. Honestly though, I don't always "get" contemporary art, and I like to think I enjoy a lot of more surreal artistic pieces. I think this is because a lot of contemporary art, especially the mixed media/performance pieces,  are often aimed at making you think more than being concerned with aesthetics, and you have to have a lot of background to get things. And some were pretty cool- an ancient Chinese war boat with thousands of arrows stuck to it and floating in the room invoked a sense of place and mythic storytelling, for example, or large zoetropes projecting images onto a wall, or a mural to tell about racial tensions were moving.  But sometimes a giant white screen is a giant white screen.  I did however, greatly enjoy all the Modern Art, particularly an exhibit on Grete Stern and some of her surreal photography, and the wing on modern art paintings from the post-impressionist through to post-WWII. The paintings were all organized by chronology and art movement; I've never seen so many  of Picasso's in one place, and it was particularly interesting to see the artistic development of Cubism. One of my favorite pieces though is the one shown above, a painting by Henri Matisse called "The Piano Lesson." 

Because my headache was getting to be too much, we bailed and had our first High Tea at a delightful Alice in Wonderland themed tea place. Nothing like tea and art!