dada at moma

you have another month to see the excellent dada exhibit at the museum of modern art--it'll be on the sixth floor until september 11--and if you have any personal affinity for this sort of thing, there's really no way you want to miss it. this is a crowdpleaser in the best sense of the word: scoboco saw it all the way back in june and loved it. dglass went a couple of weeks ago and loved it. dglass's parents loved it. my man fred loved it. gallery expert eric loved it (well... if he didn't, he should have).



organized by city--new york, paris, zurich, berlin, a couple more--and with some of the best, most informative "liner notes" i've ever read (these really helped boco fully appreciate what they were seeing), the show features work by some 50 artists, including marcel duchamp's amusing "readymades" and sculptures, jean arp's lively collages, paintings by picabia and schwitters and grosz, a few great films (the one of the hat sailing through streets was our favorite--so beautiful and so somehow sad), assemblages by man ray, some terrific typographic stuff and on and on. and aside from the obvious aesthetic appeal, what struck me most was how influential this era continues to be on contemporary art. wander around chelsea for an hour or two and you'll see so much of what was so shocking and provocative in the 19-teens and -twenties still being used today.

also worth checking out while you're there: douglas gordon's 24-hour psycho (the hitchcock movie, slowed down so it takes a full day to complete), and the new piece in that big main room where "water lillies" used to be. i forget the artist, but it consists of more than (i think) 700 individual frames and covers three walls and is fun and creative and a terrific use of the space.