Highlights from NYC's incredible MOMA pt 4

Gas, Edward Hopper, 1940; as I see more paintings by Hopper I'm really becoming a fan; I think Hopper really appeals to the traveler with his depictions of the loneliness found on American country roads

Number 1A, Jackson Pollock, 1948; the first work in which Pollock completely abandoned the easel, the canvas was laid down on the floor where he threw oil paint on top of pools of house paint; it found no buyers when first exhibited

Flag, Jasper Johns, 1954; this was the first of many works Johns did on the US flag and is arguably the painting for which he is best known; his works have sold for $100+ million

Ruby Shoots Oswald, Bob Jackson, 1963; when JFK was shot 2 days earlier Jackson was changing the film in his camera and thought he had missed his photo of a lifetime but he was wrong

Campbell's Soup Cans, Andy Warhol, 1962; this group of canvases, depicting all 32 varieties (at the time) of Campbell's soup, was silkscreened with the same basic image, to which Warhol added the name of the individual flavor by hand

Rose II, Isa Genzken, 2007; among my favorite's in the small sculpture garden, the rose’s superhuman size and inorganic materials correlate to the city’s extra large buildings

Broken Obelisk, Barnett Newman, 1969; there are 4 copies of this 25 ft high sculpture so it might look familiar if you've visited the Rothko Chapel in Houston or the Corcoran Gallery of Art in DC

Josephine Baker, Alexander Calder, 1927; Calder first gained public recognition and acclaim for wire sculptures he made in Paris in the late 1920s; wire's flexibility served as a critical catalyst for his lifelong interest in motion

Pink Panther, Jeff Koons, 1988; the piece depicts a 1950s pin–up, modeled on the American actress Jayne Mansfield; it's one of 20 works in the Banality series

Still Life #57, Tom Wesselmann, 1970; this American was a member of the Pop Art movement which challenged the traditions of fine art by including imagery from popular and mass culture, such as advertising, comic books and mundane mass-produced objects

Slowly Toward the North, Yves Tanguy, 1942; this is one of many pieces contributed to the museum by Philip Johnson, world-famous architect of places like Williams Tower and Pennzoil Place in Houston

Slow Swirl at the Edge of the Sea, Mark Rothko, 1944; like the Surrealists before him, Rothko looked inward, to his own unconscious mind, for inspiration; it was nice to see something besides solid color panels from him

Grille from the Casa Mila, Barcelona, Antoni Gaudi, 1912; between 1984 and 2005, seven of his works were declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO including his masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona

Broadway Boogie Woogie, Piet Mondrian, 1943; easily my favorite of his works and his second-to-last painting, is a love letter to Mondrian's adopted home, inspired by jazz and the energy of the Gotham streets

Water Lilies, Claude Monet, 1914-1925; MOMA was the first US museum to exhibit Monet's work; later in life Monet moved to more monumental canvases including this triptych which has its own gallery at the museum

Grace Maude and Clementina Maude, 1863; the museum exhibited some of the earliest known photography including this one from an Irish viscountess known for the photos of her kids

Dynamism of a Soccer Player, Umberto Boccioni, 1913; the artist was one of the primary drivers of Futurism (he died at 33 after being thrown from a horse); many of the pieces here are so famous they have their own wikipedia pages

Lake George, Coat and Red, Georgia O'Keeffe, 1919; as a student in 1908 the artist won the William Merritt Chase Still Life Prize which offered her a place in the outdoor summer school painting at Lake George marking the first time she painted outdoors

I and the Village, Marc Chagall, 1911; noteworthy for its seamless integration of elements of Eastern European folktales and culture, the clearly defined semiotic elements (ie The Tree of Life) and daringly whimsical style were considered groundbreaking