St. Bernard’s Visits MoMA, Twice

Two grades from St. Bernard’s recently visited the Museum of Modern Art.  Kindergarten boys visited the museum on October 19 and October 21.  Grade IX boys visited MoMA the following week on October 28.

Kindergarten boys were well prepared for their visit.  They had learned about Jackson Pollock and seen reproductions of Van Gogh’s Starry Night before going to the museum.

After their trip to MoMA, Kindergarten boys had a chance to apply what they had learned when artist Natalie Birinyi, Ms. Birinyi’s sister, visited the class to teach them printmaking.

Grade IX homeroom teacher, Mr. Bowcock, and art teacher, Ms. Meigs, accompanied boys from grade IX on their trip.  Their tour guide at MoMA encouraged the boys to look at art for an extended length of time.  She set a timer as they sat in front of a painting by Roberto Matta and dedicated a full two minutes to looking.  After this focused observation, the boys generated a list of everything they saw in the painting, from scratches to bones to planes to rising souls and a flying pig.  When they shared their lists, it was clear that each boy saw the same painting in his own way.  The boys then tried their hands at automatic writing, a method used by Surrealists.  This loose format inspired some whimsical writing that the boys shared with each other.

After the official tour, Ms. Meigs took the boys to see the exhibition of sculpture by Pablo Picasso.  Each boy selected a sculpture to sketch.  They will refer back to these sketches and their observations of the sculpture for their next art project.