Take an Object : MoMA

Once the viewers enter the exhibition room, the very first work they encounter is Jasper Johns’ Flag (1954-1955). In which the viewer ask, "Is this a flag or a painting?” His work presents ambivalence to the viewers as he demonstrates the thin boundaries between the 2D paintings and 3D sculptures. The special exhibition at the MoMa, Take an Object, consists of 1950s-60s art works from the artist of the new art movements, Postmodernism. The leaders of Postmodernism took objects and created a whole new piece of art by reassembling them into different shapes. Common focus of their works was recycling of the items that were once abandoned to create a harmony of abstract forms that suggest the artist's purpose and theme.

Ranging different continents of contemporary artists, such as Robert Rauschenberg in U.S.A. and Jacques de la Villeglé in France, the shared aesthetic and ideological trend of Postmodernism grew popular. The artists explored the "combines" of the scrap materials like smashed autoparts, canvas bags, and food scraps. Their works generated new themes and ideas by giving meanings to fractures, trashes, and junks. This re-interpretation of simple junk objects through mixture and collaboration often times deliver unclearness and ambiguity. By doing so the viewers puzzle over the work’s intention and find various meanings to it.