Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900–2000. The Museum Of Modern Art
I
really enjoyed this exhibition and seeing it at a member’s only showing without
the hoards helped. But that being said I do have my reservations. This being a
typical Moma “historical” show it looks great as it sprawls its way through
those large galleries on the 6th floor. The exhibit documents how
children around the world played and learned from 1900 to 2000. However this
being the Museum Of Modern Art the work is geared to modernism and “good”
design, so I found it to be somewhat narrow and elitist in its approach and
curatorial decisions. Don’t get me wrong I love Lyonel Feininger’s wooden toys
as much as the next artist, and there are many beautiful examples of other
toys, books, furniture and games by other artists, architects and designers but
it helps if one keeps in mind that this is a show for MOMA’s kinder and not for
mommy’s kids. So everything in the show is beautiful and well designed, after
all we know that children only like beautiful and well-designed toys. There is
a nod to the commercial toy which includes colorforms (loved those colorforms
as a kid), Etch A Sketch (loved my Etch A Sketch, but its too much in the news
these days), Lego and slinky but not a can of Play Doh is to be found, nor are
marbles, pick up sticks, Jacks or any toy that one could have purchased at a
Woolworth’s. Most of the toys and games look like they were expensive even when
new, and now they look like the toys that sometimes turn up on Antiques Road
show, you know those great tin cars in their original boxes which is also
represented in the show. But where are the Lionel Train sets, the Lincoln Logs
(the only building block set that turns up is of course very Bauhausy even
though it’s from the 1950’s) or a View
Master (would it have killed them to include a View Master?), and not one doll.
The Moma’s idea of a doll is some of Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s wonderful puppets.
There is not one toy from the Disney Empire, in fact there are no movie or TV
tie-in games at all. There is not a ball, or a cheap beach toy either; in fact
games and toys of the streets are completely left out. Like many of these
historical shows, by the time you get to the final galleries, it’s a big
downer, I mean why would the curators devoted an entire wall pasted with pages
from The Whole Earth Catalog along with a poster of the Mai Lai massacre. Is
this to point out and educate us that our childhoods came to an end with the
60’s? How many small kids are going to have nightmares after viewing that
shocking poster, one woman standing next to me looked visibly upset and
ironically it’s the one image from this exhibition on childhood that stays with
me, its the image that I took home with me. Sure there are other political
images and objects throughout the show. There are some charming Nazi and
Italian Fascist board games (in mint condition I might add), that made me a
little queasy and uncomfortable, but the Moma’s nod to the holocaust and its
children is faint and is pretty much inconsequential consisting of a propaganda
film that the Nazi’s produced to show the world how marvelous the concentration
camp at Terezin was. There are no coloring books nor paper dolls and no Mr. And
Mrs. Potato Head, now that omission really upset me. There are also toys of the
space age, and stuff from Pee-Wee’s Playhouse but the newest toys and games
look so uninviting to me, that I thought to myself what kid would want to play
with them, I certainly wouldn’t and do we really need a wall featuring a boring
photograph by Andreas Gurksy of an ugly suburban Toy’s “R” Us, oh wait of
course its in their collection. Also when you exit through the gift shop you
will be able to pick up nice reproductions of some of the toys and books
featured in the exhibition which makes me wonder what came first the
chicken or the exhibition.
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