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Here’s a picture of Richard Serra’s “Intersection II” as viewed from Terrace 5.

If you’re anything like me, once you enter a space like MoMA, you don’t want to leave. There’s too much to see! Leaving the building for lunch is a non-option. Thank goodness they’ve got not one, not two, but THREE restaurants to choose from.

The Modern, as elegant as it appears, was easy to rule out. It’s closed for lunch on weekends. (“Phew!” My pocketbook breathed an audible sigh of relief.)

So we trekked up to the second floor to check out Cafe 2. A waft of cafeteria air hit hard as we approached the cave-like entrance. Ugh. But hungry museum-goers that we were, we suspended judgment ’til peeking at the menu. Cafe 2 serves up a mix of fancy-schmancy, Italian-style cafeteria food. Although many items seemed appealing on their own, as a whole, the menu came off heavy. Cured meats and cheeses; garlic laden antipasti; cheese filled panini; that sort of thing. Although Cafe 2 would have sufficed fine in a pinch, we decided to pass and put our appetites in the hands of the chefs at Terrace 5.

Terrace 5 is a light-drenched space with an outdoor balcony that overlooks the Sculpture Garden. Score! The menu is seasonal and limited (a handful of special entrees complemented by a fresh mix of soups, salads and appetizers). We cobbled together a meal of salads and seasoned almonds topped off by a chocolate-hazelnut sundae with salted caramelized peanuts and caramel milk chocolate glaze. Just my kind of thing. The only drawback was waiting time… We’d have squeezed in an extra half an hour of museum time if we’d skipped table service and gone the cafeteria route. Alas, what’s a hungry girl to do? Overall a spendy lunch with a beautiful view. Worth every penny.

The Richard Serra exhibit at MoMA runs through September 10th, 2007. It’s spectacular. Since it’s already been thoroughly reviewed in the NYTimes, the New Yorker, Slate, etc. I won’t compete by adding mine. But here are a few impressions from the show.

MASS
These pieces are massive! Awe inspiring. They inspire many questions like how were they made? How were they carried to the museum? Installed? Are they dangerous? And how the heck can the museum’s floor sustain all that weight? Not many answers to be found in the museum’s literature. But a cashier in the bookstore tipped me off to a YouTube video of the installation you may find interesting. Curiously, first hand accounts were hard to come by. None of the museum’s staff we spoke with were around on installation day.

THE PASSING OF TIME
Like a film or a piece of music, these pieces require the passing of time in order to be perceived. The larger pieces are simply too large to take in from a single angle. You literally need to walk around or through them to understand them. Even then, they kind of bend the mind. More like landscapes than any other sculpture I’ve seen.

MANUFACTURED AGE
Serra’s rusted steel reminds me of a genre of painting that’s been popular here in Boulder for the last five years or so. Very much about surface and texture. Manufactured age.

BIRD POO
The bird poo on Torqued Ellipse IV in the Sculpture Garden made me laugh. I wish I could have viewed everything outside. Serra’s massive new works on the second floor seemed constrained by the space. I wanted blue sky overhead. A picnic. And distance to view them from.

LOVE
Minimalism. Yum.

I’ve been away. In New York! Again. (A vexing personal issue has required four trips to the Big City in nearly as many months.) The wonderful thing about all this New York travel is the spectacular art I’ve been able to see.

This time my husband Andy and I checked out the Richard Serra exhibit at MoMA. A full report to come later this week. But for now, let me shed some light on last week’s quote about the big and the red (that old art school saw) which came to mind after viewing Mr. Serra’s work last Sunday. Not because it’s not good. But because it’s astonishing. Because it’s big. And rust red.

“If you can’t make it good, make it big. If you can’t make it big, make it red.”

- Unknown