Monet’s Water Lilies are back at MOMA. They’re spectacular pieces. Pollock had to be thinking of Monet while dripping his buckets of industrial paint onto canvas. The scale is comparable – I loved when they used to hang the two paintings facing each other, creating a dialogue across the years. Somehow works of art, while being unique products of their respective eras, also have the ability to transcend time. Monet’s brushwork dazzles. The studies crackle with whips of paint depicting flowers and grass, swirling as if alive. Densely clotted surfaces serve as perfect grounds for shocking strokes of pink outlining flowers adrift on the pond’s surface. The Japanese bridge emerges from a tangle of rust and yellow. Monet elevates the brushstroke to the same level of importance as the subject, beginning the drift towards art for art’s sake.

Water is one of the more challenging surfaces for an artist to depict. The constant shimmer of rippled light does not lend itself easily to a static surface. Movies are another story. Last night I saw the animated film Ponyo by Hayao Miyazaki. The movie is freely adapted from Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Little Mermaid”. Miyazaki’s films inhabit the strange and wondrous space of fairy tales. He draws the ocean as a living being, magical creatures manifest themselves as waves, ancient sea beasts swim freely through the waters of modern Japan. The most beautiful landscapes you could imagine at 24 frames per second.