The Museum of Modern Love (2024)

Update 2/5/21: I just watched the documentary surrounding the performance piece in this book, titled "Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present". Wow! Incredibly moving! My reading of this novel in conjunction with the history of Abramovic's work as well as the performance itself are now inextricably tied together into one breathtaking experience. While I recommend this book wholeheartedly, I will also say that you should do yourself the favor of watching the documentary if you love art and are interested at all in the human connection. Abramovic is an advocate of the soul.

“Every song, every painting, every book, every idea that changed the world—all these things came from the unknowable and beautiful void.”

How does one discuss art? I’m not sure how to go about it. I think it’s something to be experienced, first and foremost. That notion has been confirmed after reading this inventive, alluring novel. Although this is a work of fiction, Heather Rose blends fact and imagination together to create a highly thought-provoking book. She begins with a real-life work of performance art called “The Artist is Present”. In 2010, Marina Abramovic sat in a chair eight hours a day for seventy days in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Abramovic invited others to sit across from her to simply gaze into her eyes. No dialogue; only the inner life was explored through these interactions. It was a wildly popular exhibit, drawing hundreds of thousands of observers over the course of three months. Over a thousand people sat across from her for varying amounts of time. All were participants – both observers as well as those who sat.

“She simply invites us to participate. It may be therapeutic and spiritual, but it is also social and political. It is multi-layered. It reminds us why we love art, why we study art, why we invest ourselves in art.”

Heather Rose has created a cast of fictional characters around this concept. Arky Levin, a musical composer, who has become estranged from his ill wife, and Jane Miller, a recently widowed schoolteacher, are among those who are drawn to Abramovic’s performance day after day. They suffer their own personal struggles and share a bit of themselves with one another. A lot of inner reflection ensues. What gives a person the drive to create art? What do we owe one another? What do we owe ourselves? How much of our lives have we spent connecting with others, and how often have we squandered such opportunities? As the performance proceeds at MoMA, a photographer is responsible for capturing the moments Abramovic spends silently, immovably sitting across from the participants. His observation beautifully encapsulates what happens in this room:

“He had photographed architecture, history, musicians. Now, day after day, he looked into the human face, painted with curiosity, and he saw the abyss of history within a human heart. Every one was its own beaten, salvaged, polished, engraved, carved, luminous form.”

I’m going to admit one thing that bothered me just a wee bit in this book: the narrator. I’ve said it before, and I’m going to say it again. I don’t do well with unconventional narration. ‘Death’ as narrator in The Book Thief kept me from enjoying that one thoroughly. The voice of ‘Music’ in The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto irritated the hell out of me. In The Museum of Modern Love a similar narrator interrupted my flow of thought on occasion. I initially imagined it as the voice of inspiration. However, I believe this voice explains him or herself better here as “memoirist, intuit, animus, good spirit, genius, whim that I am.” I must be unimaginative or something but such voices pull me out of the story.

Now that I’ve put ‘Genius’ or what have you in its corner, I can easily say that this book did truly move me! It made me think and feel. After finishing, I spent time contemplating what truly inspires me: Art, literature, life, and connections with others. All things matter – even the little moments. Jane, the schoolteacher, is just an everyday person living a simple life. She has no claim to fame; she’s a typical 'plain Jane' on the surface. Yet she embraces life – she connects with others! Art may be visual, but it teaches us that there is far more than what meets the eye. It goes much deeper. The same can be said about other human beings. In the end, we are all a work of art, aren’t we? We may observe art, but we can also truly experience art and be active participants in life itself.

“This is what I have learned. It is all about connection. If we do it with the merest amount of intention and candor and fearlessness, this is the biggest love we can feel. It’s more than love but we don’t have a bigger word… Jane felt she had witnessed a thing of inexplicable beauty among humans who had been drawn to this art and had found the reflection of a great mystery. What are we? How should we live?”

What is art?

I love "art", mainly in the traditional sense. The stuff you read, the stuff you listen to, the stuff you find in galleries and museums. I know less than I'd like. I never took an art history course. I haven't read enough on it. I just know with every fibre of my being how important it is to me, and, dare I say, to humanity.

I'm more skeptical of modern art - little jars with a year's collection of pubic hair and toe nail trimmings? No thank you. Yves Klein's monochromes? Nah. Yoko Ono's "art" makes my eyes roll to the back of my head, and not in a good way.

But back in 2010, when I saw a video clip of Marina Abramovic's "The Artist Is Present", I was surprisingly moved. Abramovic, for 70 days, 7 hours per day, sat in a wooden chair, almost completely immobile and silent. People took turns sitting with her across a small Ikea table. The result was profound, beautiful, strange, and fascinating. It attracted hundreds of thousands of people to the MOMA. Lineups for the privilege of sitting with Abramovic started the night before.

What was so moving? I don't know, but I believe it is the life, the connection of the gaze between two people who are not trying to prove anything, but just come as they are, to see and be seen. The idea that life IS art. While this performance has its critics, I for one will never forget it. When I learned of this book which is anchored in Abramovic's performance and takes place during those 70 days in New York, I knew I had to read it.

The nature of "The Artist is Present" is highly introspective; so is the spirit of this novel. At times this works really well, through the stories of two characters who are facing loss and grief. At other times it was a bit much - too much reflection, too much navel gazing. However, I allowed myself in these pages to sit at Abramovic's feet and look into her eyes. I pondered her art, her dedication to her art, how her art defined her life, how she never said no to it despite how strange it was, how painful it might be, how it required her to be other, alone, and at the same time completely exposed to the world.

The book's narrator is best described as a Muse. At one point near the end, I burst into tears when I read the difficulty of the Muse's task: They say no, I don't want to get out of bed, no, I don't want to work that hard, no, today I don't have time, no, I'm not listening right now. People say no so often, and then they wonder why they feel so desperate.

It made me want to never say no again.

This book is a celebration of art, of life, of rising up over the hurdles. It cheers us all to fearlessly create our art, to look into each other's eyes, and to go forward, not knowing the outcome. How absolutely magnificent.

Utterly fascinating. I love art, all forms, all ideas, and whenever I encounter a piece of artwork I like, I try to envision what the artist was thinking as he created. Oftentimes will find myself reading up on the artist, trying to understand. Marina Abromovic is a controversial figure in the art world, her live art has certainly drawn attention. Her expose at the MOMA in 2010, the artist is present, Drew some of the largest crowds ever at that museum. A simple table, two chairs, Marina sitting completely still, inviting whomever wished to sit next to her and gaze into her eyes, for however long they wished. Over 1500 would take the challenge, over 850,000 watched, some visiting day after day simply to watch. Caught up in they knew not what. Curiousity, energy, many marveling how she could do this for almost three months.

This is the story of that performance, but also of some of those who sat with or, and some who just watched. It is the background of Marina, some of her previous and often dangerous performances. Her life in the former country, Yugoslavia and even the thoughts of her mother, who is an outwordly presence floating around the exhibit. It is about a woman who pushes boundaries, and why she goes to such lengths. I have since researched more extensive background on this artist and she has many different segments on you tube. It is incredibly well written and wonderfully presented.

Strange and maybe brilliant at the same time, I have never read anything quite like this. This novel, also recently won the Stella Prize. Thanks to my Goodreads friend Lesley who pointed this out to me.

3.5 stars, rounded up.

Fans of 80s music, do you remember Hall & Oates' song, "Method of Modern Love"? The one that went, "M-E-T-H-O-D O-F L-O-V-E. It's the method of modern love..."? Because of a slightly similar title to this book (and nothing else), I couldn't get that song out of my head the entire time I read this! (I'm sure those of you who aren't familiar with the song are wondering what the hell I'm talking about.)

Pardon my digression.

Art fascinates me. While I tend to be a fairly literal person when it comes to art I enjoy (although I'm a sucker for Georges Seurat's pointillism), I'm always amazed by how differently people can interpret the same work of art. And that's not even taking performance art into consideration, which is a whole different jar of paint. (I was trying to go with an arty metaphor.)

Arky Levin is a musician who composes film scores, but he's hit a rough patch. His wife's unexpected departure has left him time to work, but he cannot seem to make any progress, so he decides to visit the Museum of Modern Art as a diversion.

"Levin was ready for something big. What was the point of turning fifty if you weren't ready to peak?"

At the museum he stumbles on an exhibit that he cannot get out of his mind. Visitors sit across a table from the performance artist Marina Abramović, without saying a word. (This is based on Abramović's real installation in 2010.) They can sit for as long or as little as they like; they can stare directly at the artist, glance at her shyly, or do whatever they choose. Some cry, some beseech the artist for some silent words of encouragement or strength, some simply enjoy being part of an art installation.

While the people who participate in the exhibit find themselves inexplicably changed, so do those simply viewing it. Arky is fascinated by the installation, and becomes one of a number of museum-goers who return day after day, simply to watch the parade of people sitting across from the artist. As he builds connections with his fellow observers, reflects upon his troubling relationship with his wife, and thinks about his work, he, too, starts to feel changed, as if somehow the exhibit is helping him through osmosis of some kind.

"Art is really a sort of sport. To master the leap is essential. It is the game of the leap. Practice, practice, practice, then leap. The starting point may be different for each, but the goal is the same. Do something worthwhile before you die."

The Museum of Modern Love is certainly a commentary about art and its effects on the viewers, the artist, and the participants, but more than that, this is a book about connection, human connection, and how much we hunger to be seen, heard, and viewed as relevant, as worthy. Of course, as the title suggests, this is also a book about love, and how we are changed by both its presence and its absence.

This was a tremendously thought-provoking book with many layers. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect when I started it, and my expectations kept changing as I read it. There are a lot of characters, and at times, the alternating of perspectives (as well as the shifting of time in Arky's recollections of his relationship with his wife) felt a bit confusing. But just like the way your perceptions change if you stare too long at a painting, the book's complexities kept revealing themselves.

Performance art isn't for everyone, and this book won't be either. But Heather Rose does a masterful job at creating such a unique story, anchored by some fascinating characters.

See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.

I'm not at all artistic and don't always understand art, in particular performance art, so it was with some trepidation I opened this book not realising what a treat I was in for. I had never heard of the famous performance artist Marina Abramović and her 3 month performance called 'The Artist is Present' at MoMA in New York where she sat absolutely still for 7 hours/day and invited members of the public to sit opposite her and gaze into her in the eyes. No touching or movement or speaking was allowed and people could sit for as short or as long a time as they wanted. People found it profoundly moving and many came back several times, queuing up for the opportunity to look at Marina. Over 1500 people participated, including several celebrities, with a photographer capturing each persons gaze and posting the photos on line.

Heather Rose has used the exhibition for the background to her fictional tale of ordinary people who attended and were affected by the performance. Arky Levin is the central character, a composer of film scores who is suffering from grief and separation from his wife who is terminally ill and has shut herself away from him. He has been struggling to compose since she left him and becomes obsessed in spending days at Marina's performance watching other people reactions to sitting with her. There is a lovely companionship that builds up in the audience of people who find themselves drawn to come back time and time again. Arky meets Brittika, the PhD student from Amsterdam writing her thesis on Marina's art and Jane, an art teacher on holiday from Georgia, mourning the recent loss of her beloved husband Karl, who is equally fascinated by the performance and soon ditches her plans to visit all the Art galleries in New York and instead return to the MoMA day after day.

Parts of the book are profoundly moving, such as the descriptions of the responses people feel from gazing at Marina:

Levin thought that Abramović was definitely encouraging the young woman in some way, using her gaze, and the young woman sat up. Her shoulders straightened. Her head lifted. Her complexion seemed to glow. It was as if the girl knew, wholly, without any artifice, for the first time in her life, that she was beautiful.
After the sitting, Jane says to the girl "You looked as if you were growing right out of yourself, becoming this strong, courageous thing" The girl stared at Jane and her eyes filled with tears."Really?" she said. "That's exactly how it felt"

As Arky watches people come to gaze at Marina, he reflects on his life, not only about what it is to love and be loved and to mourn for the one you have lost but also what it is to be an artist and to live a creative life:

You would be amazed how rare it is for artists to feel moments of true satisfaction. When they're inside their craft, inside colour or movement or sound, words or clay or pictures or dance, when they submit to the art, that is when they know two things - the void that is life and the pull that is death. The grand and the hollow. The best reflects that. To be such harbingers of truth is not without its cost. It's no easy task to balance a sense of irrelevance with the longing for glory, the abyss with the applause."

This is a beautiful, thoughtful and moving book. Through following Arky and Jane's journey through Marina's performance and their return to their lives changed and enriched, I feel I have a better understanding now of performance art and how it can be used to move and connect people. With its reflections on life and death, love and grief this is also a book that I feel I will be thinking about for some time to come.

Back in 2010 I read an article in the Washington Post about a piece of performance art at the MoMA that I found intriguing. It was Marina Abramovic's The Artist Presents. Unable to check it out at the time, I forgot about it until a review of this novel popped on a GR friend's feed. (Thank you, Candi!) Heather Rose's novel The Museum of Modern Love features Marina Abramovic and uses her performance piece to frame this story about art, love, grief, and connection.

I learn about Marina--her family history, her previous work, and her commitment to art. I meet some of the observers: Arky, a composer; Jane, an art teacher; Healayas, an art critic and musician; and Brittika, a graduate student writing her thesis about Marina and her art. What are these characters searching for? What draws them, and hundreds of thousands of others, some of them day after day, to this 75 day performance?

Jane and Arky are both dealing with grief--Jane for the death of her husband and Arky for the death of his marriage as he knew it. Jane has to re-connect with life. Arky has to accept Lydia's illness and their current situation and find a way to connect to her once again.

"Who was he without Lydia? Without her thoughts and clothes and food and friends? Her idea of time and entertainment? who might he be if he was left to his own patterns and rhythms? How long would it take to become something beyond her? Who would that person be? He hadn't wanted to know. But he had no choice. If there was one thing he knew, it was that days kept coming at you, no matter if you were ready for them or not."

How much time does the average person spend truly making eye contact with others, especially the people most significant in their lives? By sitting completely still and staring deeply into the sitter's eyes, Marina makes profound connections and allows the sitters to see deeply into themselves and to feel seen and accepted.

"She wasn't so much stealing hearts, he thought, as awakening them. The light that came into their eyes. Their intelligence, their sadness, all of it tumbled out as people sat."

"Most people . . . didn't want to look inside themselves, let alone magnify that inner life for the world to see or hear or criticize. Perhaps that was the invitation at the heart of The Artist Is Present, 'Come and be yourself.' And the people who sat found out how hard, how confronting, and how strange that was."

I believe that we are all artists, endowed with creativity and a need to express our souls in some manner. I am fascinated by all the different mediums we use. For me it's in the kitchen with food and seasoning and in the treatment room with a blend of touch, verbal fulcrums, moxa, and needles. Can you imagine a world where more of us used our gifts to create? Of course the challenge is to be open and vulnerable and to listen, all qualities which are not encouraged in our culture. And that is what really draws me to this novel.

Epigraph for Part One -"Life beats down and crushes the soul, and art reminds you that you have one." Stella Adler
Epigraph for Part Six: "It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are." E. E. Cummings

4.5 stars

I wanted to read The Museum of Modern Love since it came out a couple of years ago. I finally got my hands on it, as I anticipate seeing Heather Rose this weekend at the Perth Writers Festival.

I'm not the biggest fan of books that bend the line of non-fiction with fiction. But I am a huge art lover and I find Marina Abramovic fascinating, intriguing and quite extraordinary.

The first time I came across Abramovic's name was by reading an article about her performance piece Rhythm 0 (1974). My jaw dropped to the floor.

Anyway, back to the book.

I've read this cover to cover including the preface and the acknowledgements. Most of the names have been changed, with a few exceptions: Abramovic, Ulay (one of her former husbands) and a couple more. The story centres around Abramovic's The Artist is Present - a 75 day event that took place at MOMA in 2010.

Rose weaved beautifully this real artist's story and her art exhibition with the lives of other characters. One of those characters is Arky Levin, an ageing New York movie music composer, who finds himself shunned away by his dying wife. Uninspired and aimless, he finds himself at MOMA, where he’s reluctantly mesmerized by what he sees inside the square, where Abramovic sits for hours on end having eye contact with whoever sits on the opposite chair. No words are exchanged, just eye-contact. Some people can only seat for a few minutes, others for half an hour or longer. As time goes by, Levin recognizes some of the faces in the crowd, people who come back again and again to see this extraordinary event. He also makes the acquaintance of a recent widow, an art teacher from Kansas. Together they discuss what makes something art, what is its role in society. Both contemplate their own relationship with art and with their life partners.

Another important character in this novel is the ghost of Dina Abramovic, Marina’s mother, who was a WWII hero and a very strict parent. Through her, we hear some details about Marina’s childhood and some thoughts on the former Yugoslavia. Those of you who, like me, are not into ghosts and other such apparitions, need not worry, as it’s not over-done, it just adds some context to what and who made Abramovic. Obviously, one has to remember this is a fictionalised account, so we don’t know the truth. I personally plan to read much more on Abramovic and I’m going to watch the documentary The Artist is Present very soon (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcmcE...).

Those of you who are somewhat reluctant to read a book about a performance artist because you feel you don’t get it or know much about it, let me assure you that this book is not highbrow in any way – it’s incredibly accessible and very readable, while managing to inform and transport us into an artist’s mind and also managing to convey the importance of art and artists even when their art is not everyone’s piece of cake.

Highly recommended

This goes towards the Aussie Author 2018 Challenge on http://bookloverbookreviews.com/readi...

So much to love in this fictional novel centered around interesting characters and the real Marina Abramovic and her Artist is Present Performance Art exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in 2010 in NYC. Just as Abramovic explores the human longing for connection in her art, Heather Rose’s characters grow and change as a result of their observation and contemplation at the performance artist’s exhibit.

The Museum of Modern Love explores...(to read more go to Book Nation by Jen https://booknationbyjen.com/2019/06/1...)

One of the characters asks...How do you define art? How do you answer that simply? To me it's something that is hard to pinpoint it's a feeling, it can bring joy, can cause confusion, it's pain, it's unadulterated happiness, it's an expression a way to connect with an audience it adds colour to dullness and makes people think, question and to look around the world with a different perspective. I love that it means something different to each individual, it's not uniform.

As the author states this is a strange hybrid of fact and fiction and I loved so much venturing into this weird and wonderful world of the artist Marina Abramović. This book took me right inside New York during the 2010 'The Artist Is Present' exhibition at MoMA. I was completely enthralled and transfixed and have really discovered a new appreciation for this form of artistic expression of pushing boundaries and daring to confront and provoke, it's definitely not your run of the mill art exhibit, the novel itself is a work of art. I really enjoyed the unique telling of this story. So interested I'm eager to learn more post reading. I was mesmerised and I wanted to wholly submerge myself in this book. Once fully immersed I could not put this book down!! A real treat and surprise as I knew nothing about the story prior to picking up this book. 5 brilliant elated stars.

This came out in Australia in September 2016 and just came out in the United States this month. The author starts with the event of Marina Abramovic's The Artist is Present at MOMA and explores the artist herself (in a fictional way but with permission and access to materials granted by the artist.) The rest of the novel is made up of the lives of the people drawn to the art. Nothing much happens, and I loved it. Through the various character the author is able to explore what draws people to art (both observing and creating,) selfishness vs connection (only in New York is making eye contact so revolutionary!), and what remains. This may be one of my best reads this year!

Thanks to the publisher for providing me early USA access through NetGalley. The book came out in the states earlier this month (December 2018.)

The Museum of Modern Love is a tender and thought-provoking book. Fusing fact and fiction, it centers around a real piece of performance art that was showcased at the MOMA in 2010 - The Artist is Present by the Serbian artist Marina Abramović. It then weaves together the narratives of several fictional characters, all of whom attend the performance and become so captivated by it that they attempt to use Marina's art as a way to process the grief in their own lives.

As someone who adores contemporary art and performance art, I find the highly controversial Marina Abramović to be a fascinating figure. The love and respect that Heather Rose has for Marina (to whom this novel is dedicated) can be felt on every page and it made it a joy to read. The parts of the novel that focused on Marina were the highlights for me - they helped give me such a clear picture of this piece of art and where it fit in with the rest of Marina's career

Unfortunately this did naturally mean that Rose's fictional creations, Arky and Jane, paled in comparison for me. I never fully believed Jane's character - she seemed too poised and too articulate for the role that she was supposed to be playing in the story. Arky on the other hand I did find more interesting, though he resisted my emotional engagement rather strongly and consequently I never felt particularly compelled by his narrative. But for its thoughtful portrayal of Marina and its tender exploration of grief and its wonderful depiction of the contemporary art world, I just loved this.

The Museum of Modern Love is a novel populated with intensely-feeling people, with Marina Abramovic’s performance piece “The Artist Is Present” acting as a focal point that reveals to the characters their true and deep emotional selves. I loved it a lot, and then I didn’t. It’s because about a third of the way through I stopped buying it. The people no longer felt real to me. Throughout the novel these characters are constantly feeling and regretting; feeling and regretting; feeling and regretting. I began to resent their constant feeling and regretting. And all at once my resentment carried me back to a similar resentment I'd felt many years ago when a friend took me to see a lecture by Werner Erhard, father of EST. My friend was transported. I was alarmed at all the emoting going on in the crowd. I became skeptical of the genuineness of what people said they felt. And the characters in this novel are likewise transported in ways that I'm meant to take as genuine. But I couldn’t. I became skeptical. The ending felt a cheat. Oof, this has turned out to be a very bad review. For balance please see my friend Robin's review here and my friend Jenny (Reading Envy)'s review here.

I have had this book for yonks, always ready to read, soon. After recently reading her remarkable memoir Nothing Ever Bad Happens Here of Ms Rose experience of growing up in Tasmania and going on to have some extraordinary experiences there and around the world, many spiritual.

So for me this was a total surprise, very different from what I expected. Across the world from Tasmania in New York at the Museum of Modern Art, there was an actual performance event called The Artist is Present, where Marina Abramovic actually sat in 2010 for 75 days straight for hundreds of hours, while people took turns sitting across from her in a chair, over 850,000 people witnessed this exhibition. The event actually happened, Ms Rose writes about her and people who did or may have been involved in this art event. Told from many viewpoints, everyone's experience is different, but often profound.

I was not as enamoured of the narrative as many of my GR friends were. Beautifully written, but in the end the art aspect did not resonate with me at all, some of the side stories did somewhat. I will now move onto Bruny, safely back in Tassie.

[4+]The Museum of Modern Love is about the power of art to awaken, challenge, soothe, transform...At the center is an actual event - the performance artist, Marina Abramovic, sitting in a chair at the Museum of Modern Art for 75 days, 7 hours a day. Visitors were invited to sit on a chair opposite her. The novel is about the effect her presence had on the lives of several individuals. I found it an extraordinary experience. Reading rarely brings me to tears, but this novel did.

(Thank you Bianca for recommending the stunning film "The Artist is Present" to me. I watched it after finishing the book. )

This book is an ode to the power of art, as it revolves around a cast of characters who are connected to and impacted by Marina Abramović's "The Artist is Present":

More than 850,000 people have come to attend the 75 day performance piece in which the Serbian artist sat opposite 1,554 visitors at the MoMA, silently looking at them. (In the picture, you see Abramović with the last sitter, curator Biesenbach; Rights: MoMa/Marco Anelli.)

The novel's protagonists are Arky, a composer whose terminally ill wife does not want him to neglect his work because of her, and Jane, a fiftysomething art teacher from the Midwest who has recently lost her husband. Both of them are grief-stricken when they meet at Abramović's show, but don't worry, this doesn't turn into some cheesy love story: Rather, Rose depicts how Arky, Jane and other visitors like a young PhD student, a radio journalist and a butcher, are affected by the performace, how art helps them to contemplate their lives and connect with their emotions, and how they - who came as strangers - find ways to connect to each other.

At the same time, Rose channels Abramović, imagines how she might feel, draws on artworks from her whole career to reveal the artist as a person and to mirror her cast of characters, talks about Abramović's family history, her love to German artist Ulay with whom she collaborated for twelve years, and introduces some other real people who have worked with Abramović, like Klaus Biesenbach whom you see in the picture above as well as Marco Anelli who took the photo. Also, prepare to be surprised by who the narrator is, which is slowly revealed throughout the novel.

If you don't love Abramović and believe in the transformative power of art after reading this book, I'm sorry to inform you, but you're probably beyond help. The only weakness of the book is that Rose sometimes tends to overexplain the impact of the works she discusses and to interpret aspects that are clear anyway or should remain ambivalent in order to give the reader some room to contemplate the art and relate to it on a personal level. But all in all, I loved this book: Rose manages to take a wonderful piece of visual art and turn it into literature, and the author's heart and her belief in the power of art shows on every page.

In case you want to know more about 2010's "The Artist is Present", here's an article written by Colm Tóibín who also sat with Abramović: https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2010/04...
There's also a documentary about the performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcmcE...

This is only the second novel I have read in 2017 but I knew within a few pages of starting it that it was likely to be one my favourites for the year. I could have finished it in a day but deliberately paced myself and took nearly a week as I wanted to prolong the enjoyment. I am not an art enthusiast so the fact that the novel primarily revolves around a real life artist Marina Abramovic and her ‘exhibition’ “The Artist is Present” in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and has fictional characters such as an art teacher Jane and an art critic Healayas, did not matter at all. The novel is written beautifully and has such poignant and insightful observations and meditations on relationships, love, loss, grief, guilt, mourning, caring for frail loved ones and life in general. I have copied just a couple of paragraphs below to give you an idea of her writing. Highly recommended.

p.4 ‘The pavements convey people and dogs, the subway rumbles and the yellow cabs honk day and night. As in previous decades, people are coming to terms with the folly of their investments and the ineptitude of their government. Wages are low, as are the waistbands of jeans. Thin is fashionable but fat is normal. Living is expensive, and being ill is the most costly business of all. There is a feeling that a chaos of climate, currency, creed and cohabitation is looming in the world. On an individual basis, most people still want to look good and smell nice, have friends, be comfortable, make money, feel love, enjoy sex and not die before their time’.

p.16 Jane is mourning the loss of her partner Karl…’What was the space beyond? Jane wondered. What did the rush of air between life and death taste of? Did crashing to the ground at velocity move you deeper, faster into death than simply dying in your sleep? And if you were under the influence of morphine did you go whole or did you depart in pieces, leaving fragments of yourself floating about in the room? She had wondered a lot about that after Karl’s death. How could she ensure all his good parts went with him? Little bits of him seemed to remain. In her head she said his name over and over, as if making up for the fact that she rarely said it aloud any more. She missed him achingly, gapingly, excruciatingly. Her body hadn’t regulated itself to solitude…’

It was a slow morning at work. I poured myself a coffee and sat down across from a particularly endearing client of mine.

"Tell me story," I asked him.

"Tell you a story?" He paused, and twinkled. "I will tell you a story with my eyes." And with that he leaned forward a little, and we both gazed intently into each other's eyes, smiles tugging at the creases of our mouths. It was over in twenty seconds.

It can be unnerving, looking deeply into someone's eyes like that. Searching for emotions, trying to communicate caring, just waiting and being there. Some people cannot do it. They drop their gaze, tell stories while staring into a middle distance, unwilling or unable to share whatever of themselves will be revealed by their eyes.

This is a book about staring into people's eyes, and the things you may see there, which more than likely include a reflection of your own damn self.

I feel guilty for not having felt the way the majority of reviewers did about this. I thought I would enjoy it because art and history are two of my favourite things to learn about and this incorporated both, but I just couldn’t get into the story. This was somewhere between a 1 and 2, but if it wasn’t for book club, I would have ‘DNF’d’ it before it got slightly more enjoyable, so I think a 1 is more appropriate.

Despite giving it a 1, I think the idea behind the book was interesting. Marina Abramovic, the artist in the book, was an actual performance artist who performed a piece called The Artist is Present, where she sat for 75 days straight across from various visitors to the MoMa for a few minutes at a time. In the book, the visitors would basically see these visions of their lovers as they sat across from and stared into Marina’s eyes – some getting very emotional. If you search The Artist is Present on YouTube, you will see real footage of people having sat across from her during the exhibition, and I think it’s cool that this whole thing happened in real life and was made into a book including some real and some fictional events. I also liked the storyline with Levin the most; his chapters were the ones I was most engrossed in because I wanted to know what would happen between him and his wife.

Even though the idea was interesting, I still felt bored while reading. I know there is a documentary about this performance art piece, and something tells me I would probably like that better. Overall, I really don’t think this was necessarily bad, it just wasn’t for me. So if you think it sounds interesting, I would give it a chance because majority of people did like this more than I did.

This book is about performance art and the famous Marina Abramovic and her very unusual projects and works. This book touches on some of her other performance arts but mainly one, “The Artist is Present.” A stunning, highly attended event that was held for 75 days, March 29 through May 31, 2010, at the MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

I admit, I had not heard of Marina before reading this book. I had not really been attuned to “performance art,” so this was both an eye opener and a learning experience for me. All of her performance art is unusually done and makes an extremely big impact in the art world. Example, a creation of a suite of three rooms that you can only leave them by going down a ladder of which steps are made of sharp knife blades. Huh? Or digesting a kilo of honey. Or scratching a star in her stomach with a razor blade in front of an audience. There are a whole bunch of crazy more, but you can read about them yourself!

Each of her acts make a personal statement and a big noise in the art world. They are scenes or actions that are totally out of the box unusual, sexualized, political, personal, obscene, p*rnographic, violent, creepy, dangerous, uncomfortable and seductive works of art. Marina’s work explores the relationship between performer and audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind. Yikes!

So she sits at the MoMA, not moving, every day from open to close for those 75 days. She does not eat. She does not drink. She does not go to to the bathroom. Her clothing color changes monthly (I don’t know the why behind that). She does not speak and hardly blinks. She does not touch. She does not shuffle her feet. She does not itch her nose. She does not cough or sniff. She may shed a tear or two. It is almost unheard of what a person can condition themselves to do.

She sits straight on a simplistic hard chair. Across from her is the same chair, however it is fixed in position for her visitor/guest. In between Marina and her visitor is just a small, simple IKEA style table. The closeness of the two bodies and the gazing into each other’s eyes creates some sort of dual opening and then a connection, and a fusion and a reaction on the guests’ part. I would have liked to have seen or experienced this in person because reading about it did not do it proper justice. I understand there are some YouTube videos of this out there and the author provides some additional research material on Marina, at the end.

What transpires between Marina and her guest in the chair across is quite incomprehensible. It is abnormal. Is it a hallucination, a personal renewal of sorts? A hypnotism? A mystery? Because nothing transpires between them other than gazing into each other’s eyes. Extended eye contact is very intimate and revealing - try it one on one with someone; anyone. At your next party? 🥳

We are not always sure what Marina herself experiences each time, but the person sitting in the opposite chair seems to go through some sort of journey, memories arise, tears flow, emotions are felt. There is no speaking by either party. There is no movement by Marina. She is oblivious to all noise and movement outside of her body other than gazing st the person sitting across her. The guests sit in the chair for fifteen minutes or more depending on their “experience.” When done, they get up and walk away, only for another person to swiftly be seated and the process begins again until the venue closes at the end of the day. This process is exhausting for Marina, we eventually find out, but she pushes on to its completion. She is making art history!

Each person who completes this experience may never return to be seated in front of Marina again, or in some instances, others return time and time again. It’s as if they are obsessed! Note that this art performance is also being recorded in real time by a focused webcam, so that not only the people in the audience at the event are watching, but others worldwide are also watching this momentous performance between two individuals. Again, it is addicting!

Behind the scenes of Marina and her performance art, are other individuals, in this book, whom we read about their life stories and how they meet each other at the MoMA at this exhibition. Marina affects people in different ways and her art attraction binds others to come together and figure out where they are stuck or how to get through their struggles, however she manages to do that just by her gazing into the other persons’ eyes, on display. Near the end of the exhibit, we discover more about Marina and her family and friends and lovers, critics and mentors. And we understand why she thinks what she thinks and does what she does.

This was quite a different and interesting read and I don’t think it was on my TBR list because I didn’t think it was of value or worthwhile to read when I read the reviews. I was wrong. Just reading about Marina and her odd performance art exhibits and behavior was mind opening. The other life stories of people that accompanied her story were enough to ground me back into the “normal” way of life. Too much of one or the other, and the book would have flubbed out.

This was a highly unusual book about a highly unusual person and her highly unusual works of art. This book may not be for everyone, but just like Marina’s works, it may seem weird, it may seem uncomfortable, but just hang in there and see for yourself. You can always get up and step away...or maybe you won’t!

*https://mrsbbookreviews.wordpress.com
In 2010 a unique moving art performance titled ‘The Artist is Present’ was performed by Marina Abramovic at MoMA in New York for 75 days straight. This unique modern art experience is the driving force behind the story The Museum of Modern Love.

The Museum of Modern Love is Heather Rose’s reimagining of the highly acclaimed moving art performance, staged at the infamous MoMA in New York, performed by artist Marina Abramovic. More than just a commentary on the continual three month performance, this novel delves further than imagined and provides an insight into the members of the public that came to partake in this performance. Some we learn simply observed and sat with Marina Abramovic. While others were irrevocably changed by their exchange with Marina. One of these main patrons is Arky Levin, a film composer. Arky is separated from his wife Lydia but we learn she has requested one last shocking promise. Arky is drawn to the exhibition piece, The Artist is Present. Slowly the performance gets under Arky’s skin, as he watches and comes into contact with the other patrons drawn to this unique exhibit. Eventually, The Artist is Present offers Arky more than he ever could have bargained for. It gives him a purpose, direction and a future, all rolled into one.

It is easy to see why The Museum of Modern Love was awarded the highly coveted 2017 Stella Prize. This is a special and a one-of-a-kind novel. From the very opening of the novel, the reader is thrust into an active role, where they are able to engage in a process of self examination. Rose puts the spotlight on life, art and human nature. These are big questions but when a book challenges you to do this from the outset and continues until the close of the novel, it is something exceptional. This is the type of novel you want to savour over, it demands to be read in a slower fashion, it is impossible to race through The Museum of Modern Love. Rather, it is best to accept the pace of the novel and submit to its ability to whisk you away nonchalantly.

Although I am appreciative of the arts, I can’t say my knowledge of the moving arts is very extensive. Hence, Marina Abramovic and her performance The Artist is Present has flown under the radar for me sadly, until the brilliant Australian novelist, Heather Rose brought my attention to this performance, through her prize winning novel. This aspect of the novel, which plays a significant role in moving the narrative forward, has worked to ignite my interest in Marina Abramovic’s work, MoMA and the sector of moving arts as a whole. I loved the way this performance gently shapes the novel, but it is never truly reliant on it as the basis of the narrative. Rather, the wonderful and eclectic mix of likeable characters work to fill this area.

Heather Rose’s characters are sculpted with a fine hand. Arky Levin is a gentle soul that I genuinely enjoyed spending time with as the novel progressed. The evolution of his character is such as joy to read. He is supported by a bevy of characters that move in and out of the narrative, who offer the reader a range of emotions to experience from sorrow to hope. Some linger longer than others, such as Jane, but all are terrible endearing. Rose deftly balances a number of character perspectives in The Museum of Modern Love. It is never sake of being overloaded by any means by the various characters. Instead, I found myself completely fascinated by the range of responses to the exhibit piece, The Artist is Present, which is perhaps indicative of human nature. Rose really has her finger on the pulse in this aspect of her moving and introspective narrative.

Rose is a rare talent and an accomplished storyteller that I am glad to have been introduced to through my reading of The Museum of Modern Love. This is a novel that is grounded in the arts, with a mesmerising backdrop of one of the most fascinating exhibits staged in modern moving art. It makes us feel comfortable enough to examine fundamental aspects in our daily lives and the things that matter; connection, the value of life, love, hope and humanity. One for literary fiction fiends and for fans of the arts.

I'm not even going to try and write a proper review of this, because I won't be able to do it justice. Such a unique premise - a novel following a handful of people whose lives become linked through (the real life exhibition) Marina Abramovic's "The Artist is Present" at MOMA in New York. The story explores art, love, life among many other things and is fantastic in every way. Just go and read it.

So bored reading this book. Very original, one star, at times some lovely, poignant writing, another star. But mostly I zoned out, took days to get back to reading it, felt like I was chewing the pages rather than reading them. Sure it rounded off nicely enough but win the Stella? Really??

Μια πραγματεία περί μοντέρνας τέχνης. Μια τεράστια περφορμερ, κ οι δίνες γύρω από την τέχνη της κ την performance της - Η καλλιτέχνης είναι εδώ, στο ΜοΜΑ.
Άνθρωποι που ανακαλύπτουν κομματάκια ποίησης στις ζωές τους

Η ζωή είναι τα τραγούδια του Λέοναρντ Κοέν. Γλυκόπικρος έρωτας, λίγο σεξ κ μια θετική στιγμή.
Έπειτα η ζωή προχωράει. Ξεπερνας τον έρωτα, το σεξ έρχεται κ φεύγει κ ξεχνάς κ το Θεό τον ίδιο

Η τέχνη διδάσκει μια κάποια εξοικείωση με την μοναξιά και πιθανώς με τον πόνο. Είναι σαν σπορ.Κ ο στόχος πάντα ο ίδιος.

Κάνε κάτι που να αξίζει πριν πεθάνεις.

I had never heard of Marina Abramovic before picking up The Museum of Modern Love. If you are similarly in the dark, I urge you to go to YouTube and watch the short video of Marina and her former life partner, Ulay, during a sitting at her exhibition, The Artist is Present. Gaining that perspective will add a depth to your reading that – I believe – is essential.

Some background: The Tasmanian author – Heather Rose – was deeply moved by Mariana Abramovic’s 1988 work, The Lovers, in which Martina and Ulay each walked more than a thousand miles from different ends of the Great Wall of China to meet in the middle and end their relationship. Twelve years later, in 2010, Abramovic achieved attention and fame as she sat perfectly still and silent at a table in New York’s MoMA for a total of 736 hours as one by one, attendees waited hours in line to sit opposite her.

Martina Abramovic’s work – self-flagellating with knife slashes, facial slaps, passing out by sucking in all the carbon dioxide from her partner Ulay, razor blades, Russian roulette with guns and bullets — can be viewed as the ultimate of performance art by some and by senseless masochism by others. And indeed, the author captures the essence of this performer: “She is full and she is empty because that is the paradox, too She is swimming in sensation, thoughts, memories and awareness like everyone else, but while this happens, she looks into the eyes and harts of strangers and finds a point of calm. It is her métier to dance on the edge of madness, to vault over pain into the solace of disintegration.”

But this novel, while inspired by Abramovic, is not ABOUT Abramovic. It is about the convergence of fictional characters who dance on the edge of madness, or at least, dance towards some understanding of life’s meaning. Arky Levin, a main character and a movie soundtrack composer, is banned by legal arrangements from his wife Lydia who is dying from a genetic neurological condition. The love persists on both sides Lydia has concluded that what’s best for Arky is to continue his art with his reluctant concurrence.

Others – a pink-haired Chinese doctoral, a beautiful and arresting black art critic, a still mourning art history teacher – are all drawn to the performance as well. Each of them is spinning in time and space and Abramovic’s courage and daring allow them to gingerly find a modicum of redemption.

Through an exploration of the power of art, the thin line between art and madness, the interaction of artist with audience, critics, and aficionados, Heather Rose writes a truly sui generis novel that, in places, took my breath away. Kudos to her!

This story is centered around an actual performance artist, Marina Abramovic, and is based upon an actual performance exhibit that she did at the MoMA, called The Artist is Present in which the artist and people sit and gaze at each other. The author has provided a backdrop to the story with characters who become intertwined in viewing, and actually taking part in the performance. They are at various stages in their lives but their responses to the artist provide the impetus for each one to move forward in their lives.
The backdrop to the narrative of the artist's life and background provided an extra layer as did the "ghost" of her mother who observes her daughter and the thousands of people who have come to participate and/or observe.
This is an intricate and complex novel that you won't soon forget. I was inspired to lookup the artist and watch some of her works. The commentary on art and especially performance art is a plus for anyone interested in anything artistic.

Wonderful story exploring the rigors of true commitment as it relates to love, grief, art, and the human longing for connection. Based around real events, the reader glimpses the lives of some characters who have come to see Marina Abramovic’s ‘The Artist is Present’ at MoMA. A delightfully thought-provoking, meditative read.

I liked this a lot. I'm a bit amazed it was written by an Australian -- something about it calls up the deep Americanness of authors like Franzen and Safran Foer. The white-privilegedness is probably part of that. These are mostly people who can afford to spend their time rubbing shoulders with celebrities at an art installation instead of going to work or being responsible for anyone else. That doesn't make the story any less interesting (not least because Marina Abramovic herself is such an interesting woman), but even as a middle-class white person it was a barrier to my falling for it completely. I mean, I really felt for Arky, whose wife is very unwell, but at the same time I thought, sh*t man, suck it up! stop wallowing! be proactive! When compared to some of the other books in the Stella shortlist (especially The Hate Race and An Isolated Incident), this (and Poum and Alexandre) is almost jarring in its lack of acknowledgement of this privilege. Beautifully written.

A novel I recently finished before this one was one of voice—and one voice at that—with working-class people populating its pages. It struck me as I read this one that it’s the opposite: multiple voices, though each section doesn’t sound much different from the other; and characters (not all) leading privileged lives.

The writing had its moments of beauty and insight; but I’m left with too many questions about the author’s choices, such as why she chose to use an otherworldly narrator who purportedly links the composer and the performance artist. It seemed facile, odd, and unnecessary.

Like with the artist Marina Abramović’s tears when she sees her audience/participants crying, I was supposed to be moved by the characters' stories; but that barely happened. Perhaps it’s because I didn’t get to know the characters—or discover why they were all so moved while sitting across from Abramović and staring into her eyes.

Well, you are never going to lose with me if you keep quoting Leonard Cohen, but that is not the only really good thing about this book. This is indeed very good, and entirely different from anything I have ever read.

Rose's book is about what art can accomplish -- about how it impacts people, about its power to sustain and unite people, to heal and to destroy, to change the way we see the world, the ways in which it demands and celebrates endurance, the platform it gives the artist to scoop out their insides to share them with others and its power to scoop out the insides of those who engage with the art. It is also about what art costs the artist and the serious observer. The short answer -- a lot.

I need to reflect a bit more -- I just finished over lunch and wanted to memorialize my immediate feelings -- The one thing I know is that it made me see art differently. I was at the Met two days ago and there was a very good abstract expressionist exhibit. I have very mixed feelings about this school. It includes artists I look to as among the best in the Western canon (Pollack is just the best, he might be dead, but I have shared more sensation with him than most any other person) and others in whose work I find no value at all (I am looking at you Barnett Newman.) As I sat in a room filled with an array of Mark Rothko's work from 1960 to his suicide I understood the feeling he was trying to convey, and I loved those canvases in a way I had not in the 100's of other times I have spent time with his work. This book gets most of the credit for this.

This is also a story about the ways in which we walk through grief, particularly about how we grieve the end of happy contented relationships (when was the last time I read a book with couples together over 20 years who loved each other?) and complicated unmanageable relationships, about the expectations of others, and about how we can rise to occasions.

I notched this up to a 5-star from a 4-star with time to reflect -- it was among 2019's best for me.

** The narrator of the audio book, Laurel Lefkow, was fantastic.

This is a thought-provoking book about the nature of art. As a centerpiece, the author employs the performance art of Marina Abramović, a real living artist. She held a performance at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, in which she sat still silent each day for 75 days. People could line up to sit with her in silence and gaze into her eyes. Other people watch from the gallery. One such person is main character Arky Levin, a composer of music for films, whose wife is hospitalized for a blood disease. Another is Jane, a recent widow. We learn the backstories of Arky and Jane, their struggles in life, and their attempts to deal with sadness and grief. Several other characters are also featured, including Arky and Jane’s daughter. Some people are so taken with the performance that they return day after day, feeling the power of the performance art. Others question if it even qualifies as art. I tend to enjoy books featuring art, and this one is no exception. The characters’ lives are changed by their experience of Abramović’s work. The author received permission from the artist to use her as a character in her book.