087 museo d'arte moderna

from Sunday's journal entry:
I tried to go to Villa Borghese, the only remaining major art museum that I haven't seen yet. I went at 5 pm, which usually guarantees empty museums, but the place was so crowded and I didn't want to stand in the sweaty line of tourists complaining, so I struck out farther north to head towards the Etruscan Museum. It was also closed, but just next door is another museum strangely missing from the tourist guides: The Museum of Modern Art.

Ah yes, my favorite genre of museum - I guess I got caught up in all the ancient history buzz to not actively seek this out. Obviously Rome and Italy are not known for their contributions to contemporary art and architecture, so I guess I understand why this museum is so undercover. The very first room were filled with colors and these long Klimt-like tapestries, and my first thought was "why on earth have I been wasting my time in all these history museums?"

I enjoyed my time in the museum, and especially enjoyed the statue pictured above "Similia Similibus", Maccagnani. After seeing so much classical art of heroes and warriors and ancient gods, it was quite a bright spot to just see the simple hello of a friendly cat in stone.

Inspired by this, I googled a bit to find all types of (post)modern architecture around Rome. There are basically 7 pieces, two of which I have seen:

1. Renzo Piano's Auditorium - already seen, elegant, understated
2. Zaha Hadid's MAXXI - (under construction), plan to visit soon
3. Richard Meier's Ara Pacis - already seen, very bad, pro-Meier article, anti-Meier article
4. Richard Meier's Dio Padre Misericordia - critically acclaimed, way out in the 'burbs, plan to visit soon
5. Massimiliano Fuksas' Centro Congressi - (under construction), plan to visit soon
6. Rem Koolhaas - no info yet
7. Calatrava - no info yet, something in Tor Vegata suburb