NYC Museum Day

Yesterday I spent the day in New York City going to museums. There were a few shows that I wanted to see before they closed in early January and this seemed like the best opportunity to do it before the craziness of the holidays. First I met up with my brother John at the Whitney Museum of American Art. They had a few interesting shows, but I was most interested in Georgia O'Keeffe: Abstraction. It was interesting to see similar works being compared to each other and seeing how different themes were used over and over. She lived a very long life and they had works ranging from very early charcoals to watercolors she made late in life when her eyesight was failing. It was a fascinating show and I'm so glad I got to see it.

John and I popped into the other shows that were there and then headed to lunch at a diner around the corner. John had to be home in time to play football with Nathaniel before the sun went down, so I was on my own for the rest of the day.

My next stop was The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I was most interested in seeing Robert Frank: The Americans, which ended up being ridiculously crowded, so I didn't spend too much there, but I'm glad I got to see what I did. It was a beautiful day so I headed up to the rooftop sculpture garden, which is one of my favorite places in all of NYC. The current work up there is Roxy Paine on the Roof: Maelstrom. I couldn't take photos inside the other museums, so I took plenty of photos here. The sculpture was huge and spread over the entire garden area. You pretty much had to walk through it to get to different sides of the deck. It was fun to see how different people reacted to it and interacted with it. It was great to get some fresh air and enjoy the late afternoon light.

From The Met, I hiked up to 92nd Street to go to The Jewish Museum. They have a new exhibit up called Alias Man Ray: The Art of Reinvention. It was a fascinating look at an artist who I usually consider a photographer, but had his hands in so many creative endeavors. I enjoyed seeing his paintings, but have to admit, my favorite part was getting a close up look at the original photographs. There was a video of an interview with Man Ray that I found totally fascinating. One of my favorite quotes from the video was "Anyone who does creative arts is a sacred person". He was referring to the fact that some things that people make don't suit his taste, but that doesn't mean that it's not art or that the person doing it isn't creative.

It was a great, although exhausting, day in the city. Between this excursion and working at the Paper Source for 8 hours on Saturday, it felt like I spent most of the weekend on my feet, but it was all worth it. I love having easy access to NYC, it is one of the biggest benefits of living in Princeton.