Day 41: 7/31/21— Modern and Contemporary updated

Contemporary wing Mezzanine: Center: Robert Colescott, Knowledge of the Past Is the Key to the Future, 1986 (also the title for this installation). Right: Peter Doig, Two Trees, 2017.

On our second day, I decided to revisited the Modern and Contemporary wing, which tends to be updated periodically. The first floor, covering early 20th Century, had the basic layout I had seen in 2015, but with a number of new paintings from the Leonard W. Lauder Cubist Collection, donated as part of the Met 150 anniversary celebration. The other two floors were completely new layouts, which also included many new donations as part of Met 150. The second floor had a new layout of Abstract Impressionist, including some new paintings I'd have to call neo-Abstract Impressionist. The Mezanine had an installation of contemporary paintings, many painted within the last few years, entitled "Knowledge of the Past Is the Key to the Future," focusing on diversity and other current concerns. 

Over the two days, we also saw numerous special exhibits, in particular, the wonderful and very popular exhibit, "Alice Neel: People Come First" (which on the first day had a line stretching the entire breadth of the museum). We also saw the enlightening "New Woman Behind the Camera"; I saw Dutch Masterpieces at the Met, Crossroads, and Modern Ceramics from the Ellison Collection; while Bev saw Art of Native America and a hidden gem, "P.S. Art 2021: Celebrating the Creative Spirit of New York City Kids."

 

Day 40: 7/30/21— British Decorative Arts updated

Staircase from Cassiobury House, Hertfordshire, attributed to Edward Pearce, ca 1677-80

As I noted in my last entry, the reimagined British Decorative Arts galleries were expected to open in another month, which indeed occurred on March 2, 2020. Then 11 days later the entire museum (and essentially the whole country) closed for the COVID pandemic. This was our first day in New York since then, and we spent two days at the Met catching up. The new British Galleries were indeed more interesting and informative than the old. Everything is arranged by century from 1500 to 1900, with historical context, from Henry VII’s break with the Catholic Church around 1500 through the growth of the British Empire to the beginning of modern times. The museum floor plan works nicely, as the chronology starts just off the Medieval section and ends just outside the American Wing. An added bonus is a new audio guide, one of the Met’s few audio guides still available on smartphones for free. 

Day 39: 1/31/20 – American Decorative Arts and Native American

Louis Comfort Tiffany, Magnolias and Irises
(1908)

There has been little new to report in the permanent collections over the past year and a half. We are still unable to see the remaining six galleries of the European Painting section, since the Met is engaged in what they term a momentous project of installing new skylights for this entire area. I am also awaiting the reopening of British Decorative Arts in one month, hoping I will be more impressed than I was with the previous installation.

Yup'ik artist, Mask, Alaska (1900)

In the meantime, I made some discoveries in the first floor of the American Wing, which I last saw years ago. First was the late-19th and early-20th century decorative arts rooms, which include a complete Frank Lloyd Wright living room, Arts and Crafts artifacts, beautiful Tiffany windows and other objects, and a special installation on the Aesthetic Movement (Highlights from the Gift of Barrie and Deedee Wigmore). Somehow all these styles are inter-related, and also resemble the Art Nouveau styles. Most of these were probably here when I was last here, but I found it much more remarkable this time, having toured two Frank Lloyd Wright houses in Chicago, and having recently seen the Art Nouveau attractions in Riga.

More notably, there is a new long-term installation called Art of Native America: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection, which fills a long-standing gap in the Met’s collection with a range of artifacts from the full geographic range of American Indians. Amazingly, this marks the first significant Native American art displayed in the museum’s American Wing; the only other objects are displayed near the Africa and Oceania galleries.

Day 38: 7/16/18 – Arms and Armor (end)

It's been over a year since I've been to New York, an unprecedented absence, as a result of Bev's and my accidents. The day started with two unpleasant surprises. First, Bev and I went to the Met Breuer and discovered it was closed on Mondays. I had assumed incorrectly that since the main museum is now open seven days a week that the Breuer would be also. Second, I discovered that the Met no longer provides its full audio guide over smart phones. Several years ago they started offering this delightful amenity, which enabled visitors to avoid the cost and hassle of renting separate audio guides. They now provide free access only for selected special exhibits and self-guided tours – and I found that even these didn't work anywhere near as well as the old system. I kept hoping that the MFA in Boston would follow the Met's example and provide free smart phone access, but unfortunately it looks like the trend is going the other way.

After visiting a number of special exhibits, I completed the Arms and Armor galleries, which display not only the European armor I had previously seen, but also a variety of medieval weapons and many centuries of firearms, the oldest of which were just as elaborately decorated as the armor. Displays came not only from Europe, but also Turkey, Iran, India, China, plus a huge collection from Japan.

Japanese Edo-period armor

Day 37 – 5/7/2017: Arms and Armor revisited (part)

I had been to Arms and Armor with my family before my organized tour, so I hadn't seen everything. Today I visited the central galleries, which included the dramatic central scene with armed knights and horses. Surrounding that were knights in shining armor from various European countries, each with a slightly different style.

Kunz Lochner, Armor for Man and Horse, German, Nuremberg 1548

Saber with Koran inscriptions, Ottoman, Istanbul 1522-26

Armor Garniture of George Clifford, English, Greenwich 1586

Day 36 – 12/16/16: European Paintings 1250-1800 (part)

Two days later, we started at the Met Breuer, which Bev had not yet seen. I was there before, but since all the exhibits are special, everything was new to me too. We saw a collection of Paul Klee works, and a two-floor exhibit of works by Kerry James Marshall.

After lunch we went back to the Met (or Met Fifth Avenue, as it's formally called) and went through another large block of European paintings. Once again, proceeding by gallery number turned out not to be logical in this case, since the next galleries, numbers 625 to 627, started back with Italian medieval religious paintings, similar to parallel galleries 602 to 606. There were some magnificent pieces here, going all the way back to the year 1300. We then continued through the ten galleries of Dutch and Flemish art, including such well-known masters as Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Rubens, and Verneer. Every gallery was filled with treasures.

Anthony van Dyck, Study Head of a Young Woman (1618-20)

Govert Flinck, Bearded Man with a Velvet Hat (1645)

Rembrandt, Self-Portrait (1660)

Day 35 – 12/14/16: European Paintings 1250-1800 (part)

On another four-day trip to New York, we finished the later Italian paintings, which included sweeping landscapes and scenes of ordinary life. We then took an interesting tour of the Islamic galleries.

Merry-making in three countries. France: Jean-Baptiste Joseph Pater, The Fair at Bezons (ca. 1730)














Italy: Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, A Dance in the Country (ca. 1755)












Holland: Jan Steen, Merry Company on a Terrace (ca. 1670)

Day 34 – 11/28/16: Expanded European Paintings 1250-1800 (start)

The Met's collection of European Paintings up to 1800 is its central collection -- in terms of size and quality -- as well as location, with 45 galleries filling the entire 2d floor of the central (19th Century) buildings. I had seen this back in 2010, but in 2013 the galleries were expanded by one-third. Bev had not been with me the first time, so I resolved to see the expanded collection with her.

After seeing an enjoyable special exhibition, Max Beckmann in New York, we spent the rest of this day in Galleries 600-617, which encompass the major part of the huge Italian collection, plus all of the Spanish and French. Among the highlights were the Italian Baroque gallery, the large Venetian 16th Century gallery pictured above (Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese), Velazquez and El Greco in the Spanish area, and David and many others in the French section. I was captivated by the many styles of evocative portraits (below). The amazing El Geco painting, Vision of Saint John,  which I saw last time at the Met Breuer's Unfinished exhibition, was back in its normal location, giving an entirely different perspective.

Carlo Dolci: Saint Philip Neri (1645-46)

Carlo Francesco Nuvolone: Female Martyr Saint (1650)

El Greco: Portrait of a Man (1590-1600)

Jean Baptiste Greuze: Study Head of a Woman (ca. 1780)

Day 33 – 11/25/16: Medieval (end)

Italian manuscript 1450-1500, which provides
a Christian setting in Latin, I assume, for a
Hebrew text very familiar in our synagogue
"How awesome is this place; this is none other
 than the house of God (beit Elohim)"

In the morning I finished the last two galleries of the Medieval section, seeing an interesting selection of religious sculptures, ivory carvings, and manuscripts.

After meeting Bev's family in Soho, we came back in the evening to see a wonderful special exhibition, Jerusalem 1000-1400: Every People Under Heaven.

Day 32 – 7/6/16: Met Breuer; Medieval (part)

  

On March 18, the Met opened its new Met Breuer building, devoted to modern and contemporary art, and, because of extensive traveling, this was the first time I was able to get there. The building was the former home of the Whitney Museum, but the Met barely mentions that fact in its publicity, preferring to highlight the building's architect, Marcel Breuer, and calling the building a masterpiece of Bauhaus architecture. I'm not convinced of that, but it certainly serves the intended purpose.

El Geco's Vision of Saint John (1608-14) appears
"unfinished" according to the caption, but had
enormous impact on 20th Century artists from
Picasso to Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock

Aside from a small installation on the first floor, there are basically three floors of galleries plus a fifth floor with a cafe and bookstore. By the date I arrived, the initial exhibit on floor 2 had closed, and floors 3 and 4 were devoted to a single exhibition entitled, "Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible." Despite the building's focus on modern and contemporary, the first half of the exhibit had works dating back to the Renaissance period, and these led to the more recent works in the second part. The juxtaposition was useful, since it seemed easier to tell whether the older works are finished or not, and if unfinished, whether intentionally or not.

It took just over two hours to see this museum, and fortunately it's just a 15-minute walk (with no additional fee) to see the main museum, now called Met Fifth Avenue to distinguish it. There I continued my tour of the Medieval section with a single gallery. It's the museum's central gallery and one of it's largest, best known for the huge Choir Screen from the Cathedral of Valladolid, but also containing a wealth of religious statues and other impressive items. Nathan then joined me and we saw the special exhibit, "Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs."