The only museum I maintain membership with.

Date of visit:

Date of visit: September 24, 2020
Museum # ?

A little about MoMA

The Museum of Modern art went through a renovation in 2018/2019 and actually only reopened to the public at the end of 2019, which means that they were only open for a smidge before the great shutdown of 2020. The museum is much larger post renovation, and the exhibits in the new areas rotate, which has been really cool. The first time I went there was a phenomenal performance piece: Allora & Calzadilla’s Fault Lines, where two young boys sung insults at one another, and also a sweet interactive piece, David Tudor’s Forest Speech.

What did you love the most?

On this trip, I think I loved Shuzo Azuchi Gulliver’s Cinematic Illumination the most.

I stayed for like 30 minutes watching the frames, trying to follow the stories, and enjoying the music. If you learn anything about my museum going habits, you should know that one of my favourite things to do is to spend long periods of time with friends sitting or lying in rooms with things like this (or the Blue Whale at the AMNH, a past light exhibit at the Whitney, or a cool perceptual art exhibit by Olafur Eliasson at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art).

What is there to see?

In addition to rotating new exhibits, the regular art at the museum is also fantastic. I really enjoyed the mid-pandemic viewing of Starry Night (free from the hustle and bustle of the full museum), and saw some of my favs: Magritte, Monet, Picasso, the Swimming Pool by Matisse, Dalí, etc.

I strongly recommend MoMA, it’s one of my favs for a reason. In regular times a ticket to MoMA also gets you entrance to PS1, which is definitely worth checking out. PS1 is typically a fun Friday evening activity – with free entrance, and cool outdoor hangout space, it’s a fun alternative to post-work bar hopping.

Pandemic Funemployment Explorations: I was let go from my job due to the pandemic right around the time that the museums in NYC started opening up at limited capacity. As it turns out this is the best way to visit the museums – you get whole galleries to yourself, and can spend time admiring the most famous artworks without being jostled by many tourists snapping photos.

Date of visit: September 17, 2020
Museum # ?

A little about the Met

The Met really needs no introduction. But if you did want to know something about it, you should know that it started out with the intention of being a fine arts museum and over time had to really evaluate its own definition of fine art, and with that self-reflecting on whether it had been historically biased.

What did you love the most?

There was a special exhibit called Making The Met, 1870–2020 which was in celebration of the 150 anniversary of the Met. I really enjoyed this exhibit as it gave some insights into the history of the museum and how it changed over the years, while also presenting many of the most notable works from the museum all in one convenient location.

What is there to see?

The Met is home to many famous pieces of art, for example:

• The Great Wave – Hokusai
• The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer –  Edgar Degas
• The Unicorn Rests in a Garden
• Cow’s Skull: Red, White, and Blue – Georgia O’Keeffe
• Haystacks (Effect of Snow and Sun) – Claude Monet
• The Temple of Dendur (an entire Egyptian temple)

They also have several special exhibits, which as a NYC resident always make a new trip to the Met worth it. Favourites of mine in the past have included: Play it Loud (2019, a coworker’s wife was involved in the exhibit), CAMP: notes on fashion, Heavenly bodies (especially the display at the Met Cloisters – which was the most fun), Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, and Big Bambú (the rooftop exhibits are always cool).

Aka the best Met secret.

Date of visit: June 15, 2019
Museum # 49

The Met Breuer is a hidden gem on the Upper East Side. I consider it the Met best secret because admission to one of the Mets is good for all of the Mets, and there is *never* a line at the Met Breuer (and it’s ~5 blocks away from the Met 5th Ave). Not to mention, it’s a fun little gallery.

A little about the Met Breuer

The Met Breuer is located in a brutalist building built by a Bauhaus architect named Marcel Breuer. It was the original home of the Whitney, which relocated to a beautiful building on the Hudson (which has some pretty spectacular views during a cold, winter sunset). The Met took up shop in 2016, and filled it with rotating exhibits of modern and contemporary art.

What did you love the most?

Originally I was going to write about how my favourite thing about my visit was the idea of the exhibit entitled, “Home Is a Foreign Place.” This exhibit got it’s name from the first piece you encounter on the floor. Explained as,

Taking its title from Zarina’s 1999 suite of thirty-six woodcuts, this exhibition features art that explores the meanings of “home” and “place” in our increasingly interwoven globe, whether by necessity or choice.

The Met Breuer

The work itself is really beautiful:

But, while that work of art really resonated with me as a printmaker and as an expat, I found the tiny lewd golden statues the most. Probably because I love tiny art, but also because it seemed just so ridiculous, I loved it to bits! It’s lovely, and worth the trip to the Met Breuer just to see it 🙂

What is there to see?

The Met Breuer regularly swaps out its exhibits. While I was there, there was also a wonderful and weird exhibit Phenomenal Nature by Mrinalini Mukherjee. She has sculpted some sweet figures and flora out of natural rope.

Some really cool perceptual string art:

Some whimsical silver art:

Some really trippy wire and paint art:

And finally a series of objects that come with a fun little story:

These pieces are part of Raad’s ongoing project titled Scratching on Things I Could Disavow, which the artist frames as a new chapter in the history of the art market and museums in the Arab world. During a visit to the Louvre in Paris, Raad noticed that the surfaces of Islamic art objects housed in glass vitrines appeared to mingle with the reflections of other works nearby, creating the illusion of blended forms. Inspired by the effect, he produced these hybrid sculptures, which he imagines as “mutating” or “transforming” in transit from the Louvre in Paris to the Louvre Abu Dhabi. In this way, the playful intermingling of real and trompe l’oeil shadows on these works appear to physically manifest the ideological and discursive forces affecting the contemporary display and art historical narratives of Islamic art.

The Met Beuer

Date of visit: May 31, 2019
Museum # 55

I had been considering going to the Morgan Library for months, because it’s located 3 blocks south of work, has free entrance on Fridays from 7-9, and was featuring a Tolkien exhibit for some time (note: I actually hated reading the Hobbit in school, and despite loving the LOTR movies, could never read the books).

A little about the Morgan

It was originally the private library of Pierpont Morgan (aka J.P. Morgna – now a major US bank). He was known to collect rare books, manuscripts, and drawings. The museum itself features his original library, a reading room (complete with a steel encased rare-book vault), and a small artifact display space. On Friday nights it appears that they host small jazz groups in the central atrium.

What did you love the most?

This library is not so large as to be ostentatious but it’s ridiculously cool. To get to the upper levels there is a staircase hidden behind a section of books. It contains many cool collections and first editions, and is beautifully designed. Morgan really collected some interesting things, including some of the first decorated bibles, some of the first machine printed books, first editions of Winnie the Pooh (original stuffed animals owned by the NYPL – another post for another time), letters, and even some of the oldest surviving tarot card decks!

What is there to see?

In addition to the library there is a performance space, a plush reading room, and several exhibition spaces.

There were two exhibitions running when I visited, and I strongly recommend checking out the Hogarth: Cruelty and Humor. It’s a surprising exhibit, especially when you consider that this set of prints and sketches were made in the 1700s.