New York Day Six Thursday 6/11/14
We got up and got ready it was a nasty day out cold and wet the best of the weather seemed to be behind us now. We got the bus into Manhattan which took a while as traffic was pretty heavy, it didn't help that at the toll booth for the Lincoln tunnel several cars were trying to go across 3 lanes to get to the cash booths.
We arrived and headed straight for the subway to get over to the metropolitan museum. The met is huge it has whole rooms setup as various periods or just to show of a set of statues it’s almost too big. We decided since there was no chance we could do it all we should focus on the things that were unique to the met. So we headed to the American wing on the way there we passed an Egyptian temple which was given as a gift to the museum as the area it was in was being flooded so they shipped it over and rebuilt it in a huge room. Past that was the American wing there was lots of good stuff including a living room that Francis Lloyd Wright created for Francis B Little. It looked very modern in it’s style despite being made in 1912. There were lots of Tiffany glass works as well as some paintings a few very uncomfortable looking chairs. Lots of more classic American art work paintings vases busts of George Washington (who had a massive nose).
We also saw a huge mural called America Today by Thomas Hart Benton, who was a mentor to Jackson Pollock, which is the multipanel piece originally designed for the board room of New York’s New School for social research. Each of the ten panels has scenes from American life rendered in bright stylized paintings with very vivid colors and framed in small metal frames that zig zagged into the frame separating some parts of the image. It was a fantastic piece really amazing to look at and what was more interesting was in the next room they had a lot of the studies and sketches he used to create the thing. They also had works of his contemporaries showing what other artists were doing.
After that we looked at some more of the furniture and things like sewed samplers from earlier American history.
We then grabbed a quick lunch before heading to the Cubism exhibit which had some examples from Picasso Braque Gris and Leger. It was a private collection that one of the Lauder family were allowing to be shown and had some interesting sketches used to make some other works or work pieces the artists had used as well as paintings.
Once through with that it was getting a bit late we decided to try and hit the museum of modern art (MOMA) so went down on the subway to get close. We didn’t have much time so we went for the fourth and fifth floors seeing things like Andy Warhol Campbell Soups and Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night. We saw plenty of other modern art including some more cubist work and a couple of Monet’s Water lillys. After that we went to the special exhibit which was of Henry Matisse cut outs where he’d used paper and scissors to cut out shapes and make art much like a child would with sugar paper. It was interesting but the exhibit was a bit crowded.
We left Moma then as we were museum-ed out and headed back to the bus terminal to head home. There was a big queue again but they were running plenty of buses so it didn’t take too long to get back. When we arrived we discovered there was no water in the place we called the landlord and he said he’d find out what was going on. He got back to us later saying the house next door had cut the water for some building work and hadn't restored it as they weren't sure if there were taps left running which was a little odd but they would restore the water in an hour. They turned it back on later and we were able to proceed with dinner.
Tomorrow is my last day in New York I fly home at about 6 so I’ll probably not get much out of the day but it’s been a great time and also quite tiring with all the walking up and down. I’ve had an amazing time it’s been really good, things I was worried about staying in New Jersey and going in by bus have been fine, New Jersey where we are is quite nice and the bus has been a good way to get into the city. Not a relaxing holiday but one where I’ve managed to see some things I’ve always wanted to see the empire state, statue of liberty, central park, the skyline of the city by day and night. Still loads more we could see so maybe I’ll be back some day. All in a great holiday just need to get packed up and get myself back to the airport in time for my flight.
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