Guest Author for Post: Dan Patterson, author bio appears below
Edited by: Heather K., WGINY
New York City plays host to some of the finest art museums in the world. Art buffs know that any art tour
of New York City simply is not complete without a visit to "The Met" and "The MoMA".
Of course, you’re not going just to see the buildings, so you’ll need to know
which paintings not to miss once you’re there. Some of the most famous are also housed at other Big Apple hot spots. Here’s a quick guide about where to go and
what to see once you’re there.
Many people will tell you that no trip to NYC is complete without a visit to The Met, but once you get there, you’ll need to know what not to miss. The Met houses more than two million pieces of artwork and is one of the largest art museums in the world, so it is easy to understand why patrons become easily overwhelmed by the volume of works to see. If you plan ahead, you can easily navigate to the highlights, such as Michelangelo’s The Musicians (1595), Poussin’s The Abduction of the Sabine Women (1633-1634), Stuart’s portrait George Washington (1975-1796), Pollock’s Autumn Rhythm (1950), David’s The Death of Socrates (1787), Dali’s Crucifixion (1954), Picasso’s Dying Bull (1934), Homer’s Snap the Whip (1872), Monet’s Garden at Sainte-Adresse (1867), Van Gogh’s Wheat Field with Cypresses at the Hauute Galline Near Eygalieres (1889), Vermeer’s Young Woman with a Water Pitcher (1662), Manet’s The Monet Family in Their Garden at Argenteuil (1874), Klee’s Static Dynamic Gradation (1923), Matisse’s Nasturtiums with the Painting Dance (1912), El Greco’s View of Toledo (1596-1600), Singer-Sargent’s Madame X (1883-1884), and Cezanne’s The Card Players (1894-1895), to name a few. You may need more than a full day to discover all of the pieces you want to see. While you’re there, make a very worthy detour to the rooftop. It has one of the best views of the city.
You may not be able to adequately recover from your affair with one famous painting before you engage with the next at MoMA. Yes, Van Gogh’s The Starry Night (1889) is there and Edvard Munch’s The Scream (1895), normally at home in Oslo, will be there until the end of April. One of the largest works of art on display is Monet’s Reflection of Clouds on the Water Lily Pond (1920), which occupies a very large amount of real estate on its own wall at MoMA. Here you’ll also find, Rousseau’s The Dream (1910), Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907), Dali’s Persistence of Memory (1931), Mondrion’s Broadway Boogie-Woogie (1942-1943), Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans, Matisse’s The Dance (1909), Chagall’s I and the Village (1911), Pollock’s Number 31 (1950), John’s Flag (1954-1955), Wyeth’s Christina’s World (1948), Lichtenstein’s Drowning Girl (1963), and Klimt’s Hope II (1907-1908).
These highlights are simply a snapshot of the great works on display in New York City art museums, but you’ll be delighted to check these off of your “to see” list.
Gaze upon Frank Lloyd Wright's building, and you will see that the modern art experience here begins outside. Inside, The Guggenheim features ever-changing, notable modern art "from the 20th Century and beyond." Many of the paintings and sculpture found in the museum's permanent collection once belonged to founder Solomon Guggenheim and his family. Within the museum's permanent collections, it is impossible to pass by works by such as Cézanne's Man with Crossed Arms (1899) or Still Life: Flask, Glass, and Jug (1877), or Picasso's first Parisian work, Le Moulin de la Galette (1900). Through April 17, 2013, Vasily Kandinsky is once again brought to life as a rotating Guggenheim exhibit that includes Kandinsky's On the Spiritual in Art (1911).
The Frick
Collection is the former 5th Avenue residence of Pittsburgh
industrialist Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919). It was built in 1914 and is one of
New York City’s few remaining Gilded Age mansions, making it a work of art in
and of itself—visitors are particularly captivated by the exquisite courtyard. Some
of the masterpieces not to be missed are Whistler’s Harmony in Pink and Grey (1881), Degas’ The Rehearsal (1878-1879), Renoir’s Mother and Children (1876-1878), Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait (1658), Goya’s The
Purification of the Temple (1600) and Vermeer’s Mistress and Maid (1667).
The Whitney
Museum was created by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in the early 1930s and features a wide variety of contemporary and American art, such as
George Bellows Dempsey and Firpo
(1924). The Whitney received a substantial donation from the estate of Edward
Hopper in 1970, which included around 2,000 pieces of his work, most notably, Early Sunday Morning (1930) and Seven A.M. (1948).
Author Bio:
This post was provided by Dan Patterson, who works for CityPASS. You can save on admission to some of the museums listed above with the New York CityPASS. To plan the best trip to New York, check out their plan your visit to NYC page.
