Limited Access Visit #4: the Met

Sometimes I get these ideas in my head. September 12th the idea I had was to visit every single gallery and exhibit currently open at the reopened Met. And while it took me four and a half hours, I did it. And I saw plenty of things I had never ever seen in there before.

I started with all the Greek and Roman stuff in the South Wing.

Greece and Rome were interrupted when I came across an exhibit of art from the “Shores of the Sahara.”

Okay, back to Greece and Rome:

There are SO many lions eating other animals or people in the Met

After Jesus, I think Hercules has to be the most popular male subject in art.

This is Hercules, too.

This is not.

Then I went into the South Pacific section that I like so much and it seems I didn’t take any pictures because I’ve taken so many in there before. From there I went over to African, Central American and South American art.

Then the modern art

Then up to the contemporary art

Then: 19th and early 20th century European painting and sculpture

There was this special exhibit commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Met with lots of the big hits on display as part of it. Plus stuff I hadn’t seen before.

but…is it art?

Next: “Art of the Arab Lands”

Crossed over the Great Hall (don’t worry, I checked both sides)

And then on to the Asian art, the great majority of which I do not believe I had seen before.

A gigantic time (and strength) saver: the whole European paintings 1250-1800 section was closed for renovations. Probably saved myself an hour and a half there.

Back down to 1 for European Sculpture, Medieval Art, Rooms, and Armor

(Hercules)

Upstairs to the musical instruments section…never been to this before I’m sure, also, not pictured but they’re hiding the Organ Rehearsal in this section these days.

From there I conquered the Americas

this one is titled “new husband buys the groceries for the first time” or something like that

iphone?

the terrifying tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears

The archives…

Stumbled upon this room-sized painting of the grounds of Versailles no one ever told me about

Next: a painting of otters and the American wing sculpture court

Some more European decorative arts it seems…

The central sculpture court, maybe my favorite section of the whole museum

Then up to the roof to admire the Lattice Detour and the park and city.

Back down to 1 to pick up some last few Europe galleries and back through Rome/Greece on my way to…

Egypt! Don’t think I was going to miss Egypt!

And that was it! Now please don’t be like: Oh yeah, what about the Lehmann Gallery or the photography galleries or all the mezzanines? Because I did not miss them! I lost either photo taking steam or photo posting steam, but do not worry, I promise I saw it all. I would not let you down!

And oh yeah, Covid-times report on attending the Met: I had a reservation, but I don’t think they’re required. The Met is so big I think they figure they can just let people in and it probably won’t be a big deal. It was fairly empty when I got there at 10’ish AM but seemed kind of normal levels of busy by the time I left. Then again, I was there on a Saturday. Weekday mornings are probably real nice.

Oh and as a museum, Met is world class. League of its own. It’s got it all.

Limited Access Visit #3: the Whitney

On September 6th I took advantage of having come downtown for church and went over to the Whitney afterwards. Seems I have no proper establishing shot for the visit, I just get right into it. The big thing happening at the Whitney right now is they have this triple-A exhibit on the 20th century Mexican muralists and their influence on art throughout the Americas. This show was supposed to be a blockbuster “big deal” show with reserved tickets and giant crowds BUT then the lockdown happened. But now the Whitney is back open and you can just go in (with a reserved ticket, of course) and see this big deal show.

I like that one parrot

One of the best things about the Whitney: those terrace views!

There was also a very fine “craft in art” show.

There was also a show about this artist Agnes Pelton. A lot of her work seems to be the inspiration for Trapper Keeper art.

Finally, a visit to the permanent collection, where they always keep a great mix of old favorites and pieces you haven’t seen before on display.

Ok so you know what I think? I think the Whitney is my favorite museum in New York. Great building in a great location, perfect size where you can see everything in a 2-ish hour visit, interesting shows plus a great permanent collection, PLUS those terraces? Consider me very Whitney-gang.

Oh, and how’s their Covid situation? Very good. You must have a reservation to get in, they take your temperature as you walk by a sensor, ticket stuff is all contact-less, elevators are available at request but otherwise they ask everyone that can take the stairs. The number of people at the museum seemed to be what you should expect on a lazy Sunday, no bustling, but definitely not as abandoned-feeling as the MoMA.

Limited Access Visit #2: the MoMA

The morning of September 1 I took a trip to the MoMA

with my brother Greg!!

There was a whole lot of this…in fact, after visiting 4 Limited Access cultural institutions so far, NO ONE comes close to the distancing in effect at the Museum of Modern Art. They’ve got the lowest percentage of people allowed in and it showed. Very very very few people in the museum and it was awesome.

We started on the top, where there was a big Donald Judd retrospective, and worked our way down through the whole museum.

The best example of the non-crowdedness of the MoMA was that we were the only 2 people in the gallery where Starry Night is. Never have I ever not had to elbow my way through this room.

Ok now art w/o interruption:

OK and that’s it for my MoMA visit! Good to see all the art and walk around the expansion, but it’s a shame that the expansion is just: more rooms. You wouldn’t even know you were in it if you didn’t know you were in it. And I don’t know but also I feel like I’ve seen every thing they’ve got at the MoMA. No surprises, no discoveries, nothing really got me going. MoMA: get some new art? Or rotate some of it? OR maybe, even with a 6 or 7 month break, I’ve been too many times?

Anyway, I’ve got Whitney and Met visit posts and takes coming up so I hope you’ll come around for those, too.