New York City is slowly returning to being populated, renewed and flourishing after the years of Covid lockdown that paralyzed the city.
Office towers are being populated, luxury department stores are once again decorating their storefronts, residential towers are being filled, and newly built skyscrapers, with all the possible innovations and additions, are offering luxury apartments for sale at record prices.
New York museums are also opening to the public, presenting a large selection of works of art of all kinds and from all periods.
On my last visit to Manhattan, I visited six excellent museums in the city, was impressed and took pictures.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art – The Metropolitan Museum of Art, or as it is called by its abbreviated name – the MET – is the largest art museum in the United States.
It opened to the public in 1870, and has 19 wings and over two million exhibits, in various styles, of Egyptian, Asian, African art and a large selection of costumes. It is worth starting your visit with the special exhibition that the museum offers at that time slot, and then wander through the wings and dwell on a topic that particularly interests you. I loved the Knights’ Halls.
The Guggenheim Museum – The museum’s unique structure, designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, is a spiral with four rings that gradually expand. The structure allows for a comfortable walk from the top of the building down, at a gentle slope, while admiring the images and representations. For example: when different periods in an artist’s life are displayed – you can easily see the gradual development of his work.
The Guggenheim Museum has a permanent collection of artists such as Chagall, Paul Klee, Picasso, Kandinsky and more.
The Whitney Museum – The Whitney Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art has moved to a unique building built entirely of glass and steel, overlooking the Hudson River.
We started the morning with a walk on the HIGH-LINE promenade along the river, and arrived at the Whitney Museum in good time for coffee and a morning pastry. The Whitney’s new structure allows the museum to double its exhibition space and curate exhibitions in an open space without walls and columns.
The building’s glass walls let light into the halls, allowing visitors to admire the view of the Hudson River and the boardwalk along it.
On the museum’s entrance floor, the glass walls create a flow from the street into the museum, and the building merges with its surroundings.
On the eighth floor of the Whitney, its permanent collection is displayed, including works by Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Jackson Pollock, Edward Hopper, AlexanderCalder, Willem de Kooning, and more.
The Whitney Museum was founded in 1931 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, who was a sculptor and art collector. When the Metropolitan Museum of Art refused to display her collection at the Met, she decided to establish a museum of modern and contemporary art. The collection grew and the museum moved several times to its current location in a vibrant bohemian area, formerly the city’s meatpacking district.
The Jewish Museum of New York – Founded in 1904, the museum is considered the largest of its kind in the United States and contains thousands of items from the world of painting, sculpture, photography and archaeology. The museum documents Jewish art and culture. The museum has a gift shop where you can purchase original items, games and greeting cards – as a souvenir or as a gift for people who already have everything.
Neue Gallery New York – Founded in 2001 and is the newest of the museums located on the ‘Museum Mile’ area on Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side.
The museum was established for the collections of two friends: art dealer and exhibition organizer Serge Seversky and entrepreneur and art collector Ronald Lauder.
This is a museum of German and Austrian art and design from the early 20th century. The second floor of the museum displays works by Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, and Egon Schiele, as well as decorative art from Austria. The most famous painting is “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer” by Gustav Klimt.
The painting was purchased by Ronald Lauder for the gallery in 2006 for a record price of $135 million. The third floor of the museum displays various German works from that period – Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and more.
On the entrance floor there is a Viennese-style cafe where you can spend time and taste the menu.
The Frick Collection – This is an art museum in Manhattan located in the mansion of Henry Clay Frick. The magnificent house was built in 1914 as a family residence and opened as a museum to the public in December 1935. On the Fifth Avenue front there is a private garden and inside the house is a large neoclassical courtyard.
The museum displays Frick’s art collection, which he acquired during his lifetime, pictures that he liked and spoke to his heart: works by Titian, Piero della Francesca,Thomas Gainsborough, three pictures by Jan Vermeer – one of which is the picture of ‘The Lady and the Maid’, a picture by Renoir called ‘Mother and Child’, a self-portrait byRembrandt and more.
16 large and impressive halls contain pictures, sculptures, ceramics and French furniture details that combine with special carpets and enamel works. The inner courtyard is covered in glass and has plants grown in greenhouse conditions, statues and benches that allow for enjoyable seating during the visit. The beautiful mansion has undergone several renovations and expansions. Recently, the second floor of the house was renovated and also opened to the public.
On this floor there is an excellent restaurant where you should end your visit and overlook Central Park and the avenue.