26.07.2012 – 26.07.2012  25 °C

Early start because we were off to see the Metropolitan Museum of Art. On our way we stopped into Grand Central Station to see the beautiful interior. The station’s main terminal is a huge vaulted room that is carved and polished stone. Sweeping staircases take you up to the Mezzanine level (where one of the Apple stores now calls home 🙂 ) with the roof crowned in a constellation map of the heavens. Honestly, a gorgeous piece of architecture! It was pouring rain outside so we didn’t go outside to see the outer façade of this amazing building but instead jumped back on a train and headed up town to see the Met.

We arrived at a good time the rain had dropped down to a drizzle and the entry way was blessedly empty! I cloaked my bag, said goodbye to M&D (I knew I’d be in the gallery longer than they would) and found myself an audio guide. Guide and map in hand I went hunting the 19^th and 20^th C galleries. I just love art galleries!! Fortunately for me the first few paintings I ran into were Monet so I was able to get my Monet fill nice and early! I was in the Monet rooms for so long that before I knew it I was hankering for a cuppa and something to eat so went hunting a beverage. 40 mins later and a very grumpy Weary finally found an open and operating cafeteria! There are a couple of reasons for my grumpiness… 1 the Met is huge so it is VERY easy to take a wrong turn and end up in the wrong part of the museum and 2 there are three cafeteria’s (which are all miles away from each other) and 3 the cafeteria’s didn’t open til 11am! I mean what sort of gallery doesn’t serve up coffee and muffins earlier to entice you to eat two meals in their domain??? Anyway, once my tummy was again happy I headed back upstairs to the 19^th and 20^th C galleries to find my favourite artist Van Gogh.

The Met has some really great Van Gogh paintings, including the famous self portrait that he did at the height of his paranoia and one of the sunflower series. This part of the gallery is also home to Degas, Renoir, Manet, Cezanne to name just a few, so I was pretty much in seventh heaven! After spending an inordinate amount of time with the Impressionists I moved onwards looking for the Modern Art section.

Modern Art as a whole isn’t really my cup of tea but there are a couple of artists I always go “a huntin’” when I’m in a gallery. My selection is to always go looking for Picasso and the cubist painters of the early 20^th C and I’m in love with Salvador Dali paintings. Luckily for me, the Met has quite a few Picasso’s and has a couple of fantastic Dali paintings. The first one that I saw was from the “Jesus” series. The first thing that I thought of was how similar this painting is to the JC painting I loved in the Kelvin Grove in Glasgow last year. (Which, I guess makes sense when you realise they are of the same series of paintings!!).

The other Dali painting that really caught my eye was an optical illusion! It is a painting that is based on Da Vinci’s Madonna and Child. The Madonna and Child are painted in the background (so you can see it from certain angles) but is overlaid with pink and blue coloured circles. My first thought when I saw the painting was what a weird painting of dots it was! Once you get up closer you can see the Madonna and then if you stand at another angle it looks like a giant ear! All in all, I loved this painting just because every time I looked at the painting I could see a different thing!!!!

As I walked deeper into the Modern Art section I suddenly ran into this huge Jackson Pollock. Pollock is one of the artists that I always question his artworks.. I mean, paint flung onto an off white canvas? Apparently people pay a heap for these type of paintings, the Aussie govt for example?? 🙂 The Modern section also had many of Andy Warhols’ paintings. In particular, I liked the Jackie O screen printing.

By the time I had gotten thru the Modern Art section my feet were starting to feel the strain so I decided to do a quick run thru the French section. The Met is similar to the Louvre in that it doesn’t just contain beautiful paintings and sculptures it also contains many artefacts from all over the world including some whole rooms that have been taken from palaces in Italy and France. I find it slightly off colour to see whole European rooms decked out in period furniture displayed here in NYC, it’s a little like seeing Egyptian mummy’s in England. Speaking of which, there aren’t any Egyptian mummy’s here in the Met but there are Roman artefacts!! It really, does annoy me that so many artefacts from around the world are now in the hands of just a few museums and sadly most of the good artefacts are no longer in the country of origin…

I left the Met mid afternoon and caught the bus down to 5^th Ave for some more wandering. I checked out the top line shops before I made it down to Radio City Music Hall and the Rockefeller Centre. The Rockefeller Centre was not quite I was expecting. The only time I’ve ever seen pictures of the building was when it had the xmas tree parked in front of it. The building itself is of the 20s Art Deco style and out the front is where the tree is normally placed. Today, the square is filled with a farmer’s market so I’m having trouble aligning the picture in my head of the xmas tree with this lovely building. 🙂

By the time I found the Rockefeller centre I was a bit over the whole day and was ready to just crash so headed straight back to our house. M&D came back an hour later (after spending the afternoon down in Brooklyn and at the pub having an afternoon drink) so we all headed down to the Thai restaurant downstairs for D’s b’day dinner. Dinner was an expensive affair at 14 dollars a head! That included the most delicious lime and coconut soup I’ve ever tasted, followed by a very tasty Beef Green Curry….. I have never had such a cheap yet incredibly tasty meal! All in all a great night out and an awesome way to end our third day in NYC!

Song of the Day– David Bowe, Andy Warhol