Having spent the previous 10+ hours sleeping, I woke up on the morning of May 1st ready for yet another great day around NYC.
After spending the fairly grey morning meeting a few friends downtown, I was ready to hit another great art museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, an incredible institution housed in a building designed by Renzo Piano in the Meat Packing district.
Currently the main event at the Whitney is the Biennale, which had a few interesting pieces but to be very honest was not exactly my cup of tea.
The exhibition drawing from the Whitney’s collection gave me however the opportunity to see works from a few familiar artists like Edward Hopper, Jasper Johns and Georgia O’Keeffe, but also get a glimpse into the production of some interesting African-American artists like Jacob Lawrence, whose dark and heavy paintings from the War Series, depicting his experience in the US Army during WWII, reminded me of the oppressive, claustrophobic feelings generated in the paintings from WWI veterans like Otto Dix and George Grosz I have seen in European museums in the past. I was also happy to see again works of another great African-American artist, Archibald Motley, whose amazing work I had had a chance to see at LACMA in Los Angeles a couple of years ago (but back then I had forgotten to write down his name, so I had been left wondering until now 🙂 ).
The Whitney is also well-positioned to enjoy the High-Line, an amazing urban re-qualification project that has turned an old train line into an elevated garden and promenade that locals and visitors love to enjoy on a sunny spring day.
Odd sightings of the day
I am not much of a celebrity stalker and when I do see one I typically tend to leave them alone. It was however a bit funny walking down the West village on my way to the Whitney to run into Matthew Perry (Friends’ Chandler)… He was having a conversation with a woman who seemed to be giving him a hard time about something, so not exactly a good idea to interrupt them to ask for a selfie 🙂 .
At Whitney I then ran into Italian footballer Andrea Pirlo… But considering I haven’t watched an entire football game since 2012 I really could not be bothered with him either.