Guggenheim Museum

June 21, 2018







Kathy and Chris

Guggenheim Museum

We did not have too many things planned that we wanted to do in New York before we arrived, but one of the things we did want to see was the Guggenheim Museum. The main reason is that when we visited Taliesin West in Phoenix last spring, we became members of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and had a free pass to get us in to the Guggenheim that was included with that membership and we wanted to take advantage of it.

Of course visiting the Guggenheim is never a bad idea, so we walked from our Times Square hotel uptown, through Central Park and then over to Fifth Avenue to the Guggenheim. This gave us the bonus of getting to experience the beauty and fun that is Central Park on a beautiful sunny summer day.













I love Central Park, it is the most visited urban park in the world and serves as a beautiful respite from the frantic city life along its borders. There is so much to see and do in the park, it is almost like a small community of its own right in the middle of the city. I never get enough of just strolling through the park to see the sites and take in the urban wilds.

Chris

The park is full of all sorts of statues honoring all manner of men, with men being the opportune word, as there are over 26 statues honoring famous men and even a statue honoring a real life Dog, Balto, but only a single statue that features a woman, and that one is a fictional character not an actual person. The Alice in Wonderland statue is delightful and I am sure that the men recognized are worthy, but there needs to be more statues honoring women and thankfully there are a number of groups working on rectifying the issue.







Of course much of the park seems familiar as it has been the setting for countless movies and TV shows, even just walking along with Kathy, I would point out spots where dead bodies had been discovered on “Law and Order”. There is so much going on in the park on any given day, artists, dreamers, exercise gurus, rollerbladers, skateboarders, bicyclists and the occasional muttering lost soul as well, you find it all there. It is a wonderful amalgamation of what New York City stands for and is one of the best things that the city has going for it.

Kathy

We arrived at the Guggenheim just around noon and met up with my nephew Chris, who just happens to be in the middle of his couch surfing tour of New York, so this was a great opportunity to see him. Chris is an artist himself, just recently having a show of his own in Indianapolis, he is back in New York to hopefully pursue his passion and the Guggenheim seemed like a good place to meet and hang out.

The museum is the permanent home of a continuously expanding collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern and contemporary art. There are also almost always special exhibitions going on and this month there is a fantastic exhibition featuring the work of one of the preeminent artists of the twentieth century, Alberto Giacometti (1901–1966). The exhibit features work from every era of the artist’s career and features important works in bronze and in oil, as well as plaster sculptures and drawings never before seen in this country.

As amazing as the permanent collection and special exhibits are, it is the building itself that is the star of the show at the Guggenheim. Designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright the building sadly opened six months after his passing in October of 1959. It was controversial at the time and many artists did not want their work displayed there, but over time the true elegance and beauty of the design won out and it is now recognized as a work of architectural genius.

https://www.guggenheim.org/

https://www.centralpark.com/