United States
This museum of early twentieth-century German and Austrian art and design has a fabulous collection of art including many pieces by Egon Schiele and Klimt.
It also has two delightful cafes serving Viennese style food, wonderful cakes and gorgeous breakfasts. It's quite small and a refreshing change from some of the enormous museums in New York that can quickly exhaust you. Also it's not far from the marvellous Frick collection which is also fairly small and "do-able"
www.neuegalerie.org/
1048 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028
+1 (212) 628 6200
Google map: bit.ly/uVgiK6
I went to the MoMA (pronounced Moe-ma) website to try to figure out how to describe its latest exhibition, "Talk to Me," and I can't really figure it out. It's about design and where utility meets personal interaction and communication. It features 194 pieces. Uh, it looks cool? It really does. The museum's open every day in the summer and late on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. You can check out "Tall to Me" until November 7, and if you go to MoMA on a Friday from 4-8:30 you get in free. MoMA's located at 11 West 53rd Street between 5th and 6th Avenues.
moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2011/talktome/
11 West 53 Street, New York, NY 10019-5497
+1 (212) 708-9400
Google map: bit.ly/p0S27z
Amanda is our Been there local for New York. You can check out her page here: www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/articles/new-york-local-amanda-green.jsp and her own NYC blog here: www.noisiestpassenger.com/
Last week, I mentioned a closing exhibition of Laurel Nakadate's "365 Days: A Catalogue of Tears." If you didn't get to play voyeur to a year's worth of pictures of the artist crying, you're in luck. There's an even bigger exhibition of Nakadate's work -- including the weepy stuff -- at MoMA PS 1 in Long Island City, Queens. PS 1 is the place for contemporary art in NYC. The quickest way to the museum is the 7 train to Queens from Times Square or Grand Central. Get off at the 45th Road-Courthouse Square stop, exit at Jackson Avenue, and walk one block to 46th Avenue. The museum's located at 22-25 Jackson Avenue and 46th Avenue and is open Thursday through Monday from noon to 6 pm.
ps1.org/exhibitions/view/321
22-25 Jackson Ave, Long Island City, NY 11101
+1 (718) 784-2084
Google map: bit.ly/mmn3zk
If you're the kind of person who tears up when someone else does, you might need to bring some tissues to Laurel Nakadate's "365 Days: A Catalogue of Tears." For a year, the artist took a photograph of herself crying - clothed, naked, at home, in public, and so on. Though some will doubt how sincere the art is, crying's personal, not to mention cathartic. The free exhibit closes on June 25. View it at the Leslie Tonkonow sixth-floor gallery at 535 West 22nd Street near 10th Avenue. It's open on Tuesday-Saturday from 10-6. While you're that far west, check out the other small galleries on 22nd Street. You'll bound to find some art to appreciate.
New Yorkers love their museums - and have plenty of them - but it's nice to visit a smaller gallery for some art education. The Gagosian Gallery highlights lesser-known pieces by big artists. Fewer visitors means more of a chance to really take in the artwork. And did I mention it's free? Until June 25, you can check out the latest sexy exhibition, "Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L’Amour Fou." The collection of paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings capture Marie-Thérèse Walter, one of Picasso's muses. The two had a secret love affair for years - Picasso would sneak around on his wife a few days each week to spend time with Walter and their child. Complicated love makes for good art.
522 West 21st Street, New York, NY 10011
+1 212 741 1717
www.gagosian.com/
Google map: bit.ly/lpEwpG
Art for art's space. Dia Art Foundation's gallery at Beacon exemplifies what New York does best - converting disused industrial space into space for art. At over 240,000 square feet this ex-box printing factory, located just over an hour's train ride away from Grand Central Station up the Hudson River, houses art on a grand scale. Each gallery is devoted to a single artist - from Beuys to Judd to Warhol (72 of them!) Including monumental holes in the ground and obligatory piles of shattered glass this is art, and as importantly a gallery, on a scale to take your breath away and make you smile. Follow with a stroll up the river and lunch in the groovy Beacon.
www.diaart.org
535 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011
+1 212.989.5566
Google map: bit.ly/gYV2GB
The Target Free Friday Night, sponsored by clothing giant Target is a great experience. The free admission begins at 4:00pm and ends at 8:00pm giving plenty of time to take in the best this gallery (including 150 000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs and design objects) has to offer. The most famous of which include Van Gogh’s The Starry Night and Dali’s The Persistence of Memory. Although tickets are not available to buy in advance the lengthy queue surprisingly moves quickly but arriving early never hurts.
(212) 708-9400
11 West 53 Street,
between Fifth and Sixth avenues
New York, NY 10019-5497
The younger, hipper sister gallery of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), PS1 showcases the best of cutting-edge contemporary art. Even if you don't "get it", you're bound to find something entertaining in this old school building. A recent exhibition included a video of a family kitted out in back-to-front Bernie Clifton-style ostrich outfits played backwards, & a mouse-eye view of a toy train ride through the bowels of houses & offices. Guaranteed to wind up Daily Mail readers & Jack Vettriano lovers, which is never a bad thing. Entry is free with a MoMA ticket.
It's on Long Island. Take the E or V train to 23 St/Ely Ave. Exit onto 44th to Jackson Ave. Walk two blocks south on Jackson to 46th Ave.
www.ps1.org
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