Central Park & The Met

We started with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the greatest collections of art treasures in the world with over 2 million artefacts spanning 5000 years and most civilisations on earth and also famous for the fab view of Central Park from roof. Our focused visit began with the Egyptian wing, through to the Temple of Dendur …

… then on to explore the American wing, up through 3 floors where the highlights were the Arts and Crafts ceramics …

… and the Tiffany glass. We happened upon one of the museum guides talking about his innovations in making glass with different colourations and textures and also the way he twisted the plants round the supporting framework of the glass.

We stopped at this famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware and listened to the guide explain it contains maybe more propaganda than truth but is still an image beloved of Americans.

Next we headed for Modern and Contemporary art where Chris sought out Edward Hopper and Joanna and I spent a long time looking at America Today, a room-sized mural comprising ten canvas panels offering a panorama of life in the 1920s by Thomas Hart Benton. The bright colours and dynamic compositions drew us in to look at the details of farming, industry and city life.

We had to check out the Impressionists as the museum has an amazing collection of well known paintings, too many to list, and lots by Van Gogh including Wheat field with Cypresses.

Finally up to the roof for the view …

With few green spaces, city elders saw the need to create a “People’s Park” in the expanding urban jungle. So, in 1856, the city purchased a large, desolate plot two and a half miles long and a half-mile wide and held a competition for a park design. Over the next 20 years, the swampy, rocky terrain was transformed into a bucolic haven, full of scenic environments that were as carefully-designed as stage settings. The park quickly became a popular retreat for New Yorkers—particularly after the subway made it easily reachable. The park suffered from neglect and deteriorated during the 1960s and 70s, when it was teeming with vagrants, drugs, and crime. But in 1980, the Central Park Conservancy was formed to restore and maintain the park and it’s done an incredible job of returning the park to its original glory.

In the end we spent a long morning in the museum and were ready for a sit down so found a great lunch spot serving dips and Turkish bread.

We had planned to spend the afternoon in Central Park, but that had to wait, as our tickets to the Met also gave same day entry to The Cloisters where European medieval art and architecture is displayed, including the Merode Altarpiece which would be one of the highlights of an art study day I’m organising next year for my local arts society, and I had to see it! The museum is lovely, made to look a medieval building incorporating reclaimed cloisters from Europe and set in a park north of Harlem, but after a long day we focused on just the one painting … this Northern Renaissance image of the Annunciation, once owned by the Merode family, and managed to eavesdrop as a NYU tutor explained the painting to her class.

The bus stopped just outside and took us back the the B&B. After a rest, we got a second wind, so headed back to the city for the evening, starting with huge American sandwiches in the Tick Tock diner …

… a bit of shopping …

… and then on to The Empire State Building to see the views.

It was a great time to go as the queues were short, and we wandered through the exhibit of history and photos on the way up … all the way to the 102nd floor. It was built in just over a year, hoping to sign people up quickly before the full effects of the depression kicked in. The ploy didn’t work, as the managing company took till the 1960’s to break even, and most of the income came not from rent but from people paying to go to the top.