Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years - Through December 31, 2012 at the MET

Need a good reason to go uptown and see the park covered in snow? Is Andy Warhol a good reason? If you think so head up to the park and go to the MET before the end of the year. They have over 45 works of the Pop Art master. On the walls with Warhol are sixty Artists that span the last fifty years that are keeping Art "Pop." The impact on Art that Warhol made was huge. He is the one that gave everyone 15 minutes. Central Park can be lovely in the winter, remember The MET is a Suggested Donation so stop by the Museum to get warm.

Metropolitan Museum of Art:
http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2012/regarding-warhol

Naked Before the Camera - Last Week at the MET

Who is to say what makes art? What new invention or technology will change art forever? When the camera was new artist used photographic nudes as artist studies. When does the artist study shift to become art. Were these nineteenth-century black and whites just made as eye candy or were they a new way to show the beauty of the human body. Victorian Notions keep most of these pictures censored and out of England and America. Yet in places like Paris and Berlin this new art of photography was allowed to go naked. This exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum shows the beginning of this movement and the way it progressed through the twentieth-century. This is your chance to get an eye full and it will make you wonder where art will go next.

The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Gard​e at the MET

The New Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris has a young American that is taken back to the 1920's to meet all the stars of the Jazz Age. He eyes where opened by all the artist and writers that where part of the Parisian Avant-Garde and even visits Gertrude Stein at her house. This is what might have happened to any who found themselves in the Art world in Paris at the beginning of the century. The Steins, Gertrude, Leo, and Michael Stein, and Michael's wife, Sarah opened their homes to anyone with a letter of reference. Most who could not go to see fine art in the shows and museums went to these rooms filled with painters works that are now household names. Matisse and Picasso were just two of the many struggling painters that this group of Americans had as friends. This family from San Francisco were able to show an amazing amount of works by these artist to the public. This exhibition now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art has over 200 works from these walls that changed the way a whole generation looked at Modern Art. Just think what it was like to not only collect the work of artist like Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Édouard Manet, and Auguste Renoir, but to also have them as close friends of the family. What a interesting time to be in Paris with the soon to be who's who of the art world over for open house discussions every Saturday evening! So go to the MET and use this exhibition as on excuse to daydream about Paris and the artist of the Jazz age.

Through June 3, 2012

“Our Future Is in the Air" Black and White at the MET

In with the new and out with the old. At the turn of the century the old was horses, ships, and painters. The new was motorcars, airplanes, and photography. New and exciting machines made one generations world much, much different from the one before them. Everything was slowly changing including art. The torch was being passed to new a kind of artist. One that could tell for himself what made art. With the camera one could stop time, create a image that would last forever and only took an instant. In the 1880's handheld cameras made everyone into a photographer. It also made some photographer's into real artist. They where the first to conquer this new medium and the MET has set two exhibits together to show just how magic that time was. “Our Future Is in the Air" an "exhibition that suggests the twinned senses of exhilarating optimism and lingering dread that accompanied the dissolution of the old order." Then the MET brings out three giants of photography Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, and Paul Strand to go along with the World changing theme. These two together show just how important that time was in the art community.

Both are up until April 10th.

Hipsters, Hustlers, and Handball Players: Leon Levinstein at the MET

Leon Levinstein is an American photographer that's life's work is the New York City Streets. "In my photographs I want to look at life—at the commonplace things as if I just turned a corner and ran into them for the first time." "I want my photographs to be spontaneous rather than contrived." After moving to New York in the Forties he became obsessed with strangers and real life moments. He spent 35 years snapping photos of this fine city. The MET has over forty of his photographs on display till October 17. These show has Pimps, long-hair's and Hustlers. It also has families at Coney Island, lovers, young people, old people..its New York in black and white.



Hipsters, Hustlers, and Handball Players: Leon Levinstein's New York Photographs, 1950–1980

Art of the Samurai: Japanese Arms and Armor, 1156–1868 Metropolitan Museum of Art

In 1868 the Samurai culture was abolished, but for more then seven hundred years this culture flourished in Japan. Following the Bushidō, meaning "Way of the Warrior", these man were part of the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. Now one can sign up for a 4-8 year hitch, but being a Samurai was not that kind of military service. The warrior looked forward to a glorious death in the service of a military leader or the emperor. This exhibit is made up of objects from public and private collections. Most of objects date from the rise of the samurai in the late Heian period, through the early modern Edo period. The focus in this exhibit is armor, swords and sword mountings. The swords and daggers are very impressive, but the equestrian equipment and surcoats are worth some extra time. The most eye opening pieces were of the archery equipment and firearms. At one point in time the Samurai was known as "the man with a bow." Also on display are other arts of the Samurai like banners, painted scrolls and screens depicting battles. Because of the age and delicate nature of these's item The Metropolitan Museum is bringing this exhibit out in waves. The first examples will be On view October 21–November 29, then the second wave will be On view December 8–January 10.

The Pictures Generation Met. Through August 2ND

This is one of the most impressive exhibits to see in the Metropolitan Museum of Art this summer. Running till August 2ND there is lots of time to plan a trip to the park and then the Met. Remember that this museum a "suggested donation" and open late on Fridays. This show focuses on media's influence on young artists from 1974 to 1984. Some of the lesser-known artists shine but most patrons will recognize early works from bigger names like Cindy Sherman, David Salle, sand Richard Prince. This was a time in our history when print media was king, television was reinventing its self and radio was at its peak. This was the precursor to the lives we all live now where all media is thrown at us at alarming speeds. The art makes us realize how these ads and commercials, stick in our heads and change how we live, see ourselves, and what we buy. With a Pop Art influence but not copied, lots of peaces use blown up or distorted magazine images. Others show how moving pictures relate to printed ones. All in all a very provocative exhibit that one will want to go discuss over a late dinner on the East Side.