Hurry up to the museum
The best place to escape the frost (or rain) is a museum. Here are a few exhibitions at New York's top museums that you shouldn't miss. The good thing about the Metropolitan Museum of Art for New York State residents is that if you show proof of residency, you can pay whatever you want for admission—even a dollar. Guests will have to fork out $30, although students and seniors receive a discount. But in return you will gain a whole world, from Japan (the “Kimono Style” exhibition traces not only the history of the kimono, but also the influence of the kimono on modern fashion) to Renaissance England (“The Tudors: Art and Splendor”), from the ancient Mayan Empire (“Life gods") to the Netherlands of the 17th-19th centuries ("In praise of painting").
Very soon, on January 8, “The Tudors” will close - one of the best exhibitions of recent years, with hundreds of exhibits collected from museums and private collections around the world, primarily England. This is the story of a relatively short (less than three centuries), but full of tragedies, intrigues and triumphs of the reign of the dynasty, which began in 1485 with the usurpation of the throne by Henry VII and was interrupted by the death in 1603 of his great-granddaughter Elizabeth I. The story is told in luxurious tapestries, ceremonial portraits, illustrated manuscripts, knight's armor, cups, dishes, clothes... Each turn in the intricately designed journey through the exhibition (long galleries and small “offices” reminiscent of the design of royal castles) promises not only a feast for the eye, but also the most interesting facts from the life of rulers and courtiers.
The Guggenheim Museum is not comparable to the Met in scale, but it currently has two excellent monograph exhibitions. On the main spiral of the unique building, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, are paintings by the doyen of American painting, Alex Katz. A retrospective of the 95-year-old master, entitled Gatherings, covers eight decades of his work. These are, first of all, portraits, a kind of cultural chronicle of downtown New York, where Katz has lived almost all his life (portraits of Allen Ginsberg, Robert Rauschenberg, Paul Taylor, critics, playwrights and many others), but also a love story (most of the portraits painted by Katz these are images of his wife Ada). There are also landscapes and still lifes, oil sketches, collages, drawings, engravings - all in his unique, lapidary style.
One thing you can't accuse Nick Cave of is being lapidary. In the side galleries of the museum on levels 2, 4 and 5, where his works from different years are presented, there is a riot of imagination, a luxury of colors, materials, and forms. A 65-year-old Missouri native, one of eight brothers raised by a single mother, a former Alvin Ailey company dancer, now a professor, designer and performance artist, Cave uses clear and powerful metaphors, combining metal, wire, fabric, threads, hair, paper flowers, porcelain figurines, casts of one’s own limbs and an abyss of other things from which he creates a new reality.
Fashion fans have a direct route to the Brooklyn Museum, to the exhibition of the legendary Frenchman Thierry Mugler, where more than 100 clothing models plus photographs, sketches, videos and even a room of fragrances - in honor of the 30th anniversary of the perfume “Angel” he created - tell about the fashion designer who was not afraid to take risks, used unusual silhouettes and materials (vinyl, glass, chrome, latex), created a new type of model “glamazon” (a combination of “glamour” and “Amazon”) and a new style of high fashion shows and became the author of amazing costumes for Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, David Bowie and other pop culture stars. The exhibition plunges into his sparkling, stunning, theatrical world and, not by chance, begins with a hologram of the famous Comédie-Française performance “The Tragedy of Lady Macbeth”, made for the Avignon festival in 1985. Attendance requires pre-purchased tickets. You'll have to go to brooklynmuseum.org
Author: Maya Pritzker
