Travels in the 2nd half

  There are many small art galleries in New York City. One with an interesting past is the National Arts Club. The National Arts Club is a private club founded in 1898 by Charles DeKay in order to “stimulate, foster, and promote public interest in the arts and to educate the American people in the fine arts.” It is in a brownstone on Gramercy Park South that used to be home to Gov. Samuel Tilden. The early membership included such New York luminaries as William Frick, JP Morgan, and Theodore Roosevelt. The club has three galleries that are open to the public, and it hosts many exhibitions every year. In the past these have included shows of works by Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Andy Warhol, and Kieth Haring. When I visited in February of this year, the main gallery was host to a show of paintings by abstract artist Libbie Mark (1905-1972). Mark worked primarily during the 1950’s and 60’s in New York and Provincetown MA. Her paintings are highly textured with bold colors. All the abo...

  Winnie the Pooh and Friends A city’s main library says a lot about it. Young cities have new buildings with slick architecture and all the technological bells and whistles. Older cities have buildings built when the theme of “palaces of learning” was the norm. But few cities have a library as much of a palace as the Main Branch of the New York Public Library. Detroit Publishing Company, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons - 1908 Now known as the Stephan A. Schwarzman Building, the library’s main branch is located on the eastern edge of Bryant Park, along Fifth Ave. It stretches from 40th to 42nd street, in the space that was once occupied by the original Croton Reservoir. The Beaux-Arts building was designed by the firm of Carrère and Hastings, and opened in 1911. At the time, it was the largest marble structure in the United States. It housed both a circulating and reference library, with 75 miles of shelves and lots of room to expand. Today, it is only a reference library, Of ...

Southern Landscape (Southern Flood) by Eldzier Cortor   New York City is home to several world class art museums. The Met, MOMA, and The Whitney would each make any city proud. There is one more world class museum in the city, one that is often overlooked -The Brooklyn Museum   Elisa.rolle, , via Wikimedia Commons The Brooklyn Museum is the third largest art museum in New York City. Its roots stretch back to the 1823, when the Brooklyn Apprentices Library was formed. In 1843, the library became part of the Brooklyn Institute, and began to stage exhibitions of art and lectures on many subjects. In 1890, the Institute reorganized as the Brooklyn Institute for Arts and Sciences, and included the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. During the 1970’s all four parts of the institute became independent entities. Brooklyn Museum - Prospect Park (1910) via wikicommons In 1897, The Brooklyn Museum moved into its permanent home on ...