Museum Musings

An Insider’s Guide to

ART IN NEW YORK CITY

Rebecca Arkenberg hether you are coming celebrates the 800th anniversary of Artist Hangouts to New York City in the founding of the Mongol empire. To channel the Abstract Expression- March for the National The museum has a café and a shop ists, find Cedar Tavern, originally WArt Education Associa- as well. For more information, go to on University Place between 8th tion Convention, or just coming on www.rmanyc.org/home.cfm. and 9th streets, the favorite haunt your own, there are plenty of gems of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Koon- for an art lover to find here. The Morgan Library & Museum ing, Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, and In 2006, the Morgan Library and Robert Motherwell. In the 1940s The National Museum of the Museum (225 Madison Avenue) and ’50s they drank, fought, and American Indian reopened in a newly enlarged cam- presumably discussed art within its The National Museum of the pus designed by Pritzker Prize- doors, and Jackson Pollock once was American Indian (The George Gus- winning architect Renzo Piano. A banned for ripping the men’s room tav Heye Center at the Alexander soaring glass and steel central court door from its hinges. Cedar Tavern’s Hamilton U.S. Custom House, One now unites the three historical successor, at 82 University Place, Bowling Green), recently opened the buildings, and a performance hall, between 11th and 12th streets, Diker Pavilion for Native Arts and café, shop, and reading room have has cultivated the same bohemian Cultures. The inaugural exhibition been added. The Morgan houses one atmosphere, but unfortunately, it is is Beauty Surrounds Us, featuring of the world’s greatest collections of closing indefinitely. Check the Web seventy-seven works from the muse- artistic, literary, musical, and histor- to see if it has re-opened by March. um’s collection, including Que- ical works, including three Guten- chua and Seminole dance outfits, a berg Bibles. The Morgan’s Web site Carlyle Hotel Navajo saddle blanket, a Northwest at www.themorgan.org provides Bemelmans Bar in the Carlyle Hotel Coast carved chief’s staff, a conch information on special exhibitions. (35 E. 76th St. at Madison Ave.) shell trumpet from Mexico, and devotes a whole wall to Central an Inupiaq (Eskimo) ivory cribbage Tom Otterness Sculptures Park with a whimsical mural by the board. The Museum’s Web site is Art can be found everywhere in creator of the Madeline children’s www.nmai.si.edu; click on the New New York. Visit the subway sta- book series, Ludwig Bemelmans. York location for more information tions, restaurants, bars, parks, and This is the only surviving Bemel- on events and programs. boulevards. Walk along Broadway mans commission on view to the from Columbus Circle to 168th public. Look for Madeline and her The Rubin Museum Street and see if you can find all the classmates, as well as other Bemel- The Rubin Museum (150 West 17th Tom Otterness sculptures, part of a mans characters. Visiting Bemel- Street) opened in October 2004. It 2005 exhibition (download the map mans Bar is an Upper East Side is the first museum in the West- at www.tomotterness.net/exhibi- experience, with piano jazz, white- ern World dedicated to the art of tions_broadway.html) or experience coated waiters, and expensive but the Himalayas, including paint- Otterness’s Life Underground (2004) fabulous cocktails. Visit before 9:00 ings, sculptures, textiles, and ritual at the 14th Street and 8th Avenue p.m. to avoid the cover charge. objects spanning the second century subway station, where his round lit- to the twentieth century. In March tle people go about their daily lives Rebecca Arkenberg is a museum consul- you can see Mongolia: Beyond in the nooks and crannies. tant from Stratford, Connecticut. rjna@ aol.com Chinggis Khan, an exhibition that

WEB SchoolArts March 2007