The Whitney Museum of American Art

I visited The Whitney Museum of American Art (http://whitney.org/) when we went to New York in July. I was curious to know about this museum since Dustyn mentioned it quite often in class. The Whitney focuses mostly on 20th and 21st century American art. We first went to pay respect to the World Trade Center Memorial Park.  Then the Whitney!

One of the reasons I wanted to go to the Whitney was to see the display by Yayoi Kusama's Fireflies on the Water.  However, we got there around noon, and our appointment time was 4.  We had other plans that day in New York, so I couldn't see it.


I did get to see other permanent displays and special displays.  One floor was covered by all the signs for the presidential elections.  Another floor was full of video displays.  I assume all these are installation arts.  One floor was closed to public since it was under preparation for another display by a Japanese artist (!).

The Whitney is going to move to near the Highline in 2015. http://www.thehighline.org/  Hope I can visit the new Whitney!

Museums in 2012: Crystal Bridges

This summer of 2012, I visited Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Whitney Museum, SF MOMA, De Young Museum, Legion Museum, and Asian Art Museum.  If I count San Antonio museum I visited in March, so far I have visited seven major museums this year.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art http://crystalbridges.org/ was established by Alice Walton, daughter of Sam Walton.  It has a good range of American art, from colonial, 19th century, modern, and contemporary art.  The exhibition rooms are well divided by gallery bridges and little libraries.  It is amazing she and her group collected so many arts.  In most museums each room displays arts donated by a certain family, but not entire museum like Crystal Bridges.

It is wonderful to have a world class museum in Arkansas.  Hopefully it will include artists from Arkansas, too.  Somehow the museum buildings didn't fit in the surrounding nature.  When the materials used for the building weather out, they might look nice.  The pond looks nice in the brochure, but not so great in the drought; it just looked dirty.  It is their policy not to use chemical to clean the water.  Fountains might do some magic, though.

The guide was really knowledgeable and friendly.