Museums that I Have Visited in 2018

Here is a list of museums I have visited since I retired in January 2018:

1. Brooklyn Museum – David Bowie Exhibit
2. Frick Collection
3. Guggenheim Museum
4. Holocaust Museum
5. International Center of Photography
6. Jewish Museum
7. Metropolitan Museum of Art
8. Museum of Modern Art – Manhattan
9. Museum of Modern Art – PS1 – Queens
10. Museum of Sex
11. Museum of the American Indian
12. New Museum
13. Paley Center for Media
14. Skyscraper Museum
15. Whitney Museum

In the months to come I want to see:

Brooklyn Museum - I only saw the David Bowie exhibit

Queens Museum - this one is really close to home

American Museum of Natural History - this is an all-day trip

Bronx Museum of Art

Afternoon at the Jewish Museum

 

Picture of Bob Dylan that I saw today at the Jewish Museum

Absholam Jac Lahav - American Born in Israel 1977 is the artist

I thought it was time for another museum trip as I hadn't visited one in about a month. The Jewish Museum at 5th Avenue and 92nd Street was my choice.

There were two exhibits of interest:

Modern Look: Photography and the American Magazine  - It explored how photography in popular American Magazines transformed American visual culture from the 1930s through the1950s. Works by photographers including Richard Avedon, Lillian Bassman, Lester Beall, Margaret Bourke-White, Louis Faurer, Robert Frank, William Klein, Lisette Model, Gordon Parks, Irving Penn, Cipe Pineles, and Paul Rand were featured.

Louise Bourgeois Freuds Daughter -  It features approximately 40 artworks from throughout Bourgeois’s career, including the Personages of the late 1940s; the organic forms in plaster and latex of the 1960s; the pivotal installation The Destruction of the Father (1974). The exhibit also presents writings that explore her complex relationship with Freudian psychoanalysis.

The Destruction of the Father

Jewish Museum Today

Today Karen and I made our yearly trip to the Jewish Museum at 5th Avenue and 92nd Street.  We went specifically to see the exhibit called Revolution of the Eye: Modern Art and the Birth of American Television.  The exhibit explored how avant-garde art influenced and shaped the look and content of network television in its formative years, from the late 1940s to the mid-1970s.  It featured works by Saul Bass, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp, Allan Kaprow, Roy Lichtenstein, Man Ray, Eero Saarinen, Ben Shahn, and Andy Warhol.

It was a good exhibit, but should have been placed in the Paley Center for Media instead of the Jewish Museum.  I felt that there was some inclusion of Jews in the TV medium, but it was minimal.  I still enjoyed it.  We also explored the permanent exhibits of the museum.

Jewish Museum Today - Art Spiegelman and Marc Chagall

If I remember correctly Karen and I vistited the Jewish Museum last year just after Christmas Day.  We went today to specifically see Co-Mix, a retrospective of Art Spiegelman and Chagall: Love War and Exile.  When we got to the museum just before opening time at 11 AM there was already a line of people wanting to get in.  Art Spiegelman grew up in Rego Park as I did and was only a year older than I.  I vaguely remember his name back then, but I was not acquainted with him.  He is noted for writing the book Maus using comic book characters to tell the story of his parents in the holocaust.  The exhibit featured other works of his.

Marc Chagall was a Jewish artist born in Russia who emigrated to France after the revolution.  Many of his paintings wer shown. I was surprised to see how crowded the museum was especially at the Chagall exhibit.

The upper floors were permanent exhibits that we saw last year, so we did just took a quick look.

The exhibits are described in detail at http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/Exhibitions

My 2022 Trip to the Jewish Museum

 

I have documented several visits to the Jewish Museum on 5th Avenue and 92nd Street in this journal.  My last visit was in May 2021.  An exhibit titled New York 1962-1964 attracted me to the museum today.  This exhibit explores a pivotal three-year period in the history of art and culture in New York City, examining how artists living and working in New York responded to their rapidly changing world, through more than 150 works of art—all made or seen in New York during this time frame.  This exhibit populates the first and second floors of the museum.

Scenes from the Collection is a rotating collection exhibition featuring nearly 600 works from antiquities to contemporary art—many of which are on view for the first time.  I enjoyed watching a video of clips from TV shows featuring Jewish weddings.

Below are two works from the New York 1962-1964 exhibit

There was a working jukebox that played 45 rpm hits of that era

Museum of Jewish Heritage A Living Memorial to the Holocaust

Today I visited the Museum of Jewish Heritage located in lower Manhattan just north of Battery Park.  I was pleasantly surprised at the scope of the exhibits and the building's architecture. A film in the rotunda introduces the Jewish experience in a montage of images to educate visitors of all religions and ethnicities.

Level 1 demonstrates Jewish life from 1880-1930 before the Holocaust.  It shows Jewish family life and the traditions that are carried on from one generation to the next.

The exhibits in level two details in chronological order the war against the Jews from 1930-45.  It shows how the Nazis came to power and that they wanted to kill all Jews in Europe.  There are displays of life in the ghettos, the fight to preserve humanity and Jewish heritage, and the world response to the Holocaust.

Level Three labeled as Jewish Renewal: 1945-present  shows how the Jewish recovered from the Holocaust after World War II.  It considers the founding of the state of Israel and how the survivors were resettled.

I highly recommend all of my readers visit this museum.

Fall 2018 Visit to the Jewish Museum

According to this journal, the last time I visited the Jewish Museum on 92nd Street was 8 months ago in March.  All the exhibits today were different:

• Martha Rosler: Irrespective - She is a contemporary artist considered one of the strongest and most resolute artistic voices of this generation.  Her themes include war, gender roles, gentrification, inequality, and labor.  The exhibit featured several photomontages that represent those themes.
• Chagall, Lissitzky, Malevich: The Russian Avant-Garde in Vitebsk, 1918-1922 -  traces the fascinating post-revolutionary years when the history of art was shaped in Vitebsk.  The output of those three artists is shown.
• Scenes from the collection - focusing on the Jewish experience.  The curators of the museum rotate the holdings.

Leonard Cohen; A Crack in Everything at the Jewish Museum

I really did not know much about Leonard Cohen since his music did not get much play on the radio.  He never charted on the Billboard Top 40 Chart.  When he passed away in November 2016 I bought a compilation CD called the Essential Leonard Cohen.  His music seemed to be dark and mysterious.

The Jewish Museum is now featuring an exhibition called a Crack in Everything which will be there until September.  Much of the exhibit was devoted to videos of his concert performances. Until today I didn't realize that he was also a poet, novelist, and artist.  There was a video display showing his artworks which were mostly self-portraits.  There was a listening room that featured other recording artists cover Cohen's compositions.

This exhibition was by far my favorite after several visits to this museum.  I highly recommend it to my music enthusiast friends.

Monday at the Jewish Museum

According to records kept in this journal the last time I visited the Jewish Museum was in August 2015.  So, I thought it was time for a return visit.  The exhibits I saw were:

• Marc Camille Chaimowicz: Your Place or Mine - a cross-disciplinary work in painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, installation, furniture

• Scenes from the Collection - the was the entire third floor which included nearly 600 works from antiquities to contemporary art, many of which are on view for the first time at the Museum

Mel Bochner Strong Language at the Jewish Museum

Since I am still on staycation Karen and I decided to visit the Jewish Museum at 5th Avenue and 92nd Street.  It was much less crowded today than it was in December when we saw the exhibit about Art Spiegelman.  We saw an interesting exhibit called "Mel Bochner Strong Language.  According to the museum's web site, the exhibit "focuses on the artist’s career-long fascination with the cerebral and visual associations of words."

Sunday at the Jewish Museum

 

Passover Seder from the Collection

The Jewish Museum on 5th Avenue and 92nd Street is graciously allowing patrons to visit free of charge through December 2020.  However, one must make a reservation for a specific time slot.  I last visited the museum on December 26, 2019, a few months before the pandemic forced all cultural institutions to close.

Wes started on the ground floor where we viewed the works of Rachel Feinstein that we saw last December.

A sculpture by Rachel Feinstein

The second floor was devoted to an exhibit called We Fight to Build a Free World: An Exhibition by Jonathan Horowitz.  He is a New York-based artist who looks at how artists have historically responded to the rise of authoritarianism and xenophobia as well as racism, anti-Semitism, and other forms of bigotry. The exhibition also addresses issues surrounding immigration, assimilation, and cultural identity.

The third floor was "Scenes from the Collection, a rotating collection exhibition that features nearly 600 works from antiquities to contemporary art—many of which are on view for the first time.  I always enjoyed viewing the Channukah menorahs on display.

The Jewish Museum on Christmas Eve

Today we took a trip to the Jewish Museum on 92nd Street and 5th Avenue.  Karen and Lee had been there before but not I.  There were 3 special exhibitions:

From The New Yorker to Shrek:  The Art of William Steig - this Jewish artist died in 2003 at the age of 96

Issac Bashevis Singer and the Lower East Side: Photographs by Bruce Davidson.  This Nobel Prize winning author lived from 1904-1991

Camille Pissaro: Impressions of City & Country - He was the only Jewish impressionist  artist.

It's nice to do something a little different for a change.

The First Two Years of My Retirement Journey

It is hard to believe that it is now two years since I retired.  I have not read the book whose cover is featured above, but I do believe in its premise that retirement is a journey.  For me, the journey usually comes in one-day adventures.  Sometimes the daily adventure is planned while it also can be an impulsive activity.  Some activities are repetitive when others are one-time events.  When I retired, a very heavy burden was taken off my shoulders.  I no longer have to work at a position that I didn't enjoy during my last years.  There are no more bosses who like to assert their managerial muscles by dominating their subordinates. Commuting delays are a thing of the past.  I have received the precious gift of time to do what I want.

• Reading - I have read tons of books over the past two years.  In the summer months, I sit in parks and read while in the winter I often bring my reading material to the local public library where I don't have to worry about bean counters and scatterbrains.  I also have visited research libraries look up books on baseball and pop music.
• Traveling - over the past two years I have visited:
• Pittsburgh
• Tulsa, Oklahoma
• Phoenix
• Seattle
• Museums - my favorite museums (in no particular order)
• Whitney
• Museum of Modern Art
• Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Paley Center for Media
• Brooklyn Museum
• Jewish Museum
• Guggenheim Museum
• Movies - I regularly go to the local multiplex which usually screens mass appeal films.  I have often traveled to Manhattan to see independent films aimed at a niche audience.
• Bob Dylan- I organized a group that has met once so far at NYU.  Hopefully, this group can be sustained.  I attended the research symposium at Tulsa, Oklahoma.  There were concerts at the Beacon Theater in November 2018 and 2019.
• Music - I have more time to listen to umpteen internet radio stations and to SiriusXM.  I have probably bought more CDs than I really need.  You got to keep me away from Amazon.com 
• Baseball - I had time to attend more Met and Yankee games.  I am also active in the Society for Baseball Research (SABR) by coordinating fact-checking for the Games Project and indexing articles from the Biography Project.
• Hiking - I have spent a couple of hours a day walking through parks in Queens.  These walks are almost therapeutic.

My most pleasant surprise in retirement concerns finances.  I am actually saving money and not having to worry about taking on another job to make ends meet.  My savings through TIAA and my bank IRAs really worked out.  My best advice to younger readers is to plan ahead for retirement.

Tomorrow is another day and another adventure.

Tomorr

Today's Visit to the Center for Jewish History

 The Center for Jewish History describes itself as the largest and most comprehensive archive of the modern Jewish experience outside of Israel.  This was the first time I visited their facility at 15 West 16th Street in Manhattan.  It is more scholarly than the Jewish Museum which I have visited several times.  I came specifically to see the exhibit JEWCE.

I found out about this exhibit from a report on NY1 by Roger Clark.  I also found out that fellow Bob Dylan enthusiast Danny Fingeroth was a contributing curator. The dynamic exhibition brings together an impressive collection of original artworks, historical artifacts, and interactive installations celebrating the rich tapestry of Jewish narratives depicted through the lens of comics and graphic storytelling.

Superman took care of Hitler and Mussolini in World War II

I spent some time perusing the other sections of the museum.  There was also a research library there, but I did not go in.  I think have visited enough libraries in my dreams recently.😁

 

Visiting the Jewish Museum on Good Friday

Since Karen and I were both off from work today, we took a subway ride to the Upper East Side to visit the Jewish Museum on a Catholic holiday.   I just researched my own journal and found out I was last there on December 24, 2007.

There were permanent and temporary exhibits there.  There was an interesting exhibit from the newly established design firm Sagmeister and Walsh.  It was something different for the day.

Today's Visit to the Jewish Museum

Sculpture by Rachel Feinstein

The clock actually works

I hadn't been to the Jewish Museum since April when I saw the exhibition about Leonard Cohen.  Obviously exhibits at all museums change, so I thought it was time for a return visit.  The exhibit on the first floor was titled Rachel Feinstein: Maiden, Mother, Crone organized by Kelly Taxter, Barnett and Annalee Newman.  It features three decades of this contemporary artist's work in sculpture, painting, and video, as well as a panoramic wallpaper.

Moving up to the second floor we saw Edith Halpert and the Rise of American Art.  She was the first significant female gallerist in the United States.  In 1926, Halpert opened the Downtown Gallery in New York City, the first commercial art space in Greenwich Village.  The exhibit featured modern and folk art works shown in her gallery over the years.

Finally, the third floor featured Selections from the Collections.  I was impressed by the various Hanukkah menorahs that were shown.

The Jewish and Guggenheim Museums All in One Afternoon

 

Our original plan was to visit the Whitney Museum but when I checked its website this morning I found out that the second Sunday in the month is free and that visitors needed a reservation.  Since it was sold out, we decided to go to the Jewish Museum instead. We could visit the Whitney another time.

When we arrived we found out there was only one open exhibit on the ground floor and that the admission charge was lower. It was titled Overflow, Afterglow: New Work in Chromatic Figuration which featured New works by seven emerging artists who use supernatural color and uncanny luminescence to challenge the boundaries of traditional figuration. 

Since it didn't take much time to view that exhibit we walked over to the nearby Guggenheim Museum.

Jenny Holzer: Light Line was the main exhibition. Climbing all six ramps of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed rotunda to the building’s apex, the site-specific installation transforms the building with a display of scrolling texts, featuring selections from her iconic series, such as “Truisms” and “Inflammatory Essays”.

Visiting the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side

Today Karen and I set out to visit the International Center of Photography Museum on the Lower East Side.  We took the F train to Delancy Street and when we got to the museum we found out that it was closed on Tuesday.  I looked at Google Maps and saw that the Tenement Museum was a few blocks away.  I hadn't heard of that museum, but while we were in the neighborhood I thought I'd drop in and see what was there.

Quoting from their website:

The Tenement Museum celebrates the enduring stories that define and strengthen what it means to be American. We share stories of the immigrant and migrant experience through immersive guided tours, educational content, and programs, and thought leadership, with one important goal — to advance the understanding of immigration and to highlight its role in the ongoing creation of our nation.

It is located on 103 Orchard Street which was home to over 10,000 immigrants.  We took the Under One Roof guided tour of the building which related the stories of  Jewish, Puerto Rican, and Chinese families that lived there from the 1950s to 1970s.

It was a very informative tour and shows that interesting attractions can be found by accident.  We'll have to come back to the International Center of Photography on another day of the week.

Random Thoughts on New Year's Day

My holiday vacation ended on an expected high note.  For the first time in a few years there was a complete category on Jeopardy devoted to Bob Dylan.  It was "Dylan Songs in Other Words."  Since Jeopardy is so fast paced it is impossible to write down the answers and questions.  There is a web site called Jeopardy Archive where all shows are documented.  In a few days when today's show is on that site, I'll post everything.  I was pleased that the 3 contestants got all 5 questions.

On this vacation I saw 3 college basketball games:

• St. Johns vs Columbia
• Kansas State vs Tulane
• Hofstra vs NJIT

I saw 3 movies:

• The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
• American Hustle
• Grudge Match

Visited 1 museum

• Jewish Museum

Went to 2 restaurants

• Ben's Deli in Bayside
• Applebees

There were 259 posts in Bruce's Journal in 2013 down from 292 in 2012.  My most prolific year was 2009 with 428 posts.

It is back to work tomorrow, but there is a forecast for a major snowstorm Thursday night into Friday.  Hopefully there will be enough snow to close NJIT.  There are only a few classes given during the Wintersession, but the library and all administrative offices are open.  I'll have to wait and see.

It's August Staycation Time

An advantage of working for a university is that one gets 20 vacation days and 3 personal days a year.  I don't do much traveling so that I spend much of that time taking it easy at home.  I always feel that if I have the time I may as well take it during the summer when activity at the library is light.  I think this time I will make some day trips to museums.  Today Karen and I will go to the Paley Center for Media.  Later on I'd like to see the Whitney Museum at its new location and the Jewish Museum.