Sheila's travels

Culture and shopping

28th May 2006
A good start to the day - bagels and lox at Zabar's - just 3 blocks away; what a great neighbourhood. Time for some culture: a stroll across Central Park took us to the Guggenheim - unfortunately shrouded in scaffolding outside and with an installation going on inside, so the spiral gallery was closed - here it is from the central well.














But plenty else to see! At the top we found a fascinating children's art exhibit: the gallery has an outreach programme to all 5 NYC boroughs. Inevitably, I suppose, the most 'sophisticated' art was from Manhattan but there were some striking pieces from the less well-endowed boroughs too. I overheard a somewhat dismissive comment from another visitor about 'not paying their entrance fee to see children's scribbles' - sad, I thought. Artists don't 'spring fully formed from the head of Zeus'! - they need inspiration, encouragement, and opportunity as well as native talent (and we all know that genius is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration). On to Jackson Pollock No Limits Just Edges ... we both loved the 1948 pictures best; my favourite is Triad:












and there were some great Picassos as well.

From there, it is a short wander south to the Metropolitan Museum of Art - which looks surprisingly similar externally to the Art Institute of Chicago, which I visited only 2 weeks before. Lots of stalls lining 'Museum Mile', selling watercolours, photos, etc. , many photos pre-9/11 with the Twin Towers.

We decided to be 'ladies who lunch', so we splurged on the Petrie Court restaurant in the Museum. After that we went our separate ways - I had to see the Ikat textiles from Indonesia as well as the Oriental departments (especially the Garden Court):














All 'cultured-out', we decided that the time had come for shopping, so back to Broadway/W 79th to the wonderful Filene's Basement; Rosie found all kinds of great bargains - though it took her 3 hours!

Then it was time for dinner, so we went to Ruby Foo's Uptown (next door to the Manhattan Diner) and had excellent dim sum, sushi and a flight of sakes in the most gorgeously kitsch setting. The service could have been better - I think the poor lad who was our waiter must have been new, but he certainly needed more training in how to talk to customers!

After all our walking, culture and shopping, we decided on an early night!

posted by Sheila T @ 2:20 pm