This year marks 50 years of groundbreaking modern art from the world famous New York City museum, the Guggenheim. When the white, jutting spiral shaped building was first erected on October 21, 1959, across from Central Park, the Upper East Side didn't understand the modern marvel among old New York classic architecture. While the plans for the building started in the early 40's, the grand opening didn't take place until a few months after the legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright's death.
The Guggenheim museum quickly became a worldwide authority in Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and early modern art. Solomon R. Guggenheim started the museum with his own personal art collection, beginning with a small exhibit at the Plaza Hotel in New York. In the past 20 years the New York milestone has discovered some of the most important minimalist, conceptual, and contemporary artists in the art and architecture community. Some names include photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, sculptor Carl Andre and sculptor Dan Flavin. In 1990, the museum brought inspiration overseas on a masterpiece exhibition tour to Venice, Tokyo, Madrid, Australia and Montreal.
Many foundations have contributed to the restoration and repair of the magnificent and original building since 1992, finally concluding in 2008 with the removal of the building's looming scaffolding. Today, there is more than one Guggenheim museum in the world, including ones in Venice, Bilbao, Berlin, and Abu Dhabi.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the opening of the museum, the Guggenheim will have a Free-Day on October 21 for all visitors. The current exhibitions on display right now are the Thannhauser collection and the expressionist paintings before World War I collection. Guggenheim.org/new-york for more information about museum hours and Free-Day.
- Hailey Brooks
Hailey Brooks can be reache at hailey.brooks@student.shu.edu.
Madame Tussauds
Madame Tussauds boasts none of the classical stone statues usually featured in art museums, but rather, it is filled with incredible life-like wax figures of some very familiar faces and sends its visitors on a journey through history and pop-culture unlike any other. As you tour through the different floors of Madame Tussauds, you are greeted by a variety of A-list celebrities, sports legends, big-name politicians, and historical icons. Also, forget about the no photography rule. Madame Tussauds encourages visitors to snap quick pictures with their deceivingly life-like figures of Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, the Beatles, and Barack Obama, among others.
Visitors will be blown-away by how much Madame Tussaud's wax figures resemble their real life counterparts, and maybe can even trick your friends into thinking you met some celebrities. Whether you're a museum buff or just love pop-culture, visitors are bound to be impressed by the museum's collection of some of the most influential individuals of all time.
Madame Tussauds, located on 234 West 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues in New York City.
- Emily Lake
Emily Lake can be reached at emily.lake@student.shu.edu.
Fashion Institute of Technology
The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology shows the history and different styles of fashion. The museum has received many award winning exhibits such as "London Fashion" and "Love & War." What makes this museum special is how it presents the style of history and what it represents to that time period. FIT's current exhibit "Fashion and Politics" showcases pieces from the 1750s and the early beginnings of America to present day with the election of President Obama.
The exhibit shows the effects that fashion has on politics, such as the hippie anti-fashion movement. The "American Beauty" exhibit will open on Nov. 5 and showcases the majors changes of American fashion from the 1900s to today as well as showing the clothing of some present day designers, like Charles James and Claire McCardell.
The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology can be found on Seventh Avenue at 27th Street.
- Nick Diakos
Nick Diakos can be reached at nicolaos.diakos@student.shu.edu.
Center for Book Arts
When thinking about museums, we might imagine ancient mummies encased in a glass casket, large dinosaur fossils awing spectators in their exhibitions, sculptures or paintings safely tucked in a restricted area. Yet, can a comic book be on display as well? As long as there is artistic meaning, it can.
The Center For Book Arts will wholeheartedly accept exhibitions of not only comic books, but illustrative and non illustrative books from all over the world. Located on 27th Street near Broadway, the museum was founded in 1974 and houses a collection of historic bookbinding tools and contemporary books offered by member artists. Exhibitions include narrative illustrations from Latin America to contemporary comic books from Asia and North America.
"A Chronicle of Lovers: Ellie Brown" and "There Goes My Hero" exhibits show pieces of narrative about life through the experiences of either the artist or from society's role. Workshops are also available for those who are interested in bookbinding, typography, letter press, paper marbling, and calligraphy.
Along with exhibitions and workshops, the Center For Book Arts is hosting a book series readings featuring author Alex Dimitrov and Alex Lemon on Oct. 21, artist talks featuring Ellie Brown kn Oct. 28, and a presentation on Comics as Art on Nov. 13.
- Katia Diaz
Katia Diaz can be reached at katia.diaz@student.shu.edu.
The Cloisters
The Cloisters is a museum dedicated to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. Owned by the Metropolitan Museum and situated over four acres of Fort Tryon Park overlooking the Hudson River, the building incorporates elements from five medieval cloisters. Cloisters were built as sheltered, vaulted corridors for access between monastery buildings.
Here, however, they serve as ambient paths between galleries. Three of these reconstructed cloisters feature gardens that were planted according to medieval horticultural practice. The collection is comprised of approximately 5,000 works of art dating as far back as 800 A.D., complementing 6,000 pieces across several galleries on the first floor of the Met's 5th Avenue building.
A common curatorial department separated The Cloisters' collection to focus on Romanesque and Gothic work, while the main collection samples a broader geographical and temporal range. The collection at The Cloisters features treasured masterpieces like, "Les Belles Heures de Jean," a French illuminated book of hours from the early fifteenth century, "Duc de Berry," an intricately carved English ivory cross from the twelfth century, stained-glass windows from an Austrian castle; and an enormous wealth of other pieces.
It's perpetually growing collection garners visits from people across the world.
- Samson Mobashar
Samson Mobashar can be reached at samson.mobashar@student.shu.edu.
