Two Art Galleries – Two Many

Well not really, but we are both tired. We set out this morning just too late to catch the 10:30 Ferry so we took the PATH to the NY Subway System ultimately getting out into the sunshine at 59th and 5th. We had decided to start our day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on 5th at 80th so we were looking at a 22 block walk, just over a mile. The day was fine and hot so we walked along the Central Park side of 5th past endless food carts with the zoo and many playgrounds in the park. Our intention was to take in the Garry Winogrand retrospective along with anything else that might catch our interest.

Our first mission was to locate restrooms, no mean feat in that huge HUGE museum. The signage is limited and as many people as they have the place is so big they are pretty spread out. Then we had to get some lunch,THEN we could get to the exhibits which naturally was at the other end of the building. It is hard to run through the Met because every room you enter has so many items to capture the attention. Eventually we found our way to the Winogrand Retrospective and spent over an hour looking at the work. Although we both know his work, there was much to see that has not been generally available even in books. He left several thousand rolls of film undeveloped when he died, he had never even seen the contact sheets of the negatives. Much of the work included in the exhibit was from those rolls, well annotated. We went on to the rest of the photography on exhibit. It is a limited presentation but the work shownm is exquisite and challenging. Somehow we found ourselves working our way through the modern and contemporary art galleries. As we sort of moved toward the exit. You know you have seen too much art to take in much more when a room full of Picasso and Matisse takes just a passing look. We slowed down for the Surrealists and for Miro, but by then the brains were beyond taking in much more.

We sat in the park for a while just resting our feet and our brains before heading back to . . .  well we were not sure so we walked over to Madison Ave and turned downtown. Oh, would you believe we were passing the Whitney where there is a retrospective of Jeff Koons work. There was no line. We hemmed and hawed and finally said how can we just walk on by. Not only will the exhibit be gone but the Whitney will have moved out of the building before we get back here again. It was only 4:15 so in we went. Five floors of Koons’ work later we were just a bit slap happy so I

 took this selfy:

I’m not sure you can see the back of my head in the item behind me. Carol did not want to be in this picture.
We crawled out on to Madison Ave and walked to Lexington and uptown a couple of blocks to catch the subway to put us back on the PATH to Jersey City. Carol is about to make some dinner while I write this and savor some very nice Hornida Tequila on ice. It is still over 80 as the sun has set. 
Tomorrow we drive to Pound Ridge to see the Kerners, Jon was my roommate for a couple of years at Brown and he and Peggy got married the same day we did way back in June 1964. Really it seems like only last decade.