Sunday, December 30, 2007

Holiday Crowds at the Metropolitan Museum

New York is thrilling but when I try to drive there, I'm often glad I live in St. Louis now. My wife and I drove in on Saturday to see what museums we could hit. There was a 45 minute backup at the Lincoln Tunnel and the huge Port Authority garage on the Manhattan side was full. I drove up 10th Avenue, across the park at 86th Street, and - incroyable! - there was space at the Metropolitan Museum garage. We wanted to see the Age of Rembrandt show so in we went.

The Met is always packed around holidays. I've seen the entry line over two blocks long down 5th Avenue during Christmas week. Not quite that bad yesterday. In the Rembrandt show, the crowd oogled Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer, which smashed all art price records when the Met bought it in 1961.


The man below was sketching in the Greco-Roman sculpture hall when we arrived and still at it when we left. Dedication. And, it appears, life imitating art. Or the other way around.


TOMORROW: Ring out the old, one way or another.

5 comments:

Mitch said...

Me thinks the satyr an art critic. Looks like a good time. I've been thinking about the Minneapolis Institute of Art lately, very nice collection and no restrictions on photographing the collection.
Are you ready for Theme Day tomorrow?

- Mitch in Minneapolis

Jilly said...

Thanks for sharing this. I particularly love the second photo. Perfect. Surprised you could photograph in there.

Rob said...

Art is as art does, my feeble atempt to requote Forest. I am actually amazed that photos are allowed in the museum. the few I have been to, photos are a no-no.

Olivier said...

Meilleurs Voeux pour 2008
amour et tendresse, Amedée et moi te souhaitons tous nos vœux pour cette
nouvelle année 2008. Alors champagne pour tous le monde.......

Best Wishes for 2008
Love and tenderness, Amedée and I wish you all our wishes for this
New Year 2008. So champagne for all the world .......

Bob Crowe said...

Mitch - no, I'm not ready. We got all day Monday left. No big, odd production this time.

Jilly - based on your comment, I reversed the order of the pictures. We'll see if people like that better.

Dusty - The Met permits photography anywhere except special exhibitions. There was a no photography sign at the entrance to the Rembrandt show. I asked the guy selling audio guides about it. He said, well, if you're quick and discrete it's probably ok. So I used a technique I've tried in museums around the world: With lens cap off, I put my camera on the flat top of my camera shoulder bag. Occasionally a finger finds its way to the shutter button, with only the roughest idea of what's in the viewfinder. Sometimes it works, particularly if your camera doesn't beep.