New York City Art, Film, Museum, Social Club

THIS EVENT IS NOT TO BE MISSED - SIGN UP NOW!

Let's all go to on a Group Tour of the Nogochi Museum on Saturday May 24th from 12pm - 2pm. We are going to have a professional group tour from 12pm to 1pm, and an additional self-exploration of the Museum from 1pm to 2pm. The total cost of this very special museum event visit is $20 per person, which includes admission to the museum!

HISTORY

Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) was one of the twentieth century’s most important and critically acclaimed sculptors. Through a lifetime of artistic experimentation, he created sculptures, gardens, furniture and lighting designs, ceramics, architecture, landscapes, and set designs. His work, at once subtle and bold, traditional and modern, set a new standard for the reintegration of the arts. This intimate, meditative museum in Long Island City was conceived and built by Isamu Noguchi himself. Here, his mostly abstract sculptures and often-copied paper lamps are displayed across two levels of exhibition space and throughout a quiet, ivy-covered walled garden.

THE EXHIBITIONS WE ARE GOING TO SEE:

# Against Time: The Noguchi Museum 40th Anniversary Reinstallation

What are we going to find in the permanent collection? Even if you're not familiar with Noguchi's work, you've probably come across one of his Akari light sculptures—geometric or globular lamps made of washi paper and bamboo that glow softly from within—which have become something of a modern design trope since he started designing them in the early 1950s. But he also made sculptures, designed furniture and stage sets, and created expressive brush drawings on large scrolls. A selection of these works, assembled by Noguchi before his death, are on display on the ground floor and in the garden. In one room, a collection of light sculptures hangs from the ceiling like an indoor paper cloud. In the garden, his massive stone monoliths seem almost prehistoric.

# Biography of Isamu Noguchi

Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) was one of the twentieth century’s most important and critically acclaimed sculptors. Through a lifetime of artistic experimentation, he created sculptures, gardens, furniture and lighting designs, ceramics, architecture, landscapes, and set designs. His work, at once subtle and bold, traditional and modern, set a new standard for the reintegration of the arts.
Noguchi, an internationalist, traveled extensively throughout his life. (In his later years he maintained studios both in Japan and New York.) He discovered the impact of large-scale public works in Mexico, earthy ceramics and tranquil gardens in Japan, subtle ink-brush techniques in China, and the purity of marble in Italy. He incorporated all of these impressions into his work, which utilized a wide range of materials, including stainless steel, marble, cast iron, balsa wood, bronze, sheet aluminum, basalt, granite, and water.
Noguchi’s first retrospective in the United States was in 1968, at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. In 1986, he represented the United States at the Venice Biennale. Noguchi received the Edward MacDowell Medal for Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to the Arts in 1982; the Kyoto Prize in Arts in 1986; the National Medal of Arts in 1987; and the Order of the Sacred Treasure from the Japanese government in 1988. He died in New York City in 1988.

Let's all go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art - The Met, on Saturday May 31st from 1pm - 4pm, to see three very special exhibitions:

Sargent and Paris
Superfine: Tailoring Black Style
European Paintings from 1250 - 1800

HISTORY

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the world's largest and finest art museums. Its collection spans 5,000 years of world culture, from prehistory to the present and from every part of the globe. Founded in 1870, the Metropolitan Museum is located in New York City's Central Park along Fifth Avenue (from 80th to 84th Streets). Last year it was visited by 4.7 million people.

TICKET COST
Adult Admission - Ages 13 - 64
$30.00
Student Admission with valid ID
$17.00
Senior Admission - 65 and over
$22.00

Link to purchase tickets: https://engage.metmuseum.org/admission/?promocode=55916

NOTE: PAY WHAT YOU WANT

New York State residents and NY, NJ, and CT students:

• The amount you pay for admission is up to you, but you must pay something.
• To buy pay-what-you-wish tickets online, you must have a New York State billing address.
• New Jersey and Connecticut students can only buy pay-what-you-wish tickets in person with valid student ID.

THE EXHIBITIONS WE ARE GOING TO VISIT:

SARGENT AND PARIS
IN EXHIBITION GALLERY 999 - 2nd Floor

Sargent and Paris explores the early career of American painter John Singer Sargent (1856–1925), from his arrival in Paris in 1874 as a precocious 18-year-old art student through the mid-1880s, when his infamous portrait Madame X was a scandalous success at the Paris Salon. Over the course of one extraordinary decade, Sargent achieved recognition by creating boldly ambitious portraits and figure paintings that pushed the boundaries of conventionality. Immersed in a cosmopolitan circle of artists, writers, and patrons, Sargent was able to navigate a successful path through the French exhibition system while achieving acclaim and awards. Beyond the portrait studio, he traveled in search of inspiration for his art—finding subjects in Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and North Africa. This exhibition gathers Sargent’s diverse works from this period to illuminate his path to becoming an artist, which was indelibly shaped by his experiences in the French capital. These visually stunning works provide a compelling view of the Paris art world of the late 19th century. The iconic Madame X, a beloved highlight of The Met collection, is the culmination of Sargent’s early years in Paris. The exhibition will take an in-depth look at this captivating portrait and the numerous preparatory sketches, and it will be displayed alongside select portraits of Parisiennes by Sargent’s contemporaries.

SUPERFINE: TAILORING BLACK STYLE
IN EXHIBITION GALLERY 999 - 2nd Floor

Superfine: Tailoring Black Style explores the importance of style to the formation of Black identities in the Atlantic diaspora, particularly in the United States and Europe. Through a presentation of garments and accessories, paintings, photographs, decorative arts, and more, from the 18th century to today, the exhibition interprets the concept of dandyism as both an aesthetic and a strategy that allowed for new social and political possibilities. Superfine is organized into 12 sections, each representing a characteristic that defines the style, such as Champion, Respectability, Heritage, Beauty, and Cosmopolitanism. Together, these characteristics demonstrate how one’s self-presentation is a mode of distinction and resistance—within a society impacted by race, gender, class, and sexuality.

EUROPEAN PAINTINGS, 1250 - 1800
IN EXHIBITION GALLERY 600 - 2nd Floor

The Met's world-famed collection of European paintings encompasses works of art from the 13th through the 19th centuries—from Giotto to Gauguin. Apart from its many individual masterpieces by artists as diverse as Jan van Eyck, Caravaggio, and Seurat, the Museum possesses the most extensive collection of 17th-century Dutch art in the western hemisphere, including outstanding works by Frans Hals, Rembrandt, and Vermeer. Its holdings of El Greco and Goya are the finest outside of Spain, while the survey it offers of French painting between neo-Classicism and post-Impressionism is second only to Paris, with extensive holdings of the work of Corot, Courbet, Manet, Monet, Degas, Cézanne, and Van Gogh.