Daunted by lines seen snaking down steps and up Fifth Avenue, today’s expedition seemed iffy and was not. Members are admitted through the lower portal on 81st Street, others through main doors at the top of the stairs. We arrived one-half hour before timed admission at noon and found ourselves second in line (81st Street) with 30-40 people behind. (Nor were there many people out front.)
Two attendants take temperature and pass visitors quickly inside where print-outs or membership cards are scanned. Entry stickers continue to be secured on the main floor, now from people at desks not machines. Fast and painless.
The first thing one notices is hush. Not only are there few people, but those in attendance seem to instinctively lower their voices. Views from balconies are ghostly. The building itself takes on personality. Being there feels – illicit and/or outside of time. On the way to an exhibition – we focused on two – it’s organic to make unplanned stops examining something in peripheral vision.
I recommend taking an elevator from the gallery in which you find yourself without reorientation. Unmapped, exits release into fresh territory. There was not another soul in Japanese art where we viewed what was billed as a taxidermy deer which seemed to be made entirely of glass bubbles.
Passing through Egyptian artifacts, one is routed downstairs (some areas are closed off) to The Costume Institute where In Pursuit of Fashion spotlights 80 out of 165 promised gifts from pioneering collector Sandy Schreier. Except for contemporary dresses, including a kitschy Campbell Soup can print and ersatz Mondrian model, a handbag hat and one resembling an easy chair, the selection of couture and read-to-wear, accessories and drawings is eminently tasteful and feminine.
There’s Balmain, Dior, Chanel, St. Laurent, Fortuny, Poiret, Jean Desses, Adrian and Philip Treacy… If so inclined, one might easily leave with two dozen ideas for shoulder treatment, ruching, drapes, tiers, engineered prints and embroidery… Classical music plays. Through September 27, 2020.
The museum’s 150th Anniversary, is celebrated with centerpiece exhibition, Making the Met 1870-2020 located in the second floor galleries. An anthology of 250 works, it highlights selected artifacts to musical instruments, scrolls to weaponry, apparel to fine and decorative arts. The show is divided into 10 modest sized rooms, each defining an era of particular initiative/interest. Uncomplicated introductions are brief and informative.
At the beginning, founders, largely hailing from White Protestant New York society, acquired and sometimes hung work themselves. The Met was housed at the midtown Dodworth Building, then, for six years, The Douglas Mansion on West 14th Street. Its first gift was a Roman sarcophagus, followed by two large purchases of old master paintings and Cypriot antiquities. In March 1880, the museum opened at its current site.
Making the Met takes us to 2020. Large gifts, changing mores, and expanding departments are noted as is eventual involvement in excavation; eventually working with foreign countries to acquire, but also secure, protect, and educate.
Historical signage also admits institutional failures. “In many of these cases, we reflect with pride; in others, we acknowledge our place within fraught histories. We have also considered the legacy of each episode, its staying power or evolution.” (Catalog)
The Whitney Museum was established when The Met turned down Peggy Guggenheim’s offer to house her collection. Directorial staff admits not being appropriately aware of the emergence of Black art, especially from local Harlem. The show is an interesting journey, an intelligible overview of just the right length. Illuminating archival photos of the early Met line the main hall between rooms.
Warning: As per the museum’s last oblivious director, Max Hollein, there’s not a bench in sight. One would think the new regime would correct this. Elsewhere/otherwise the visit was a tonic, peaceful and stimulating.
Making The Met was fully planned and partially installed when the Museum closed temporarily in response to the outbreak of COVID-19.
Top photo: Bigstock
