The storage space was packed with thousands upon thousands of photographs. Some were at least a century old, imprinted on glass plates. There were others on nitrate film so deteriorated it was at risk of combusting. In a blues and gospel mecca like Memphis, several faces were instantly recognizable: B.B. …
It’s probably too much to show up at one of these Costume Institute shows looking for the object that ties the whole thing together. Just because they’re about clothes doesn’t mean they have to do what a smart outfit does. And yet damn if I didn’t find a single object …
When the Museum of Modern Art debuted in a Manhattan townhouse in 1929, it faced incomprehension from audiences still uncomfortable with abstract art. When the Centre Georges Pompidou inaugurated its inside-out home in Paris in 1977, philosophers denounced the multidisciplinary museum as a shopping center. But something else happened with …
It was 42 years ago. Miami awoke to a strange, crooked line of hot pink images floating in the waters of panoramic Biscayne Bay. Eleven small islands had been wrapped in wide, rippling swaths of pink plastic. They were almost glowing as the morning sun swept over the beaches and …
In the eight years since it opened on the National Mall, the National Museum of African American History and Culture has become one of the glittering jewels of the Smithsonian Institution. With award-winning architecture, a three-tiered shape evoking a traditional Yoruban crown, and installations portraying the struggles and triumphs of …
The Met Gala has outdone itself, even before it’s begun. The annual gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art — the flashy fashion extravaganza that highlights the city’s social scene every May — raised a record $31 million this year, museum officials announced on Monday, the biggest gross in the …
The pieces couples acquire when decorating their first home are often significant. Few purchases, though, prove as influential as the one made by the Neustadts in 1935. The newlyweds were browsing tchotchkes in a secondhand store in Manhattan when Hildegard Steininger Neustadt discovered what her husband, Egon Neustadt, an orthodontist, …
Wealthy collectors who want to be involved with museums typically donate works, write checks and sit on a board of trustees — these are the essential steps that keep art institutions afloat. But Ariel Aisiks — the Argentina-born art patron who now lives on New York’s Upper East Side — …
The busy calendar of fairs and auctions in May makes New York City an attractive hub of activity for the art crowd. But if a breather is needed or desired, a day trip may be in order. Here are a few art destinations worth considering. Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, …
‘Solving Your Problems With Chloe Troast’ May 4 at 8:30 p.m. at Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, 242 East 14th Street, Manhattan; ucbcomedy.com. In the months since her tenure on “Saturday Night Live” came to an end, Chloe Troast has kept busy, performing at Moontower Comedy Festival in Austin, Texas, and …