We have been awfully busy lately offline with pitches, plans, schedules, scripts, strategies, schematics, and this that and the other, but yesterday, in a fit of cultural curiosity and hunger for that ever elusive Otium, I made it all the way down to 82nd street and the Metropolitan Museum. The day before, between bites at lunch, there was talk of the new galleries for the art of the Arab lands, and I had it in mind that if I did get out and about and away from Google Docs, I would make it in to see. They are tremendous. You should go. But there isn’t an incredible rush as it is a permanent installation, and right now it is a little nuts in the city and a bit of a melee horror-show inside with all the people from all-over in town to see the lights and the tree and the ball drop and Lady Gaga and everything else.

"I don't know.....it's Versace."

However, and speaking of Italians, there is an exhibition up only until mid-March of Italian paintings and sculptures (made possible  in part by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation), also at the Met, which is well-worth the push, rush, scusi, no excuse me of the moment. The title of the show is “The Renaissance Portrait from Donatello to Bellini” but of course, Botticelli steals the show.

"Petrarch is trending on Twitter."

As if that weren’t enough, just next door at the Guggenheim, yet another Italian, Maurizio Cattelan, has taken over the rotunda with his much talked about and much lauded “show of the year” spectacle, “All.”

"Oh, I get it."

This is winding down and will be up only until the 22nd of January and again, well worth the crowds, which may very likely die down in a week or so. Although, the popularity of the exhibition has brought more and more folks each week lined up all the way around Fifth and down 88th street.  So it is anyone’s guess as to whether or not you will have to fight the crowds. Hopefully not. In my experience, because of my fear of ledges, and interest in distance from them, I sort of saw the entire show with other people’s shoulders as frames. If you are not afraid of ledges and can enjoy to lean over, you will love it.

I also have heard that if movie theatre going is your thing that “Hugo” is fantastic, and even better is “The Artist” which is playing at The Paris Theater, the perfect movie theater to see such a film and located on Grand Army Plaza in Manhattan.

Happy New Year,

Anthony

Tags: Lady Gaga, New Years, Otium, Petrarch, Simona Vespucci

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 1st, 2012 at 7:28 pm and is filed under Art, Fashion, Inspiration, new york, Visual Art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.