New York City – Page 2 – Old Woman on a Bicycle

Weekly Photo Challenge: Grid

September 20, 2015September 20, 2015 by Gayle Alstrom, posted in New York City, Weekly Photo Challenge

: Window at Grand Central Station, NYC

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Grid.”

My Thursday Night at the Whitney

(above: The Hudson River with New Jersey buildings–from the South side, 5th floor, of the Whitney. Photo taken around 7:00 pm., which is why buildings are in shadow.)

The Whitney is open till 10 pm Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays this summer.

Whitney Museum of American Art
99 Gansevoort Street,
New York, NY 10014

**An anterior shot of the New Whitney that I took on opening day 5/1/15. The Whitney Museum of American Art building was designed by Renzo Piano.**

Last night I attended a delightful lecture at the Whitney entitled Writing Art History: The Whitney’s Collection and Exhibitions, 1970 – Present . The lecture broadened my art history knowledge, considerably, of what was going on in art in the 1970’s and 80’s, which I had no idea of–really Not only that, but I had no idea that I had no idea of what was going on

Performance art became a big thing during these two decades, which is something I never really took to, probably because I didn’t understand it. Performance artists usually document their work with photographs, which many are on display at the Whitney. The lecture lasted about a 1/2 hour, then we went to the fifth floor to look at examples of work on display that had been talked about in the lecture. All by artists with whom I had been totally unfamiliar until last night. These lectures are free to members of the museum. It’s certainly worth the price of joining just for them.

These performance artists express some kind of social agenda, like Aids, or women issues. The women’s movement became big in the 70’s after the Vietnam war ended, and women performance artists dug their nails into it. Performance art is a much more in-your-face” type of thing than looking at a painting. However, when I think of the 80’s in art, the first people who come to my mind are Basquant and Warhol. I don’t think any performance artist would come to any one’s mind.

This photo of the Whitney shows the different levels and the people standing out on the balconies. The Pink art on the 5th Floor wall is called "Sunset" by Mary Heilmann, who lives in San Francisco. — This photo of the Whitney shows the top 5 floors and the people standing out on the balconies. The views of the city from the balconies are tremendous. On the 8th floor is a restaurant where you can take your cocktail out on the balcony. Bring money. Multi-colored plastic chairs on the 5th floor balcony help enjoy the view. Also there’s a ground-floor restaurant that you can sit at without paying to get into the museum.

“Museums are places to hang out.”

—	Mary Heilmann, whose site-specific installation, Sunset, inaugurates the Museum’s largest outdoor gallery

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The 5th floor of the museum has two wonderful wall-to-wall windows on each side. One faces south and the Hudson River, and the other East. The windows have long couches in front of them for people to sit and contemplate and take photos if they want, which is what I wanted.

This is the view from the South window on the 5th Floor of the Museum. That's the Hudson River with Jersey City in the background. It was about 7:00 p.m. when I took this. — **This is the view from the South window on the 5th Floor of the Museum. That’s the Hudson River with Jersey City in the background. It was about 7:00 p.m. when I took this.**

Most of these photos I took last night 8/13/15.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Symbol

July 14, 2015July 18, 2015 by Gayle Alstrom, posted in New York City, NYC, Weekly Photo Challenge

A policeman on a horse is a New York City symbol for authority.
He is giving me the peace sign, another symbol. I was standing right in front of this policeman–alone–taking his photo, and never once did he look at me, but he knew I was there since he gave me the sign.