On my last full day in NY I went off to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was a fairly gloomy day and actually ended up raining a number of times and so it was a perfect day to spend indoors. I was on my own again as I don't think spending the whole day in a museum appealed to Nick in the slightest! Plus I was up too early for him (again!)
The Met is Amazing! Incredible! Wonderful! Splendiferous! Awe-inspiring! *insert more adjectives here* etc etc. For starters it's huge. I could have spent at least 2 whole days there because I didn't even get to see half of the exhibits that I wanted to. My guidebook mentioned a couple of things to see in the Met and one of them was the Met's collection of Tiffany glass so I wondered through the Egyptian section to see that. As well as a variety of mummies, statues and other relics they have an entire Egyptian Temple - the Temple of Dendur! Unfortunately most of the American wing was closed for renovations so I didn't get to see all of the Tiffany glass. So instead I went off to see one of the special exhibitions on superheroes of all things! It was called Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy. (The link goes to the museum's page on the exhibition). They had the original costumes worn in some of the movies on display as well as example of haute couture and fashion that have been inspired by them. It was very cool!
Then I went up to see the collection of impressionist paintings and spent ages there! They have the most enormous collection of Monets! I discovered that in his later life he was rather prolific and created these series of paintings with the same subject but different lighting/emphasis. Apparently there are multiple versions of waterlillies. I also saw Renoir, Van Gogh and Georges Seurat (sp?). The Met has a very impressive collection. I've also discovered that I quite like Pissaro too. In an adjoining gallery they had a very large collection of Rhodin's sculptures which I decided I quite liked.
After my impressionist immersion it was definitely time for a bit of a break and some lunch while I gave by feet a rest! Afterwards I went to see Korean, Chinese and Japanese art. One of the things I liked the most was the recreation the interior and garden of what a Chinese Scholars house would have looked like. It was such a pleasant surprise to stumble upon something like that after looking at lots and lots of art and objects! Then I went to find the 2 Dali paintings that they had on display. They were odd! To put it mildly. I know Dali is normally odd but these were extra odd! I also went and saw the armour and weapons exhibit which was very cool. They had all sorts and styles of armour as well as pretty swords and other exciting things.
At the end of the afternoon I stumbled upon a special exhibit on Pietre Dure which was awesome! It was definitely the highlight of my day. (Click the link to go to the Museum's page on the exhibit and look at the pretty pictures!) Pietre Dure essentially involves making pictures and designs using precisely cut pieces of different coloured marbles and semi-precious stones, almost like a mosaic. It's unbelievably intricate and beautiful. The designs are then inlaid into tables, cabinets or anything you can think of! I was still looking at all the beautiful objects when the museum closed and they herded us all out.
On my way home I decided to go past the TKTS booth (they sell half price seats for some of the shows the day of) in Times square to see if they had any tickets for shows that evening. Luckily they did so I went to see Spamalot! It was hilarious! I was constantly laughing. It's a rip off off Monty Python's the Holy Grail which is a rip off of King Arthur and Camelot so it was quite crazy at times. But very very clever.
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