An Art Filled Weekend in NYC

I spent the last few days in NYC and jam packed my schedule with seeing and making art. As soon as my train got to the city from DC I made a bee line to the Whitney Museum to see Amy Sherald’s solo exhibit. I was taken back on how precise and perfectionist her paintings are. Every mark and line is perfectly made but it doesn’t feel tight, looseness and lightness still remains in the work.

As a painter who is drawn to moody, dark artwork, I quite liked Sherald’s pastel colored backgrounds and colorful clothes worn by her subjects. Her work reminded me of Barkley Hendricks work where he prioritized letting his figures take center stage, hold the attention of the viewer without competing busy backgrounds.

Sherald paints her Black figures in gray scale. And it works. They still maintain their identity while focusing the viewer on other aspects in the painting such as clothing, gaze, presence.

I stopped dead in my tracks staring at how gleaming she made the slide in this painting below. It stirred childhood memories of the shiny metal slide burning the back of our legs on hot summer days in the park. Again, perfectly executed. This is why I think of Sherald as a painter’s painter or an artist’s artist. Someone that makes an artist want to strive for deeper technical skills.

After sticking my face as close as possible to all of Sherald’s paintings, I went to the MET to see the Black Dandy exhibit. It wasn’t a big exhibit but it was interesting. It was the first time I’d seen a grouping of all Black men dressed in 1800s garb. They looked fly and cocky and I loved it.

What really moved me were these short clips from movies showing Black men dancing carefree and a short film called Searching for Langston which I intend to find online and watch. There were several real life dandy’s like the person below in the room which took the exhibit up a notch.

The MET also had Sargent in Paris directly next to the Black Dandy exhibit so popped in to see that. I am a fan of Sargent’s use of light and color. And his moody evening scenes.

I have to say, the MET really has a grand museum feel to it. The only other time I’ve experienced something like it was at the Uffizi in Italy.

I had dinner with a friend that recommended we go see the JP Morgan library. She shared that Morgan’s personal librarian was a Black woman passing as white who was credited with the insight and knowledge to help Morgan amass rare books and art from around the globe. Apparently she became a powerful woman in the early 1900s because of her keen eye and art knowledge. There’s a book that was written about her called the Personal Librarian which I will be reading.

I found the numerous copies of bibles in the 1500 and 1600s intriguing. There were also versions of the Bible in multiple languages and personal bibles of historic figures.

I went two galleries in the upper east side. One was underwhelming and the other was captivating in its simplicity and serene vibe. The artwork was by Yu Nishimura.

I got to make some art at Happy Medium in NYC. It’s the most coziest place for making art. I took an oil painting class led by a well known NYC artist. He told me he liked the way I drew a still life, said my drawing has movement. I thought about his words and how he said with conviction all week. I was told a similar thing by my art teacher at Washington Studio School and I brushed it off but to hear it again made me want to continue leaning into my drawing style.

On another day after leading a day of work training, I trekked into Happy Medium to unwind with a figure drawing class. The model was nude and we had timed moments to quickly draw the poses. It stressed me a bit in the beginning to quickly draw in just 2 minutes before the pose switched but I quickly relaxed and of course my drawing improved.

Already looking forward to my annual fall trip to NYC this October. I think I’ll avoid big museums next time tho and do a gallery crawl. I am eager to see the current artworks that the NYC art scene is lauding.