A day out

Sunday my husband and I decided to see the Warhol exhibit at the Whitney. Our sons had gone earlier in the week and had loved it. Our walk west from the subway began at the Bleeker playground.

We continued west on Bank Street.  The bright sunlight made all of the old ironwork seem especially appealing.

We made it through the long line and into the museum. I hadn't seen these early drawings before.  I hadn't realized how much Warhol had been influenced by Ben Shahn.

Of course, I loved this drawing.

I was familiar with the shoe-portraits but hadn't realized that they were drawings mixed with collage.

So much of Warhol's work was about the commercialization of art-- how the seeing and looking and the presentation of objects can turn them into art. All of which made watching the other visitors more and more compelling.

When we were at the Louvre in November visitors crowded around the Mona Lisa snapping photos while not even glancing at other truly terrific works of art. We live in the age of the selfie.  The selfie changes how we interact with the world.

I appreciated how this woman dressed to honor Warhol's work.  I was finally able to snap her picture elsewhere in the museum.

I can't quite decide if I like the design of the museum itself.

The outdoor terrace spaces play on the idea of seeing and being seen.

I wasn't able to capture the image of the young woman carefully pouting and carefully disarraying her hair for the camera.

 You have an excellent view of the fancy hotel across the way.

If you look carefully you may catch a glimpse of the housekeeping staff tidying up.  There was a celebration going on on the top floor.

We went back inside and looked at some of the permanent collection.

This sculpture was reminiscent of the museum itself.

Some crochet wire.

When we had our fill of the museum we walked back to the subway. We both notes the graceful curve on this townhouse.

The house that probably bookended this one with a matching curve is long gone.

When my husband and I are out and about we always notice nice architectural details.

I love the decorative brickwork here.  I also love that although the building is modernist in style this is all hand laid brickwork. It's an illusion of  the machine made but done with careful craftsmanship.

My sons went to high school a couple of blocks from here.  I have passed this building hundreds of times.

 Sunday was the first time I had actually looked at the terracotta work.

 I had never noticed the animals before.

I was reminded of the biology buildings I had seen at Ohio State a couple of summers ago and the cow festooned skyscraper I had seen in downtown Houston. All were from the same era, the mid to late 1920s.

And with our eyes filled up, we went home.