Brooklyn Museum of Art

I didn't even know there was a Brooklyn Museum of Art until I picked up a magazine with a story on New York art museums. It is a huge pile in Prospect Park. The Eastern Partkway / Brooklyn Museum subway stop is just outside. It is a bargain too at only $4 and on the Saturday I was there it was mostly deserted.

I was expecting a lot of second rate art but I was surprised to see that they had some very nice pictures including some by Stuart Davis and Monet. They have the second best naked marble babe I have ever seen, a sculpture of a happy drunk woman and her baby called Bacchanate . The definition was very good. The little wrinkly baby butt looked just like a real baby's butt. They had a cool Singer-Sargent impressionist painting of a brook and a number of pictures of New York scenes that were very nice.

The Egyptian collection is very nice too. Not as spiffy as the Met but still very nice and much less crowded than the Met or the British Museum.

American Craft Museum

Across the street from the Museum of Modern Art, the American Craft Museum shows items that are both works of art and utilitarian objects. The two installations showing when I was there was art neuvo ceramics from the Rorstrand pottery and modern experiments in ceramics from the Serves the French National Porcelain manufacturer.

Cooper Hewett National Design Museum

The Cooper Hewett shows works of design such as chairs, fabrics, telephones and tractors. The building is Andrew Carnigie's old mansion. It is a Smithsonian Museum. I always stop in at the the Cooper Hewett when I go to New York because good design is hard. There are a lot of cool looking designs that fail because of mechnical problems, they break or wear out. It is good to be able to see examples of designs that work.

Museum of Modern Art

Museum of Television and Radio

I like the Museum of Radio and Television because it stayes open late on Thursday nights and it is near Broadway. If the weather is bad I just watch TV shows until it is time to go to the theater. They have a huge library of video tapes. You can select several shows and watch them at an individual TV viewing station.