Who gets invited to The Big Dance? Who will be a Cinderella? What about the Sweet Sixteen? We find it endearing and amusing that the language sportscasters and fans employ to talk about the annual NCAA Division 1 men’s basketball tournament is strangely similar to the vocabulary of teenage girls in the ’50s discussing their social lives.
The whirl of important art shows and exhibits continues apace. After a three-year hiatus, the Whitney Biennial – an authoritative overview of the state of contemporary American art – opened to the public on March 17th for the first time since the museum relocated to its airy new Renzo Piano-designed space in the meatpacking district. The distinctly different setting opened up new vistas – literally and figuratively – and the 63 artists and collectives invited to participate in this year’s show took full advantage (BTW, kudos to the Whitney for assembling such a diverse and eclectic group: almost half are female, and almost half are of color).
The intimate, deeply civilized and charming Neue Galerie on Fifth Avenue in New York City’s Upper East Side is one of the many hidden gems of Manhattan that too many people miss in their rush toward the neighboring Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim. If you haven’t visited yet – or haven’t been there in a while – you owe it to yourself to stop in this spring. The museum is celebrating its 15th anniversary. The current exhibit is deeply moving. And the sacher tortes are as delicious as ever.
What’s it like to eat at the best restaurant in the world? And what can other purveyors of luxury goods learn from the master of luxurious experiences for the well-heeled? Recently, the Dandelion Chandelier Staff Photographer and I decided to investigate.
The contemporary art world moves at a dizzying pace, and every now and then it’s a luxury to slow down and reflect on one of the most important collections in the world. On the occasion of its 80th anniversary, the Guggenheim Museum in New York is doing just that with “Visionaries: Creating a Modern Guggenheim,” an exhibition of 170 works from its permanent collection, many of which are rarely on view.
