This summer, nature is in full bloom at four major New York art institutions: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Met Cloisters, the New York Botanical Garden and the Storm King Art Center north of the city. Your before and after activities are just as important as the shows themselves. Here is our checklist to help you find your way around while savoring the double experience. Don’t forget your walking shoes!
Metropolitan Museum of Art
“Van Gogh’s Cypresses”
Visitors look at a painting during a preview of the ‘Van Gogh’s Cypresses’ exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 15, 2023 in New York City. Photo: Wang Fan/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images.
Plan a visit to the highly anticipated Vincent van Gogh “Cypresses” exhibition at the Met (until August 27)? You will of course need your strength. First, dip into Bluestone Lane (1085 Fifth Avenue at 90th Street) – an Upper East Side favorite – for a strong coffee. Placing your order under the large stone arch of the historic Church of Heaven’s Rest is not a bad way to start your day.
Now that you’re rejuvenated, walk south along iconic Fifth Avenue toward the Met (1000 Fifth Avenue, between 82nd and 83rd Streets), where nearly 40 of the Post-Impressionists’ bold paintings await, including masterpieces like Wheat field with cypresses And The starry Night. This is the first exhibition devoted to cypresses, these enigmatic conifers which feature prominently in Van Gogh’s work.
Vincent Van Gogh, Cypress (1889). Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
After admiring its arboreal brushstrokes, step out to the back of the museum for the real thing. Central Park is famous for its idyllic landscapes and woodland walks. The Ramble, a short walk west (between 73rd and 78th Streets), offers 38 acres of winding trails, not to mention birdwatching. The Great Lawn, on the other hand, offers grassy areas to rest your weary feet or pack a picnic. The lawn also contains a number of summer concerts this summer.
If all that nature indulgence beckons you for a drink of a different kind, head back to civilization across Fifth Avenue for the quintessential post-Met: The Carlyle Hotel. Inside the historic and luxurious Bemelmans bar, where whimsical murals by Ludwig Bemelmans, creator of the Magdalene children’s books, adorn the walls – offers a range of refreshing drinks, from dirty martinis to Shirley Temples.
Cloisters encountered
Garden tours
View of the Cloister of Cuxa (c. 1130–1140), currently located in the cloisters. Courtesy of The Cloister.
Located at 99 Margaret Corbin Drive in Upper Manhattan’s Fort Tryon Park, the Cloisters-governed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art-has been a staple for locals and visitors alike since it opened to the public in 1938. Open year-round with free admission, it was founded by oil heir John D. Rockefeller, Jr., reassembled from fragments he acquired from American artist George Gray Barnard, who in the early 1900s began collecting fragments of medieval art and architecture of European monasteries and churches being demolished.
The richness of medieval Europe is on full display. Many works are world famous, such as the incredibly preserved late 15th century unicorn tapestries with their dense and vibrant textures. thousand flowersand the 12th century Cloister Cross. Another gem of the collection is the Floral study book (c. 1510-1520), for which medieval illuminators from Tours, France produced watercolor illustrations of many species of flowers with remarkable attention to detail.
Page from the book of floral studies (c. 1510–15), attributed to the master of Claude de France, showing the keys of Saint-Pierre (Primula veris) with a butterfly. Courtesy of The Cloister.
Visitors are also well advised to seek out some quality time with the namesake Cloisters, meditative gardens located in various corners of the museum; their therapeutic value is legendary. A horticultural staff maintains the gardens and also offers daily educational tours.
Fort Tryon Park itself is worth a visit. The space is steeped in history, serving as a battleground during the Revolutionary War, and features eight miles of trails, plus plenty of lawns for picnicking. Heather Garden, Manhattan’s largest, contains over 500 varieties of plants, while Linden Terrace offers sweeping and spectacular views of the Hudson River.
New York Botanical Garden
Ebony G. Patterson
Ebony G. Patterson. Photo: Frank Ishman. Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago.
Before entering the New York Botanical Garden at 2900 Southern Boulevard in the Bronx, it would be a good idea to stop at The Masa, a modern Colombian bakery at 726 Lydig Avenue on the east side of the garden. Here, you can stock up on gourmet empanadas and, of course, perfectly roasted coffee.
Now onto the main event, where the contemporary artist Ebony G. Patterson transformed the garden—one of the largest of its kind in the world, with over a million living plants, in an amazing mix of art and nature. Flowers, fabrics, glass and other materials combine to create otherworldly lush environments.
The sprawling site-specific exhibition (until October 2) is the result of the Jamaican-born artist’s year-long residency in the garden, making her the first visual artist to be integrated within of the institution. Be sure to visit the Herbarium, where Patterson installed the centerpiece of the exhibit, a monumental glass and stone peacock.
After a day of soaking up all that art and nature, you don’t even have to leave the garden to relive it. Head to the northwest corner of the scenic Hudson Garden Grillwhich is ideally nestled among the 40 acres of the Ross Conifer Arboretum. The menu emphasizes local recipes and ethically produced ingredients directly from Hudson Valley farms.
Storm King Art Center
Ugo Rondinone, RA Walden, Beatriz Cortez
Visitors gather around the work of Menashe Kadishman Suspended at the Storm King Art Center in New York on May 21, 2023. Photo: Li Rui/Xinhua via Getty Images.
Storm King has just opened for the summer season, and not a moment too soon. The 500-acre outdoor museum contains perhaps the largest collection of contemporary outdoor sculpture in the United States. It is located just an hour’s drive north of Manhattan in the Hudson Valley at 1 Museum Road in New Windsor. Although originally devoted to Hudson River School painting, Storm King soon began placing large-scale sculptures directly into his landscape, transforming it into a world-class sculpture garden.
This summer, Storm King added three contemporary sculptors on its list (until November 13). New York-based Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone installed the sun (2018) and the moon (2021), two large circular sculptures fashioned from cast bronze tree branches. RA Walden, meanwhile, reimagined the electronic configuration of the six most common elements – carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur – as crop circles on a hill. And Beatriz Cortez has sculpted, by hand, volcanic shapes with undulating surfaces that echo the surrounding landscape.
Ugo Rondinone, the sun (2018) and the moon (2021). Courtesy of Storm King Art Center.
As long as you’re near the Beacon Art Center (just across the Hudson River), why not take a quick detour to Dia Tag? Housed in a former Nabisco box-printing factory at 3 Beekman Street, the museum’s collection includes major works by artists, especially Earth artists, such as Richard Serra, Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson.
If you need to stay a night or two before heading back to town, Beacon is the place to do it. Look no further than the Roundhouse Hotel, at 2, rue Principale Est. The property was originally a textile manufacturer and one of Beacon’s first factories. Its restaurant is also a must, inspired by the agricultural wealth of the Hudson Valley, showcasing local farms, vineyards and distilleries. All tables have views of the waterfall and creek through floor-to-ceiling windows.
Check back for more Artnet summer itineraries for Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, DC, coming this month.
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