NYC - Day 4

Began my day with a morning walk around the neighbourhood of my hotel, near the Lincoln Centre. Found some good fodder for urban landscapes.

Later found my way to the High Line linear park. Once an elevated train line, now repurposed into an urban park, it is complete with some of the original track, indigenous grasses and flowers, seating and lounging structures, birdhouse sculpture and water features for the children to run through. The owners and tenants of adjacent buildings have also got into the spirit of things with large murals and rooftop sculpture. The whole thing runs between 30th and 14th Streets, just west of 10th Avenue with another, final, stretch to be opened next week. It has been a great success, maintained largely by volunteers and filled with people of all ages.

It was fun taking photos of the buildings from the higher elevation.

I got off the High Line to visit the David Zwirner Gallery on West 19th Street. A show of seventeen paintings by Alice Neel runs until June 23. Alice Neel (1900-1984) is widely regarded as one of the greatest figurative painters of the twentieth century. She was based in New York City, and used the people around her as subjects for her portraits.  I like the strong use of line in her work, and the looseness of her painting. In most of her work, the background is very effectively broken up into flat shapes or made more interesting with gradations of colour.

It is quite amazing to see the vast spaces in these private galleries, and the squads of security and other staff. No admission is charged for shows and yet clearly it costs lots of money to operate these galleries on such expensive real estate. It gives you some idea of the money to be made from selling the "right stuff" to the "right people".