October Exhibitions at the New-York Historical Society
NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY
170 Central Park West, New York, NY (212) 873-3400 www.nyhistory.org
EXHIBITIONS
October 2013
TEMPORARY EXHIBITIONS
October 11, 2013 – February 23, 2014
Works by Duchamp, Matisse, Picasso, Cézanne, Gauguin, and Van Gogh will be on display in The Armory Show at 100: Modern Art and Revolution, which revisits the famous 1913 New York Armory Show on its 100th anniversary. In 1913, the International Exhibition of Modern Art came to New York. Organized by a small group of American artists and presented at the Lexington Avenue Armory (and thus nicknamed the Armory Show), it introduced the American public to European avant-garde painting and sculpture. This exhibition is an exploration of how the Armory Show inspired seismic shifts in American culture, politics, and society.
September 27, 2013 – March 9, 2014
Beauty’s Legacy: Gilded Age Portraits in America examines the remarkable critical and popular resurgence of portraiture in the United States during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. The exhibition —presenting over sixty works of art as well as period photographs and graphic materials, all from the New-York Historical Society—will investigate the strong cultural and social legacy of the American portrait tradition, with particular emphasis upon the New York sitters so well represented in New-York Historical's rich collection. With the amassing of great fortunes founded on industrial expansion, came the impetus to document the appearance of those who propelled and benefited from burgeoning wealth, thus echoing a cultural pattern reaching back to the colonial era.
August 9, 2013 – November 13, 2013
A new installation in the Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture features everyday items transformed by famed New York artist Keith Haring. Keith Haring All-Over explores the artist’s use of unconventional surfaces: clothing, furniture and skin; as well as photographs and videos that document his process and passion for making ordinary objects into extraordinary works of art. Known for his chalk drawings on subway station walls and public murals, Keith Haring left his mark on nearly anything he could find—even the bodies of other artists—all painted with detail and finesse. Highlights of the installation include photos and videos of Haring’s collaborations with Bill T. Jones, Grace Jones, and Madonna that feature painted clothing or backdrops, including a jacket worn by Madonna when she performed at Haring’s first “Party of Life” birthday celebration in 1984.
On display is one of the most famous and storied coins in the world—the 1933 Double Eagle. In 1933 the United States struck almost a half million twenty-dollar gold coins, commonly known as Double Eagles. At virtually the same time, in one of his first acts as President, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an Executive Order banning the payout of gold, weaning the country off the gold standard. The 1933 Double Eagles, although legally made, became illegal to own and were never circulated. In 1944, a 1933 Double Eagle appeared in a New York auction, and the United States Secret Service determined that a U.S. Mint employee had stolen a number of the coins in 1937, and identified ten 1933 Double Eagles that had escaped destruction, of which nine were surrendered or seized. One was beyond reach, as it had been purchased by King Farouk of Egypt, and after 1954 it disappeared. In 2002, the coin was sold at auction for $7,590,020, nearly doubling the previous world record. That very coin—the only 1933 Double Eagle which may be legally owned by an individual—will be on display at New-York Historical, on temporary loan from an anonymous private collection.
PERMANENT INSTALLATIONS
Explore 300 years of New York and American history through the eyes and lives of children of the past! The DiMenna Children’s History Museum is a museum-within-a-museum and occupies the New-York Historical Society’s entire lower level. It includes character-based pavilions, a children’s library, a Whiz Bang Quiz Machine, and interactive exhibits and games. The DCHM encourages children to identify with the people whose enterprise and creativity changed the course of our history. All ages can enjoy and learn in DCHM, but the exhibits are targeted at age 8-13.
Dedicated to telling the story of America through the lens of New York, this new gallery features such works as a piece of ceiling from Keith Haring’s “Pop Shop;” Here is New York, a rotating selection from the approximately 6,200 photographs taken by the people of New York City on September 11, 2001, and immediately afterward; History Under Your Feet, an educational scavenger hunt for visitors featuring our “history manholes;” and Liberty/Liberté, an installation by New York-based artist Fred Wilson. This permanent installation provides an overview of New-York Historical’s diverse collections and orients visitors to the experiences and exhibitions waiting deeper in the Museum.
Objects and documents from the incomparable collection of Congregation Shearith Israel (established 1654), including manuscripts, maps, liturgical treasures, and historical artifacts, are featured in The Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture.
The history of New York’s Jewish presence began in 1654 with the arrival of twenty-three refugees of Sephardic ancestry from Recife, Brazil. Soon after their arrival the group established a congregation, the first in North America. This foundation was the beginning of a rich legacy that has culminated in the growth of what is now one of the largest Jewish communities in the world, and, importantly, set the stage for the religious and ethnic diversity for which our city and nation are known.
The Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture on the fourth floor provides public access to nearly 40,000 objects from the New-York Historical Society’s permanent collection. In the Luce Center, visitors can see art and artifacts spanning four centuries, ranging from masterworks of American painting, to a rotating selection of watercolors from John James Audubon's The Birds of America, to the nation’s premiere collection of Tiffany lamps, to historical touchstones such as the draft wheel that played a role in one of the worst urban riots in United States history.
INFORMATION HOTLINE: (212) 873-3400
ONLINE INFORMATION: www.nyhistory.org
MUSEUM AND STORE HOURS:
Tuesday - Thursday: 10 am-6 pm
Friday: 10 am-8 pm (pay as you wish from 6 pm-8 pm)
Saturday: 10 am-6 pm
Sunday: 11 am-5 pm
MUSEUM ADMISSION:
Adults - $18
Teachers and Seniors - $14
Students - $12
Children (5-13)- $6
Children (4 and under) -free
