Whitney Museum June 19, 2013

Benedicte, Teri, Shirley and I met for brunch last Wednesday, a looong brunch, at Three Guys on Madison Avenue then crossed the street and entered the Whitney Museum of American Art. Shirley's friend Gail, a museum docent, was giving a talk and tour of the exhibition "I, You We" which consists of museum holdings from the 1980's and 1990's. Her talks are always very well prepared and instructive so we make a point of showing up and have never been disappointed. I took out my iPad and tried to sketch Gail (she's the redhead below) several times without very much success. I finally gave up and sketched whichever photograph or painting she was explaining. Doodling, taking notes of phrases that caught my fancy, you know. Later I combined them into one piece.

We also spent a lot of time prior to and after Gail's talk upstairs in the "Hopper Drawing" exhibit. If you are in NYC this is a must see. Zillions of preparatory drawings for his magnificent paintings - which were there in all their unbelievable glory - WOW. I decided to copy the detail below from one of these paintings. (Head is a little lopsided, oops.)

Finally we left the Whitney, got some gelato, my first ever, and coffee on E. 73 Street. What followed were visits to 4 or 5 galleries showing American Collage, George Grosz watercolors and I can't remember what else - how pathetic. Wait, I just remembered something. The last place we went, Benedicte rang the doorbell and a lady, who was leaving the building asked where we were going. Seems she just had closed and locked up the gallery (surrealist art) for the day. Even after I casually mentioned that we didn't have millions she simply turned around, stuffed us all in a teeny tiny elevator and opened the second floor gallery and left us alone in there while she disarmed the alarm. Back on 81st Street we parted ways, Shirley heading east and north, Teri westward in a cab and Benedicte and I on a downtown rush hour bus, both of us yawning in tandem every two minutes. Apps used: iPad, Finngr Pro, Sketch Club, ArtRage apps, Pogo Sketch stylus.