The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

This was our first time going to the MET. We was expecting a lot less. I didn't know a lot about it before we went, and was looking forward to a quiet day of looking at paintings in galleries, maybe some sculptures, but nothing as amazing as what we found. The first exhibit we entered was ancient Egypt, and that alone would have been worth the price of admission. Not only do they have thousands of artifacts and gallery after gallery of art of every kind but they have a giant room that transports you back in time to ancient Egypt, with water and everything. The Asian arts section had a similar room that appeared to be a courtyard of a Chinese temple. Again with water features and lots of natural sunlight. Absolutely beautiful and peaceful. Far more to see here than can be written about here, and we only had time to see a few of the different exhibitions. All of which are in multiple galleries and see to go on forever. Very impressed. Cannot wait to go back and explore some more. Any history and/or art buff will find this place to fascinating. You could probably spend three or four days here and still not see everything.

You probably already know this is one of the greatest museums in the world. I'm not going to address the many different exhibits that are in the permanent collection but I do want to talk about the Alice Neel show which is going on now and I believe extends through April and May 2021 perhaps even longer. This is the show you do not want to miss. Alice is a great painter it's as simple as that. I figurative painter from the very beginning even during the years of abstract expressionism. She was friends with many of the great abstract expressionist artists of the day as well as simultaneously being able to be friends with the leading pop artists as they took over from the AB EX. for example there's a portrait of Andy Warhol in the show. There's also a portrait of Robert Smithson the great conceptual landscape artist. This shows you what a broad range a friend she had and the other artists who respected her. I'm not going to try to describe the art in this review. It simply has to be seen to be appreciated and seeing it in real life is a million times better than seeing it on a computer screen. Her paint handling the sense of light in the yard above all her scale none of these things can be understood or experienced when you're seeing the art on a computer screen. So I'll close by urging you to visit the museum which is in New York City main entrance on 83rd Street.