Page 243 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - New York City

BROOKL Y N MUSEUM  241

The Luce galleries are appropriately, Brooklyn
arranged thematically and Bridge by Georgia O’Keeffe.
explore crucial moments The Sculpture Garden
and ideas in American holds architectural
visual culture over the ornamentation taken from
past 300 years. Among the demolished New York
collection are pieces by John buildings, including statues
Singer Sargent, Frank Lloyd rescued from the original
Wright, and Georgia O’Keeffe. Penn Station, and a replica
of the Statue of Liberty.
Egyptian, Classical,
and Ancient Near
Eastern Art
Recognized as among the
world’s finest, the Egyptian
collection holds many master­
pieces. It begins with an early
female figure dating from 3,500
BC, and encompasses sculptures,
statues, tomb paintings, and
reliefs as well as funerary para­
phernalia. Of the latter, the most
unusual is the coffin of an ibis,
probably recovered from the
vast animal cemetery of Tuna
el­Gebel in Middle Egypt.
The ibis was a sacred bird Rotherhithe, an etching by James McNeill
representing the god Thoth, and Whistler (1860)
this coffin is made of solid silver Pierre de Wiessant (1887) by Auguste
and wood overlaid with gold Rodin, from his Burghers of Calais group
leaf, with rock crystal for the Prints, Drawings,
and Photographs
bird’s eyes. These galleries have
been renovated into a state­of­ Painting and Sculpture The museum has an important
the­art, hi­tech installation. This collection contains works collection of prints, drawings,
Among the artifacts from the from the 14th century to the and photographs that are
Greek and Roman civilizations present, including a well­ constantly rotated for conser­
are statuary, pottery, bronzes, known and outstanding vation purposes, and so this isn’t
jewelry, and mosaics. 19th­century French art on the floorplan (see pp238–9).
Among the Ancient Near and collection with works by The range includes a rare wood­
Middle Eastern exhibits are an Degas, Rodin, Monet, Cézanne, cut print by Dürer entitled The
extensive collection of pottery Matisse, and Pissarro. It also Great Triumphal Chariot and works
and 12 alabaster reliefs from the boasts one of the largest by Piranesi. The Impressionist
Assyrian palace of King holdings of Spanish Colonial and Post­Impressionist collection
Ashurnasirpal II. These date from paintings and one of the best includes works by Toulouse­
around 883–859 BC and depict collections of North American Lautrec and Mary Cassatt, the
the king fighting, overseeing paintings to be found in the only American woman associated
his crops, and purifying the United States. The museum’s with the Impressionist move­
“sacred tree,” a major icon in 20th­century American ment. There are lithographs by
Assyrian religion. collection includes, James McNeill Whistler, Winslow
Homer engravings, and a
superb selec tion of drawings
by Fragonard, Paul Klee, van
Gogh, Picasso, and Arshile
Gorky, among others.
The photography collection
consists mainly of works by
major 20th­century American
photographers, including a 1924
portrait of silent­film actress Mary
Pickford by Edward Steichen
and work by Margaret Bourke­
Sandstone reliefs from Thebes in Egypt (c.760–656 BC), depicting the great god Amun-Re White, Berenice Abbott, and
and his consort Mut Robert Mapplethorpe.

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