The Met Breuer-Metropolitan Museum of Art (Currently closed-The Frick Collection)

945 Madison Avenue

New York, NY  10021

(212) 535-7710

https://www.metmuseum.org/visit/plan-your-visit/met-breuer

https://www.metmuseum.org/visit/audio-guide/the-met-breuer

https://www.florabarnyc.com/

Open: Sunday 10:00am-5:30pm/Monday Closed/Tuesday-Thursday 10:00am-5:30pm/Friday & Saturday 10:00am-9:00pm

Fee: Adults $25.00/Seniors $17.00/Students $12.00/Members and Patrons Free/Children under 12 Free

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60763-d10062261-Reviews-The_Met_Breuer-New_York_City_New_York.html?m=19905

The Met Breuer is an interesting museum. When it was opened, the museum wanted to have more of focus in recent contemporary artists. The Metropolitan Museum of Art had been known for emphasis in the classical and ancient arts and its collections of art that covered the centuries. Even though it has a very impressive Contemporary Art Collection in the main building at 1000 Fifth Avenue, it was not one of their stronger collections. The Museum of Modern Art had been known more for that. The opening of the Met Breuer was going to change that by showing more of the permanent collection and traveling shows with cutting edge artists of the Twentieth and Twenty-First  Century.

I have been to the museum several time for private Member’s Nights and most recently in March 2020 for the Gerhard Richter exhibition “Gerhard Richter: Painting After All” (the exhibition just opened as the New York City closed down for the viral outbreak).

Artist Gerhard Richter

https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/

https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/art

The artist who was born in Germany and raised during the outbreak of World War II began his career as an artist in the 1960’s. He was accepted into the Academy of Arts in the 1950’s and his career has spanned many different mediums and concepts of art as shown in the exhibition.

The abstract works of artist Gerhard Richter

Artist Gerhard Richter in his studio

The Membership was able to walk four of the floors of the artists work and join in discussions with the curators and docents on duty. Each floor that evening was dedicated to a different concept of the artist’s work.

The exhibition has only opened to the membership before the museum shut down due to the virus outbreak.

On the bottom floor basement area of the museum is the restaurant, Florence, named after Florence Whitney, a patron of the museum after which was named after her family. The restaurant which has a very contemporary and expensive menu was packed that night. The restaurant offers nice views of neighborhood street level and has a very nice bar.

Florence Restaurant & Bar

https://www.florabarnyc.com/

On the main floor of the museum is a small gift shop.

The lobby of the Met Breuer

The History of The Met Breuer:

The Met Breuer was the brainchild of philanthropist Leonard Lauder in 2008 when it was announced that the Whitney Museum was moving to a new building downtown. The agreement was signed between the Met and the Whitney for the new museum in 2011.

Gerhard Richter’s work on the third floor of the museum

The Met Breuer opened in March of 2016 in the building that was formerly occupied by the Whitney Museum of American Art. The building was designed by architect Marcel Breuer and completed in 1966. The building was updated by architects Beyer, Blinder Belle in 2014 for the Met.The works of the Met Breuer come from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection and are both monographic and thematic exhibitions.

In 2018, the Met announced that it would be leaving the building in 2020 and that the Frick Collection would be moving in on a temporary basis for the renovation of their building starting in 2020.

(This information was provided by both the Met Breuer History and Wiki)

The Met Breuer on March 2020