KYKUIT (Lookout Point) – Home to the Rockefeller Family in the Hudson Valley’s Pocantico Hills
Situated only 20 miles outside New York City, a visit to the Kykuit estate -- home to four generations of the Rockefeller family -- is a magical step back into the nation’s history. It also makes for the perfect day excursion for New Yorkers and tourists alike.
Philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil and then the “richest man in America,” purchased the property after his retirement in 1873. But it was J.D. Rockefeller Jr. who convinced his father to transform its modest beginnings into the opulent neo-classical estate we enjoy today. And, maybe more importantly, it was his wife Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, co-founder of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), who made it a home for world-class art. A special treat of the tour includes discovering works by Calder, Picasso, Nevelson, and others in the basement gallery. Former U.S. Vice President and New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller and his wife Happy Rockefeller topped off the collection by silkscreen portraits by Andy Warhol of the two of them.
Inspired by his mother’s passion for art, Nelson continued the collection, with over 120 sculptures for awestruck viewers dotting the property’s gardens. And everywhere one turns, the awesome beauty of the Hudson River is tempting enough.
For tickets, contact the Historic Hudson Valley, 914-366-6900.
Visitor’s Center, 381 North Broadway, Sleepy Hollow, NY.
The Neue Galerie, a jewel box for 19th/early 20th-century German and Austrian Art
Housed in a former Gilded Age Beaux Arts mansion, completed in 1914, the Neue Galerie offers a luxurious retreat from the summer heat. Head first for the permanent collection on the second floor, where Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" will dazzle your senses. It was sold to the museum’s founder, Ronald Lauder, in 2006 for $135 million. Furniture, sculpture, photography and other household gems are on view but for this viewer, the powerful, often angst-ridden paintings of the German Expressionists are the most riveting.
The current exhibition on the third floor is a sampling of master works by Kandinsky, Kirshner, Pechstein, Beckmann, and others, notable among them heartrending semi-nude portraits by Otto Dix. Everywhere one confronts an explosion of color, making for an emotional takeaway. The blocks of primary paint in a rural landscape by Gabrielle Munter are all the more arresting for its childlike rendering. Make sure and visit Café Zabarsky before departing, for such decadent offerings as hazelnut mousse cake if you dare.
The Neue Galerie, 1048 5th Ave, New York, NY 10028, (212) 628-6200.
The Whitney Museum of American Art and Amy Sherald – A Great American Portraitist
Amy Sherald became an instant celebrity when her iconic portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama entered the public consciousness. It is a startingly elegant depiction of a beloved, charismatic American figure. With its sweeping geometric lines and bold grey skin tones against a powder blue background, it remains a brilliant standalone creation. Fortunately for art lovers everywhere, the Whitney’s current exhibition, Amy Sherald: American Sublime, reveals a complex visual narrative of nearly 50 portraits that challenge nothing less than America’s self-identity.
From a cowboy in a stars-and-stripes shirt, a girl daintily balancing an oversized teacup, to a boy perched atop a playground slide, she creates everyday Black Americans. Even a tragic portrait of Breonna Taylor, whose life was cut short in a police raid gone wrong, adds to her American story.
Born in 1973, this Columbus, Georgia, native found her calling when she first saw a painting of a person of color. She has said the event “grounded me in my destiny.” Her “soulmates” as she refers to them, are all individuals who make up the crazy quilt of the American character. Another storyteller who recognized the importance of Black identity in the national culture is Toni Morrison. In her words, “I didn’t want to speak for Black people … I wanted to speak to, and to be among them… it’s us. So, the first thing I had to do was to eliminate the white gaze.”
First organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, this is not only a gorgeous exhibition, but one that puts Amy Sherald in the forefront of contemporary American portrait painters.
Amy Sherald: American Sublime runs through August 10, 2025, at The Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort Street, New York, NY 10014, 212-570-3600.
Author Bio:
Sandra Bertrand is Highbrow Magazine’s chief art critic.
For Highbrow Magazine
Photo Credits: Sandra Bertrand; Wikipedia Commons.
