The Very Best of NYC Art

Kandinsky, Matisse, Fine Lines, Spacewar! Video Games Blast Off

From now through Apr 17, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum features Kandinsky 1911-1913, focusing on two key years in the Russian painter’s development. Kandinsky, who was known for his geometric forms and attention-getting bright colors, revolutionized the modern art world. This exhibit also includes work by Kandinsky’s contemporaries Robert Delaunay and Franz Marc, artists whose work was shown alongside Kandinsky in the 1912 Der Blaue Reiter exhibit in Munich.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art showcases a master’s genius in Matisse: In Search of True Painting, running through Mar 17. The artist, celebrated for his beautiful, sometimes erotic portrayals of the female figure, often painted many different versions of his work in an attempt to achieve perfection, and it is that process this exhibit focuses on. This show features almost 50 of Matisse’s colorful paintings including Portrait of Laurette, Nude with a White Scarf, and Le Luxe.

Over 100 of the Brooklyn Museum’s best drawings will be on display this spring in Fine Lines: American Drawings from the Brooklyn Museum running from Mar 8 to May 26. This comprehensive study explores the work of more than 70 artists, including such major names as Edward Hopper, Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent. Spanning 1768 through 1945, the exhibit will highlight the great variety of materials the artists used to make their creations—everything from graphite to charcoal to pastel—with a focus on their nudes and portraits.

If you fondly remember playing Asteroid as a child—and really, who among us doesn’t?—then you are going to absolutely flip for the American Museum of the Moving Image’s latest exhibit Spacewar! Video Games Blast Off, on display now through Mar 3. Believe it or not, video games are over 50 years old—and here, you can see the very first one, Spacewar!, created in 1962. Learn a little arcade history and get the chance to play some of your favorite games courtesy of the complimentary tokens included with the price of admission.


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