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For the last
two centuries, a Fifth Avenue address has signified social position,
prosperity and respectability. Whether around its lower reaches on Washington
Square or far uptown around the Harlem river, the street has been the home to
Manhattan's finest mansions, hotels, churches and stores. Between 42nd and 59th
streets, Fifth Avenue has always drawn crowds - particularly during Christmas,
when department-store windows are filled with elaborate displays - to gaze at
what has become the automatic image of wealth and opulence, or to visit
Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall
or the
Museum of Modern Art.
Explore Fifth Avenue
Museum
of Modern Art
11 W 53rd St (between 5th and 6th avenues) Sat-Tues & Thurs 10.30am-6pm,
Fri 10.30am-8.30pm, closed Wed; $9.50, students $6.50, Fri 4.30-8.15pm
pay what you wish; recorded audio tour $4. Free gallery talks held Mon,
Tues, Thurs, Sat & Sun 1pm & 3pm; Fri 3pm, 6pm & 7pm; phone 212/708-9480,
www.moma.org #E or #F train to 5th Ae-53rd St.
A
major renovation is currently underway at MoMA (as the museum is
usually called), starting in the summer of 2002 and ending by summer
2005, in time for the museum's 75th anniversary. The expansion will
allow MoMA to display more of its permanent collection, as well as mount
even larger temporary exhibits. During the reconstruction, the museum
will move to Long Island City in
Queens, in a spot known as MoMaQNS, 45-20 33rd St at
Queens Blvd (subway #7 to 33rd St stop; phone
212/708-9400; inquire what's on view when).
The
collection is indeed impressive, offering one of the finest and most
complete accounts of late nineteenth- and twentieth-century art you're
likely to find, with a permanent collection of over 100,000 paintings,
sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, architectural models and
design objects, as well as a world-class film archive. Painting
highlights include Post-Impressionist masterworks, such as Cézanne
's Bather, Monet 's Water Lilies and paintings by
Gauguin, Seurat and an Gogh, including his celebrated
Starry Night . Cubism is represented particularly by Derain,
Braque and Picasso whose Demoiselles d'Avignon, a
jagged, sharp and then revolutionary clash of tones and planes, is held
to be the embodiment of Cubist principles.
The
late-modern and contemporary painting collection has a more American
slant, with paintings such as Wyeth 's Christina's World,
and works by Hopper, including House by the Railroad and
New York movie, potent and atmospheric pieces that give a bleak
account of 1930s and 1940s American life. Equally notable are more
abstract pieces, such as
Gorky
's Miró-like doodles, and the anguished scream of Bacon 's No.
7 from 8 Studies for a Portrait .
Some of the biggest draws are the paintings from the New York School -
large-scale canvases meant to be viewed from a distance. The finest
examples are the paintings of Pollock and de Kooning -
wild and, in Pollock's case, textured patterns with no clear beginning
or end. MoMA also features several well-known examples of Pop Art,
including Warhol 's Gold Marilyn Monroe and the familiar
Campbell Soup canvas.
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North
on Fifth toward Central Park
Here comes the glitz: Cartier, Gucci and Tiffany and Co .
are among many gilt-edged storefronts that will jump out at you between
53rd and 59th streets. If you're keen to do more than merely
window-shop, Tiffany's, at no. 727, is worth a perusal, its soothing
green marble and weathered wood interior best described by Truman
Capote's fictional Holly Golightly: "It calms me down right away ?
nothing very bad could happen to you there."
Topping all of this off is F.A.O. Schwarz, a block north at no.
767, a colossal emporium of children's toys. Fight the kids off and
there's some great stuff to play with - once again, the best (and
biggest, including gas-powered cars, life-sized stuffed animals and Lego
creations) that money can buy. Across 58th Street, Fifth Avenue broadens
into Grand Army Plaza and the fringes of Central Park. Looming
impressively on the plaza is, aptly enough, the copper-edged Plaza
Hotel, recognizable from its many film appearances. Wander around
to soak in the (slightly faded) gilt-and-brocade grandeur; the snazzy
Oak Room bar, is worth a snoop too.
Museum
of Television and Radio
25 W 52nd St (between 5th and 6th avenues) Tues, Wed, Fri-Sun noon-6pm,
Thurs noon-8pm; $6, students $4, under 13 $3; phone 212/621-6600,
www.mtr.org. #E or #F train to 5th Ae-53rd St.
This museum holds an archive of 100,000 mostly American Tshows, radio
broadcasts and commercials, any of which are available for your personal viewing. The museum's excellent computerized reference system allows you
to research news, public affairs, documentaries, sporting events,
comedies, advertisements and other aural and visual selections. The MTR
becomes unbearably crowded on weekends, so plan to visit at other times
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Rockefeller Center
Filling the whole block west of Fifth Avenue between 49th and 50th
streets,
Rockefeller Center
was built between 1932 and 1940 by John D. Rockefeller, son of the oil
magnate. It's one of the finest pieces of urban planning anywhere -
office space with cafés, a theater, underground concourses and rooftop
gardens work together with a rare intelligence and grace.
You're lured into the center from Fifth Avenue down the gentle slope of
the
Channel Gardens
to the GE Building, focus of the center. Rising 850 feet, this
monumental structure is softened by symmetrical setbacks. At its foot,
the
Lower Plaza
holds a sunken restaurant and bar in the summer months, linked visually
to the downward flow of the building by Paul Manship's sparkling
Prometheus sculpture; in winter it becomes an ice rink, giving
skaters a chance to show off their skills to passing shoppers. Inside,
the GE Building's lobby are José Maria Sert's murals, American
Progress and Time, which are faded but eagerly in tune with
the 1930s Deco ambience.
#E or
#F train to 5th Ae-53rd St.
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Explore Rockefeller Center
NBC
Studios
Among the many office ensembles in the GE Building is NBC Studios, home of the network's long-established late-night comedy show
Saturday Night Lie, which simply refuses to die, among other
programs. Get a backstage look at NBC's studios on the NBC Experience
Tour (Mon-Sat 8.30am-5.30pm, Sun 9.30am-4.30pm; $17.50, seniors and
children $15, under 6 not allowed on tour; phone 212/664-3700). Tours
leave from the NBC Experience Store on 49th Street between Fifth and
Sixth avenues.
For
an early-morning Tthrill, you can gawk at NBC's Today Show,
which broadcasts lie from 7am to 9am weekday mornings from
glass-enclosed studios in the new NBC News Building on the southwest
corner of 49th and Rockefeller Plaza.
New York
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