Guggenheim Museum, New York City

The Solomon Guggenheim museum is a splendid Frank Lloyd Wright architectural design.  That alone was reason to go.  Laura and I having spent the morning at MoMA took a taxi here and bought hotdogs with french mustard and  Pelligrino sparkling water from a New York street vendor.  Delicious.
We sat on a railing looking across at Central Park. Joggers and dog walkers passed by. This was part of Museum Mile where old mansions of great 19th century tycoons were now repurposed.  Inside the Guggenheim the spiralled walkway had art all along the walls. It was an Agnes Martin show and not very charitably Laura and I felt her abstract work more appropriate as tapestry or wall hanging than art per se. Then we learned she was actually from Vancouver and had spent time in Saskatchewan before coming to New York and later New Mexico.  With that endorsement we appreciated her lines and colours and geometric patterns a bit more.  Definitely pretty and tranquil. They certainly elicited a range of emotions mostly positive.   They surely beautified a space making it more textured and interesting.   .
But being a bit old school I guess, I really was thankful the Guggenheim collection also had more representational art. I loved the Kadinsky and Seurat, Chagall, Rousseau and Degas.  We stopped in the lovely cafe for cappuccino and croissants looking out at Museum Mile and Central Park.
After we looked at more Agnes Martin works enjoying the serenity her pieces elicited compared to the cacophony of emotions the cubist works by comparison brought forth.  I liked that this Canadian who’d imbibed the great forest and Pacific Ocean of BC and the endless wonder of the Saskatchewan prairies had somehow with her art brought this peace to the hustle and bustle of the New York urban scene.
We left feeling calmer more refreshed, thankful.
It had begun to drizzle so I bought Laura a very distinctive bright pink New York hat for $20 from a street vendor.  As we crossed to walk through Central Park I felt that hat would help identify the body better  should one of the many abductions and murders that occur in  New York detective stories overtake us.