Culture

Art collector Ronald Lauder and exhibition organiser Serge Sabarsky enjoyed a 30-year friendship and a shared love for modern German and Austrian art. Following Sabarsky’s death in 1996, Lauder decided to turn their passion into a reality and established the Neue Gallery in the beautiful William Starr Miller mansion on the edge of Central Park. It opened in 2001.

“Everything from the paintings on our walls to the objects in our design shop to the strudel in Café Sabarsky is meant to evoke the worlds of Austria and Germany in the early 20th century,” says museum director Renée Price. Inside grandiose rooms – all wood panelling and marble fireplaces – exhibitions have featured everything from war posters to paintings by Gustav Klimt’s protégé Egon Schiele. 

This whitewashed industrial art space was built on the founding principles of Aperture, a quarterly that was launched in San Francisco by a small group of photographers in 1952. The historic magazine is now published within the Chelsea gallery’s walls and acts as a backbone for the non-profit foundation, which sets out to “communicate with serious photographers and creative people everywhere”. 

The Aperture gallery not only hosts classic and contemporary exhibitions but lectures and discussions too. There are workshops for photography professionals as well as those who just love the medium. The bookshop features the imprint’s publications – from Diane Arbus chronologies to Paul Strand monographs – highlighting the foundation’s involvement in ensuring photography’s rightful prominence in the art scene. 

It was a bold move when the Whitney decided to up sticks and move from its refined Upper East Side home to the Meatpacking District. But few will now disagree that the decision was anything short of a triumph. The “stacked units” feel of Renzo Piano’s modernist building is intriguing enough. Then there are the outdoor balconies blessed with both artwork and excellent views of the Hudson River. And that’s before we’ve mentioned the indoor galleries that are jam-packed with pieces by such greats as Edward Hopper and Andy Warhol.