The Rockefeller Estate - Art Gallery

With the Grand Tour, you also get to tour the basement Modern Art Gallery.  Actually, the basement was extended by making a long hallway beneath the linden tree allee (lined with Guastavino tiles no less).  We were running short on time at this point, so we didn't dilly dally much.  It was hard to keep up with the number of pieces of art and who did what in this gallery.

 A place to relax and enjoy the art!

This piece was transferred from another part of the house and is about the only piece in this museum that isn't modern art.  I love it though because I am more of a Romantic!

This modern art piece is made from canvas bags and fire hoses.  We can't remember the artist's name.

We can't remember who made this piece either but I do remember our guide telling us that this was a sculpture of the artist's wife in the shower.  I believe it was called "Woman in the Shower."

This is Happy, Nelson Rockefeller's second wife, done by Andy Worhol.  There were several pieces by him in the gallery.

I really liked this piece but I can't remember who painted it.  I do remember that it was the first painting that this artist did and that Nelson Rockfeller purchased it before it was even completed.  It was quite a coup for the artist.

At the end of the modern art hallway is his room of custom made Picasso tapestries. Nelson loved tapestries, and he loved Picassos, so he commissioned a weaver to make super-sized tapestries of several Picasso paintings.   I don't think we got a picture of all of them.  Our Guide told us that Governor Rockeller commissioned these tapestries as Picasso would not make copies of any of his original paintings.  Picasso did agree with Rockeller's urgings to make tapestries of some of his original works.  Nelson thought he would have the only copy of these tapestries when they were completed, however, Picasso made a tapestry for himself and for the person that did the weaving.  When Governor Rockefeller figured that out, he just said "That Picasso is quite a negotiator!"   I believe that John D. Rockefeller had 18 tapestries made and some of them grace this art museum and others are in other major art museums around the world.

Maybe I'm crazy but I really liked these Picasso pieces and probably enjoyed them more as huge wall tapestries!

Our next stop on this terrific tour of Kykuit is the gardens!