Travel Review: Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York

Who said you have to be in Manhattan to experience culture? A hidden gem of an art museum exists only 30 minutes from northwest Bergen County, New Jersey and Rockland County, New York. The Neuberger Museum of Art at Purchase College at the State University of New York is an enjoyable way to spend a few hours, without the high cost of traveling into Manhattan.

The Neuberger Museum of Art is located on the SUNY Purchase campus (Westchester County), 10 minutes north of White Plains, New York and 10 minutes south of Greenwich, Connecticut, Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for seniors over 62, $3 for students and free for children 12 and under.

The Neuberger Museum of Art houses 5 exhibits on two floors. I first visited the African Arts and Culture room. This exhibit included wooden masks and cultural handmade items from the African regions of Western Sudan, Guinea Coast, Central Africa and the Congo.

The handmade wooden sculptures were detailed and colorful. Included in the collection are masks, headgear, wall art, statues and personal storage boxes for cosmetics. Intricate hand woven skirts and funeral costumes rounded out the collection.

The next stop was an exhibit named "British Subjects: Identity and Self-Fashioning - 1967-2009. The theme of this room is to show the changes of British society in the late twentieth century. The British exhibit included mostly photography with a few oil paintings.

The most interesting British piece was a triptych of photographer Janine Antoni's parents (Mom and Dad) in which the first picture depicted her father sitting next to her mother, who was dressed up as her father. The middle portrait was of her father dressed up as her mother sitting next to her mother dressed up as her father. The last picture was of her mother sitting next to her father dressed up as her mother. You can see the work by clicking here.

The British Subjects exhibit contained many racy, punk type photos which can be considered questionable for young children. Some of the pictures had nude subjects.

We then moved on to the room which houses the ongoing exhibit called: "Recent Additions to the Neuberger Collection". This is an eclectic gathering of different art forms by contemporary North American artists. The highlight of this room is Taylor McKimen's Truck, a life sized three dimensional drawing put together in the shape of a truck (click here to view the piece).

The last stop was the ongoing exhibit named 'Reframing American Art: Selections from the Roy R. Neuberger Collection". This collection took up the entire second floor and included paintings from such famous artists as Jackson Pollack, Georgia O'Keeffe and Edward Hopper.

A highlight of the American Art collection was the piece titled Number 8, 1949, by Jackson Pollack. The medium is oil, enamel, and aluminum paint on canvas. The colors used are silver, black, burnt orange and green. Click here to see the painting.

The Neuberger Art Museum is an impressive collection which encompasses 78,000 square feet on the SUNY Purchase campus. The museum houses over 5,000 works at a time. It's a great alternative for enjoying art without the effort involved in traveling into Manhattan.