The Newark Museum, Newark NJ

Recently Karen and I stopped at the Newark Museum (opens in separate window) while we were visiting family in the NYC area.

What a Treat!

The Sport of Life and Death

Currently, there is a terrific exhibit about Mesoamerican ball games. But, you better get there pronto because it will leave after 12/29/2002.

 

Ballplayer Wearing Deer Headdress, Late Classic Period, Maya, A.D. 700-900, Mexico, Campeche, Jaina Island, Pottery with blue pigment, 9.8x3x3.9 in., Hudson Museum, University of Maine, William P. Palmer III Collection

Cylinder Vessel with Ballplayers, Late Classic Period, Maya A.D. 700 - 900, Mexico, Northern Yucatán, pottery, 6.7 x 6 in., The Bowers Museum of Cultural Art

 

It was a revelation to discover that the ballgame was played with a rubber ball. The Indians discovered that they could vulcanize the latex sap of the indigenous rubber tree with some herbs. The exhibit even includes a ball that was preserved in a swamp.

Picturing America:
The New American Art Galleries

 

Joseph Stella 
Voice of the City of New York Interpreted, 1920-22

 
(from left to right)

  • The Battery (The Port) 
  • The Great White Way Leaving the Subway (White Way I) 
  • The Prow (The Skyscrapers) 
  • Broadway (White Way II) 
  • The Brooklyn Bridge (The Bridge)


Oil and tempera on canvas 
Five panels 
Purchase 1936 Thomas L. Raymond Bequest Fund 
37.288 

The museum lays out a history of American art on two floors of the musuem. None of the exhibits provide more than a handful of examples for each of the themes portrayed. Nevertheless the choices are characteristic and well-suited. For a brief tour through American art this really hits the mark.

If you take a side trip to the museum's web site (opens in separate window) you will discover that there is lots more to do and see. Science, astronomy, stuff for kids throughout and a Victorian mansion. There is also a spacious seating area for refreshments located in a central courtyard near the main entrance.

Even though admission is FREE, you should stuff some bucks in the donation bucket. Like a lot of smaller museums, this one is filled with goodies and it doesn't exhaust you like a trip to the Met.

To find \The Newark Museum, follow the signs for Art from Rte 280 off the NJ Turnpike. Parking is readily available on the street of in a lot.

(All pictures and descriptive text borrowed without permission from the museum's website)

12/3/2002