“Snow, chicken wings, and lost Super Bowls. Those are the things most people associate with Buffalo.” That’s what one particular Buffalonian lamented to I Love New York when we traveled there this March. Granted, the conversation took place over a plate of wings while a foot of snow lay on the ground outside after a season in which the Bills didn’t even make the playoffs—but the man had a point. After a week surveying everything the city has to offer, one might easily replace “snow, chicken wings, and lost Super Bowls” with “art, culture, and architecture.” And, yes, this is Buffalo we’re talking about.
Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscaping genius behind Central and Prospect Parks in New York City, once declared Buffalo “the best planned city in America,” thanks to its radial system of tree-lined avenues, modeled on Washington, D.C. Into that well-planned city, Olmsted wove the nation’s very first coordinated system of parks, as unique and significant in their own way as Olmsted’s creations in New York City. And if you follow one of those tree-lined thoroughfares out from the center of town, past the mansions of Millionaire’s Row and through the thriving Elmwood Village neighborhood of shops and restaurants, you’ll find yourself at the crown jewel of Olmsted’s park system, Delaware Park. And at the tip of Delaware Park, you’ll find the crown jewel of Buffalo culture, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.
Founded in 1862, the Albright-Knox has grown to where it can rightly claim its status as one of the top contemporary art museums in the world. Thanks to a tradition of forward-thinking curators and directors, Albright-Knox arrived at its international status without the same endowments or advantages of larger museums in bigger cities. “We have always collected the art of our time, primarily,” museum representative Cheryl Orlick said while taking us on a special tour. “There was never enough money to buy old masters. But if you keep acquiring the work of the artists of the day, you’re going to keep growing.”
And she’s right. Even a brief survey of the works in the permanent collection shows that most of them were acquired mere months after they were produced by the then-emerging artists. “In many cases we were right on the cutting edge,” she says, pointing out a Matisse that was finished in 1939 and acquired just the following year. “We hope to maintain that momentum and that reputation.”
Walking through its galleries is less like the full-on, five-course meal one gets at the Met or the Smithsonian. It’s more like a tasting menu. “You can go through in just an hour or two and get a nice overview and not feel like you do when you go to the Met and you just can’t breathe after a couple of rooms,” Orlick says. Instead of a roomful of Monets, here there is one Monet, carefully chosen for its particular style and statement. The same goes for Picasso, Van Gogh, Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko, and every major figure of the modern era. Many of the collection’s works bring to light a different side of an artist, like an abstract Georgia O’Keefe painting that is unlike any of her more traditional paintings.
The nimble, agile collecting style of the museum’s board and benefactors has made for a unique experience. Adding to the eclectic nature of the permanent collection is an array of contemporary and avant-garde work, both new acquisitions and traveling exhibitions, that are alternately accessible and challenging, and always evolving. In fact, the rotating showcase of the gallery’s collection is aptly titled REMIX—the curator as deejay, offering up a sample of sights and sensations that all work together.
To understand the real range of what Buffalo gives to both its inhabitants and its visitors, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery is a fine place to start. It’s one of the cornerstones of the city’s rich cultural heritage, a heritage that includes several landmark Frank Lloyd Wright homes, including the famous Darwin Martin House Complex, which you’ll find just around the corner. On Friday evenings, the Albright-Knox museum waives its $10 admission fee, offering music, readings, and films that are open to the public. With the student population at Buffalo State filtering in from next door and young professionals stopping by after a long week of work, the vibe is decidedly upbeat and hip. Out in the warm summer sun of the sculpture garden, the gallery restaurant, Muse, serves drinks and cuisine as eclectic as the art on the walls. There isn’t an inch of snow on the ground, no one is talking about football, and chicken wings aren’t even on the menu.
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