Red, White, and Bored?

NEW YORK—For our museums Top 5 this month, we decided we couldn’t ignore the fast-approaching three-day holiday weekend and selected museum shows you can enjoy on a day trip out of New York City. We’ve tried to include something for all tastes — from 18th century British watercolors to contemporary sound art, and a great deal else in between. And all are easily accessible by public transportation. (If you have more time to spare, check out the stunning “El Greco to Velázquez: Art During the Reign of Philip III” at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.)

Exhibitions run the entire month of July unless otherwise noted.

1. The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum [less than 90 minutes; Metro North to Katonah, then taxi or shuttle bus]

There aren’t many museums outside of New York that are easier to get to than the Aldrich, and the people there offer a continually enterprising program. This month the fare on offer is typically diverse: among other things there’s Gary Panter’s first solo museum show; an Elizabeth Peyton photography exhibition (yes, you heard right); a wonderful interactive sound piece by Halsey Burgund that allows you to program — and contribute to — your own personal audio guide (through July 27); and Serge Spitzer’s delightfully eccentric installation of tens of thousands of custom-manufactured camouflaged tennis balls in the sculpture garden (through July 13). Get out there soon before they disappear.

2. The Parrish Art Museum [2-3 hours; take the Jitney or the Long Island Rail Road to Southampton]

Not much harder to get to than the Aldrich, the Parrish is out in sun-kissed Southampton, and their current show is based on one of those ideas that seems almost too obvious. “Sand: Memory, Meaning, and Metaphor” has been saddled with a rather over-ponderous title, but what could be more appropriate for a seaside museum than a show about sand? Alicia Longwell, the Parrish’s chief curator, has thought of pretty much everything that might mean: sand as a representational element in landscapes and seascapes, sand as a pictorial material, Joseph Cornell’s Sand Box (1942), and, perhaps most enterprising of all, an Agathe Snow performance/installation (ending July 4), and a re-creation of Alice Aycock’s legendary 1971 piece Sand/Fans. (Check the Parrish’s Web site for specific dates of these events.)  

3. Dia: Beacon [about 90 minutes; Metro North to Beacon]

We’ve already mentioned Tacita Dean’s stunning Merce Cunningham installation, but Dia:Beacon and its impressive collection of high modernist masterpieces is worth a visit at any time. Currently they are featuring some gorgeous works by John Chamberlain, Donald Judd, Joseph Beuys, and Andy Warhol, among other things, all nestled in this old cardboard box factory on the east bank of the Hudson.

4. Yale Center for British Art [less than 2 hours; Metro North to New Haven]

Perhaps it’s a little odd to highlight a show at the conclusion of its tour, but “Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection,” curated by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, is a rather special one. The Brits can’t make too many claims as far as the history of art-making is concerned, but the evolution of British watercolor painting in the 18th and 19th centuries marked an undeniable golden age, and among these 80 works you’ll find the true greats of the medium — Sandby, Cozens, Girtin, Turner, and Constable among them.

5. Storm King Art Center [about 90 minutes; once-daily bus from Port Authority via Coach USA]

The permanent collection at Storm King Art Center — a museum and 500-acre sculpture park in upstate New York — is a delight in itself, with remarkable sitings of some of the more muscular examples of modernist sculpture. But if lovely rolling hills and Mark di Suveros aren’t enough to get you out there, go for the current Sol LeWitt show (taking place both inside the museum and outdoors in the landscape). Including everything from his most austere geometrical pieces to the bizarre Splotch pieces that he made at the end of his life, this show should give a much-needed indication of just how coherent his oeuvre actually was.