The Frick Collection (5th Avenue and E. 70th Street)

Many art lovers would rather visit this small art gallery than any other in New York. Henry Clay Frick, a rich New Yorker, died in 1919, leaving his house, furniture and art collections to American people. Frick had a preference for pre-twentieth century Western paintings, and these are well-represented in this excellent collection. You can also explore Frick’s beautiful house and garden which are well worth a visit

Guggenheim Museum (5th Avenue and 88th Street)

This museum owns 5,000 excellent modern paintings, sculptures and drawings. These art works are not all displayed at the same time. The exhibition is always changing. It will appeal to those who love Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings. The Guggenheim Museum building is also world-famous. The best way to see the paintings is to start from the top floor and walk down to the bottom. There are no stairs, just a circular(环形的) path.

Metropolitan Museum of Art (5th Avenue and 82nd Street)

The reputation of this museum lies in the variety of its art collection. This covers more than 5,000 years of civilization from many parts of the world. The museum displays more than just the visual delights of art. It introduces you in ancient ways of living. You can visit an Egyptian temple, a fragrant Ming garden, a typical room in an 18th century French house and many other special exhibitions.

Whitney Museum of American Art (945 Madsion Avenue, near 75th Street)

The Whitney holds an excellent collection or contemporary American paintings and sculptures. There are no permanent displays in this museum and exhibitions change all the time. Every two years, the Whitney holds a special exhibition of new art by living artists. The museum also shows videos and films by contemporary video artists.

The 37-year-old artist, Kelly McKernan, from Nashville, Tennessee calls her works “surreal (超现实的)”. She says they are “dealing with discomfort in the human journey”. Living as an artist is difficult enough. Now McKernan faces another challenge: artificial intelligence (AI).

About a year ago, McKernan began seeing online images (图像) strangely similar to her own. She soon learned that companies were feeding artwork into AI systems to train software programs to create similar images. McKernan said, “I didn’t give my agreement for my name or works to be used this way.”

McKernan said she even tried to contact some of the companies to say “Hey, little artist here, I know you’re not thinking of me at all, but it would be really cool if you didn’t use my work like this.” But there was no answer.

In January, McKernan, and two other artists, Karla Ortiz and Sarah Andersen, started action by law against three image-generator companies: Stability AI, Stable Diffusion and Midjourney. They also included the online gallery DeviantArt in the case.

The artists are seeking to protect their copyrighted works and their careers. They say the AI image-generators violate (侵犯) the rights of millions of artists by using their artworks for training and then producing similar works that compete against the originals (原作). The artists are seeking damages and a court order to stop AI companies from using their works without being allowed.

Karla Ortiz works in the entertainment industry. Her work has been used in several well-known movies, including Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Jurassic World. She feared that film companies would think artworks from artists cost too much. Why, she asked, would film companies buy artworks from artists if they can pay $30 a month for AI-created works?

McKernan agreed: “Will I even have any work a year from now?”