All Of It’s 100 Pieces of Art

In commemoration of WNYC’s Centennial celebration, we asked experts to share their 10 favorite pieces of art they think everyone should see in New York City. Their choices ranged from major museums, street art, public sculpture, and architecture. We also asked you to share your favorite pieces throughout the series.

Scroll down to see the final list. You’ll also see a sample we put together of some of the 100 pieces we recommend you check out this summer. If you do see one of our selected pieces…send us a selfie with you and the work!

Here's a cheat sheet with some highlights from around the city. See the full list and listen to out '100 Pieces of Art' conversations below. 

Sarah Douglas, editor in chief of ArtNews

• Time Landscape, installation by Alan Sonfist at NYC Parks
• New York Earth Room, sculpture by Walter De Maria at Dia
• St. Francis in the Desert, oil on panel by Giovanni Bellini at The Frick Collection
• A Goldsmith in His Shop, oil on oak panel by Petrus Christus at The Met
• The Innocent Eye Test, oil on canvas by Mark Tansey at The Met
• Calder’s Circus, sculpture by Alexander Calder at Whitney
• The Rose, oil with fabric, string, and wood on canvas by Jay DeFeo at Whitney
• New Poetry, sculpture by Rashid Johnson at Whitney
• The Bather, oil on canvas by Paul Cézanne at MoMA
• The Football Players (Les joueurs de football), oil on canvas by Henri Rousseau at Guggenheim

Jerry Saltz, art critic for Vulture

• The Panorama of the City of New York , model by more than 100 people working for the great architectural model makers Raymond Lester & Associates at Queens Museum
• Day’s End, sculpture by David Hammons at Whitney
• Cycladic Sculpture, The Kourous and Roman Wall Painting, at The Met
• Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, oil on canvas by Pablo Picasso at MoMA
• Flag, encaustic, oil, and collage on fabric mounted on plywood, three panels by Jasper Johns at MoMA
• Different Van Gogh works in NYC, at Moma and the Met
• Christ's Entry into Journalism, ink and pencil on paper, cut-and-pasted on painted paper by Kara Walker at MoMA
• The Progress of Love, oil on canvas by Jean-Honoré Fragonard at Frick
• The High Line, public park/sculpture
• The Creation of the World and the Expulsion from Paradise, tempera and gold on wood by Giovanni di Paolo (Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia) at Met

Jackson Arn, former New Yorker Art Critic

• CVSs and grocery stores around that used to be other kinds of buildings.
• Bailey Fountain, sculpture (figures and pedestal: bronze; basin: stone; basin coping: agglomerated rocks) by Eugene F. Savage at NYC Parks
• Jefferson Market Library, architecture by Frederick Clark Withers and Calvert Vaux at NYPL
• Sculpture Garden, sculpture, landscape by Isamu Noguchi at Noguchi Museum
• Pasture, mercerized cotton by Anni Albers at Met
• Siena show, at the Met (now closed)
• Self-Portrait, oil on canvas by Leonora Carrington at the Met
• Migration Series, casein tempera on hardboard by Jacob Lawrence at MoMA
• Le Moulin de la Galette, oil on canvas by Pablo Picasso at Guggenheim
• St. Francis in the Desert, oil on panel by Giovanni Bellini at The Frick

Glenn Ligon, artist

• Day's End, by David Hammons at Hudson River Park
• Atopolis: For Édouard Glissant and Pirate (Untitled II) , acrylic on canvas, 8 panels by Jack Whitten, and Willem de Kooning respectively, at MoMA
• Shadows, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas by Andy Warhol at Dia Beacon
• The Entire Met, by at The Met
• Edges of Ailey at the Whitney, at Whitney (now closed)
• Art at La Guardia Airport Terminal C (multiple pieces), by Mariam Ghani, Rashid Johnson, Aliza Nisenbaum, Virginia Overton, Ronny Quevedo, and Fred Wilson at La Guardia Airport
• Martin Wong graffiti collection , aerosols by many (Martin Wong, collector) at Museum of the City of NY
• Mural, ink and acrylic on canvas by Julie Mehretu at Goldman Sachs
• Sunken Garden, by Isamu Noguchi at Chase Manhattan Bank Plaza
• Red Cube, by Isamu Noguchi at 140 Broadway in Manhattn
• Chase Information Wall, 429 TVs, computers, DVD players and cable TV by Nam June Paik at MetroTech Center
• The Open Secret, sculpture, bronze by Houston Eugene Conwill at MTA
• Give Us a Poem, black PVC and white neon by Glenn Ligon at Studio Museum

Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator at The Studio Museum of Harlem

• American People Series #20: Die , oil on canvas, two panels by Faith Ringgold at MoMA
• Woman with Bouquet , oil on canvas by Laura Wheeler Waring at Brooklyn Museum
• A short play about watching shadows move across the room, mural by Caroline Kent at Queens Museum
• Charles, oil on canvas by Jordan Casteel at Hill Art Foundation
• Pass Carry Hold: Studio Museum in Harlem Artists-in-Residence 2023–24, by Sonia Louise Davis, Malcolm Peacock, and Zoë Pulley at MoMA PS1, Studio Museum (no longer on view)
• Mars Dust , acrylic on canvas by Alma Thomas at Whitney
• Earth & Sky, meteorite, bronze, resin lettering, iron patina by Lorna Simpson at Hauser and Wirth (no longer on view)
• Steve McQueen (solo exhibiton only on view through July '25), by Steve McQueen at Dia Chelsea
• Flight Into Egypt, FreedomEx, oil on canvas by Henry Ossawa Tanner and Lauren Halsey respectively, previously showing at the Met
• Narokan, aluminum, light bulbs, and plastic laminate by Tom Lloyd at Studio Museum

Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief and co-founder of Hyperallergic

• The Horse Fair, oil on canvas by Rosa Bonheur at Met
• Keith Haring Mural, mural by Keith Haring at Woodhull Hospital Medical Center
• Temperance Fountain, sculpture by Bertel Thorvaldsen at NYC Parks
• Column of Jerash, marble by Unknown at NYC Parks
• Arshile Gorky: New York City, n/a by Arshile Gorky at Hauser and Wirth (no longer on view)
• What Then Remainz, disassembled wall(s), powder-coated steel, steel screws. dimensions variable. by Duane Linklater at NYU’s 80WSE gallery
• Ralph Ellison Memorial, sculpture by Elizabeth Catlett at NYC Parks
• Assyrian Art, at Brooklyn Museum
• Sculpture of Albert Bertel Thorvaldsen, bronze, danish granite by Albert B Thorvaldsen at NYC Parks
• Toynbee Tiles, adhesive patches, possibly by James Morasco at various locations

Will Heinrich, New York Times art critic

• Broadway Boogie Woogie, oil on canvas by Piet Mondrian at MoMA
• Crucifix, wood with polychromy by unknown North Italian artist at The Met
• Winged hero brandishing sword and grasping ostrich , grey marble by unknown Southern Mesopotamian artist, at Morgan Library
• The Stettheimer Dollhouse, by Carrie Stettheimer at Museum of the City of New York
• Cycladic Art (series of statues), sculpture by Cycladic sculptors at The Met
• Suido Bridge and Surugadai (Suidobashi Surugadai), No. 48 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo , woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige at Brooklyn Museum
• New York Subway Station, mosaic, glass tile by Edith Kramer at MTA
• 32 Avenue of the Americas, architecture by Ralph Thomas Walker at Midtown South
• Patterns exhibit, by multiple artists at Luhring Augustin (no longer on view)
• Pat’s Imperfect Present Tense, by Pat Oleszko at David Peter Francis (no longer on view)

Jaime Rojo and Steven P. Harrington, co-founders of Brooklyn Street Art

• Big Apple Invader, by Invader at 322 W. 14th Street
• Bird Mural, by Roa at Albert Garden building
• Dogs on a Wire, screen print image of a sneaker on wood, sculpted into sneaker shape, thrown up on electrical wires, by Skewville, duo made up of brothers Ed and Drew at various locations
• Hammer Boy, by Banksy at 233 W 79th St
• Love Me, Love Me Not, mural by a duo known as FAILE at The Greenest Point project
• Radiant Madonna, mural by Owen Dippie at 362 Jefferson Street, Brooklyn
• Rock On to the Break of Dawn Part 1 and Part 2, mural by OSGEMEOS, They're twins, Octavio and Gustavo at W. 14th Street
• Wild Things, mosaic by Fred Tomaselli at MTA
• Memorial to Yusuf Hawkins, mural by by Floyd Sapp and retouched by Gabriel Specter at Fulton Street and Verona Place in Brooklyn

Eileen Jeng Lynch, Bronx Museum Director of Curatorial Programs

• Beacons, glass mosaic by Rico Gatson at MTA
• Double Dutch (La Freeda, Jevette, Towana, and Staice), oil on fiberglass by John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres at The Broad Collection
• Aerosol Aesthetics, by Futura 2000 at Bronx Museum
• Holding Space (for Candida Alvarez, my friend), by Saya Woolfalk at Museum of Arts and Design
• For Beryl Wright, ink and screenprint on gessoed fiberglass by Lorna Simpson at The Met
• Everything #4 , oval mirror with gold leaf engraved text in mahogany frame by Adrian Piper at The Met
• Jungle, Jungle, torn-and-pasted paper and string on canvas by Mark Bradford at MoMA
• Cihuateotl with Hand Mirror from Venus Envy Chapter III: Cihuatlampa, the Place of the Giant Women, / Big Heat, rug, mirror, shells, glass beads, paint, styrofoam, and sound / acrylic on linen by Amalia Mesa-Bains/Martin Wong at The Whitney
• Something Borrowed, Something Blue, / We just wanted to have a rowboat in the room, and now there is and In the world through which I travel, I endlessly create myself , dye-sublimation on aluminum by Jean Shin / David Rios Ferreira's Percent for Art Project at Brooklyn Public Library (BK Heights) / NY Public Library (Hunts Point)

Sarah Cho, Queens Museum Assistant Curator

• The Panorama of the City of New York, model by more than 100 people working for the great architectural model makers Raymond Lester & Associates at Queens Museum
• Maquette of Lift Every Voice and Sing (The Harp), bonded bronze, by Augusta Savage at NYPL (Art and Artifacts Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture)
• Exodus and Dance, frieze sculpture by Richmond Barthé at Kingsborough Houses, Public Art
• News (Associated Press Building Plaque), stainless steel by Isamu Noguchi at 50 Rockefeller Plaza
• Funktional Vibrations , mosaic by Xenobia Bailey at MTA
• Spiral for Shared Dreams, nylon, polypropylene, hemp, dye, and metal by Carolina Caycedo at MoMA
• Selfless in the Bath of Lava, video installation by Pipilotti Rist at MoMA PS1
• Close Readings, four-channel video installation, color, no audio, 25:53 min., looped by Christine Sun Kim at Whitney
• Cobalt Blue, ceramic by Toshiko Takaezu at Museum of Arts and Design
• New Beginnings, fawn hide, brain tanned buckskin, velvet, gunmetal hardware, mother of pearl, czech & vintage german beads, moose & dyed deer hair, moose & whitetail antler by Hayden Haynes and Samantha Jacobs at Brooklyn Museum