New York, New York!

[mojosmom]

I finally got all my NYC photos onto iPhoto and edited, and a bunch uploaded to Flickr.

New York was, as always, great. I had good weather the entire time I was there, only a bit hot at times. (As a result, I ate outside a lot. So many of the restaurants have outdoor dining, which I think is an excellent thing.) I got in a bit later than expected, but not too bad, hopped the bus, and then the subway, to the hotel, and after a bit of a rest headed to the Javits Center for a couple of hours at Book Expo, acquiring a couple of review copies in the process.

The Book Blogger Convention the next day was rather fun. A good spread for breakfast and lunch, and, with the exception of a rather unfocused keynote speaker, the speakers and panelists were interesting. More books in the goodie bag. (What with these books, various exhibition catalogues and other acquisitions, I ended up paying a visit to the nearest post office to my hotel and shipping a box home. Thank goodness for media mail!)

Saturday was rather a Japanese day! I went to Takashimaya, which was in the last days before closing (so sad!), so they didn't have much left and what they did have was still far too expensive, even at huge discounts. Then I went to Minamoto Kitchoan, which specializes in wagashi, Japanese sweets. I bought one for myself for a snack, and some green tea as a present for Cathy. After that, I headed to the Japan Society for the exhibit Graphic Heroes, Magic Monsters: Japanese Prints by Utagawa Kinoyoshi from the Arthur R. Miller Collection. A tour was starting about forty-five minutes after my arrival, so I went through about half the show and then joined the tour. It's a stunning exhibit. Kuniyoshi was one of the first ukiyo-e artists to use a large, overarching element to join the parts of his triptychs, and they had some great examples. I wish photos had been allowed! But here's an image I found of one of my favorites, Mitsukuni defies the skeleton spectre conjured up by Princess Takiyasha. He did demons really well! I did succumb to the catalogue, and sat for a bit enjoying their lovely interior garden:



I was headed to the theatre that night to see The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity. (New Yorkers: you still have until June 20 to see this at Second Stage!) Still great, and I was third row center, so much closer to the action than when I saw it in Chicago. And it was terribly exciting to walk to the theatre and see a HUGE billboard with my friend Eddie's name on it! The audience seemed to really likely, particularly the woman behind me, who clearly knew her wrestling. It's so nice to have been even a tiny part of this success (which may get even bigger . . .).

Sunday I spent almost the entire day at the Cloisters. I hadn't been there in ages, and it's probably one of my favorite places in the city. Even though it was "family day" and there were scads of kids and parents, it still had its usual serenity:


And all that lovely medieval art! It's a period that I like very much, the fantastic stone carvings, the colors of the illuminated manuscripts, the flamboyant demons. Marvelous stuff. I just loved this image of Joseph from the Annunciation Triptych, there in his carpenter's shop with all those tools:


Monday I went to the Met and, as always, spent quite a bit of time there. First to the exhibit, The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry. The book has been disbound and the pages displayed, for the most part, so that both sides can be seen. Magnifying glasses were provided, which was a great help in seeing detail, some of which is quite astonishing, such as the floral detail in some of the gold leaf decorations. The exhibit included a number of decorative objects from the same period, showing the relationship between various art forms.

Naturally, I went to the Costume Institute exhibit, American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity, the first drawn from the new Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Met. (There's a related exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, on which more later.) It was a good exhibit, the clothes displayed in period settings, though I hated the goofy Julien d'Ys wigs they put on the mannequins. Gorgeous Worth gowns and Liberty evening cloaks (I think there were Fortuny gowns under the cloaks, but there was no information about them), Poiret, Callot Soeurs, Mme. Grès - one has to think that this "American" identity was heavily influenced by the French!

Sort of breezed through the Picasso exhibit. The Met must have about a gazillion, and it was a bit overwhelming. I really wanted to see an exhibit in the Asian Galleries, so went there only to find this:


So I went up to the roof instead, to see Big Bambú:

and enjoy the weather and the view. I had a quick lunch at the American Wing Café and then went to check out the Design Highlights, and the French Art Deco exhibit. Oh, my gosh, there is this incredible mural designed for the Normandie, completely awesome:


Back to the Met on Tuesday, to see the Asian galleries. (I did not pay their "suggested" admission again!) On the bus, two young Asian women go ton and did not have change. (NYC buses don't even take singles.) A whole slew of people got involved, changing their five for singles and singles for quarters, and explaining the transit system to them, advising on transfers, etc. One much older lady who was sitting across from them instructed them in the ways of the world, or at least travel in a strange part of it. I'm sure they went home with no stories of "rude" New Yorkers!

It was definitely worth going back, as there were a couple of very good exhibits of Chinese and Japanese art, as well as the usual wonderful permanent collections. I also noticed in the list of gallery talks one on color perception, given by one of the museum's scientists, so I joined that, and it was quite interesting, indeed. She talked about how the use of color and luminosity affects how we perceive paintings, and also how our ability to perceive color and light changes as we age. I also stopped by the Temple of Dendur. It seems people have always been vandals:


Then off to the Grolier Club, for the Designer Bookbinders International Competition Bound for Success exhibit. The entrants bound a specially commissioned book, Water, an illustrated anthology of poems on the subject in several languages. One of my favorites was this one, which uses clear resin to imitate water droplets:


That evening, I went down to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum for one of their "Tenement Talks", Jane Ziegelman talking about her new book, 97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement. She talked primarily about her sources, and, though it sounded as though most were "outsdier" sources, such as reports from government and social workers, in the Q&A she did say that fiction by "insiders" was actually a much richer source of information. There was a bit of a brouhaha during the Q&A, as two ladies disputed whether there was really a difference between Irish and English cooking.

Wednesday, I went to the Brooklyn Museum and the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. The BM's costume exhibit, American High Style: Fashioning a National Collection , was head and shoulders over the Met's. (Why it's the "Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Met".) The lighting was better, there were no "sets" to distract from the clothing, and there were lots and lots of accessories - shoes, hats, etc. (The Met show had very few, and those they did have were unattributed.) There was a Schiaparelli suit with buttons like pianos that I'd wear in a hot minute.

Lots of other good things, but a highlight was the Luce Center for American Art Visible Storage/Study Center. Case after case with a variety of objects sorted by type, identified only by accession nunber. There are computers available, and you can enter the accession number and get more info on the objects. Fun! The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art had an exhibit of work by Kiki Smith, Sojourn, inspired by an 18th-century silk needlework and exploring ideas about the journey from childhood to death.

The exhibit included large pieces she did and placed in a couple of the Museum's period rooms.

Then out into the sunshine to enjoy the Botanic Gardens. It was, in fact, almost too hot for walking around, but, gosh, there were some beautiful flowers:

(Don't eat this; it's foxglove and it's poisonous.)

Had dinner with greedyreader. We had Italian food, and good conversation. Great combination!

Next day, I went to the Morgan Library. Well, not actually the Library, because that's closed for renovations, but the Museum had some fine exhibits. I particularly enjoyed Palladio and His Legacy: A Transatlantic Journey, with not only his drawings, but models and bas-reliefs of his designs, and well as those of people like Thomas Jefferson who were influenced by him. There were also exhibits of work by Albrecht Durer, and one called Romantic Gardens: Nature, Art, and Landscape Design, about how the romantic movement influenced landscape design.

I'm getting tired just reading this, so I think I'll do the rest (mostly reunion stuff) later.

Comments

[skyring.livejournal.com]

Wow!!!!

You sure know how to pack in the good stuff!

[greedyreader.livejournal.com]

You certainly kept busy. :)

[thebiblioholic.livejournal.com]

I got tired just reading all that.

[alphabetsalad]

What an amazing visit!