The Cloisters, Fort Tryon Park, Manhattan

Image: The Cloisters, Fort Tryon Park, Manhattan
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Finally paid a visit to The Cloisters, the branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. The Cloisters is literally a 10 minute walk from my accommodations, and I’m glad I went there. It houses the most amazing collection of art from medieval Europe, dating from about the ninth to the fifteenth century.

The building itself was assembled from architectural elements that date from the twelfth through the fifteenth century. The structure and its cloistered gardens are treasures in themselves, and perfectly complement the approximately five thousand works of art housed there. The collection at The Cloisters is complemented by more than six thousand objects exhibited in several galleries on the first floor of The Met’s main building on Fifth Avenue. The collection at the main building displays a broader geographical and temporal range, while the focus at The Cloisters is on the Romanesque and Gothic periods. Renowned for its architectural sculpture, The Cloisters also rewards visitors with exquisite illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, metalwork, enamels, ivories, and tapestries. [Source: The Cloisters website...]

Image: Floor plan of the main Cloisters building

Located on four acres overlooking the Hudson River in northern Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park, the building incorporates elements from five medieval French cloisters—quadrangles enclosed by a roofed or vaulted passageway, or arcade—and from other monastic sites in southern France.

Three of the cloisters reconstructed at the branch museum feature gardens planted according to horticultural information found in medieval treatises and poetry, garden documents and herbals, and medieval works of art, such as tapestries, stained-glass windows, and column capitals.

I must say, not having a map of the floor plan during my visit made the experience of exploring The Cloisters and interesting one, in that it felt like I was walking through a rabbit warren of old passageways, dark subterranean vaults, and hidden rooms. This was especially the case when examining the exhibitions in The Treasury section of The Cloisters. Housed on a floor beneath the main building, the Treasury is particularly dark and sparsely lit, presumably to help protect the precious works of art on display there from deteriorating any further than they already have. It is for this reason too that flash photography is prohibited, as well as the touching of any sculpture or stonework.

Image: The Unicorn in Captivity

I have a book about the folklore of unicorns back home in Australia, and the image seen here of The Unicorn in Captivity is in that book (as are several of the other unicorn tapestries in the Cloisters collection). I had no idea the original tapestry was hanging in The Cloisters and was delighted to see this work as it should be seen – hanging as it might have been hundreds of years ago in a castle somewhere in medieval Europe.

Of course, the image does not do the original work justice at all. Dating from around 1495–1505, and ‘standing’ some 3.6 metres high and 2.5 metres across, The Unicorn in Captivity is a stunning work, woven in fine wool and silk with silver and gilded threads that vividly depict this elusive, magical creature.

There are seven individual hangings known as "The Unicorn Tapestries," in the Cloisters collection, and these are among the most beautiful and complex works of art from the late Middle Ages that survive. However, it is thought that The Unicorn in Captivity may have been created as a single image rather than part of the collection in The Cloisters or any other series of tapestries depicting unicorns.

Daily Garden Tours
The Cloisters museum has an extensive program of guided tours and talks scheduled throughout the summer. In addition to exploring the beautiful Cuxa, Bonnefont, and Trie gardens, these hour-long tours highlight botanical motifs in works of art. Garden Tours are offered at 1:00 p.m., Tuesdays through Sundays, and are free with Museum admission. Read more about medieval plants and the gardens of The Cloisters on the official blog, The Medieval Garden Enclosed.

Address:
99, Margaret Corbin Drive
Fort Tryon Park, New York
Ph: 212-923-3700
Hours:
Monday: Closed
March--October: Tuesday to Sunday: 9:30am to 5:15pm
November to February: Tuesday to Sunday: 9:30am to 4:45pm
Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day

Admission
There is a recommended admission fee of: Adults $20; Seniors (65 and older) $15; and Students $10. This includes same-day admission to the main Metropolitan Museum of Art building on Fifth Avenue. Members of The Met enter free as do children under 12 (when accompanied by an adult). There is no extra charge for entrance to special exhibitions.

However, having arrived at The Cloisters 90 minutes before closing time, I was clearly never going to visit the main Museum building ‘on the same day’. I mentioned this to the cashier and she seemed happy to accept my contribution of $10.

If was to make one recommendation to The Met, it would be to extend the ‘same-day admission’ offer to at least two days, since a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue would easily absorb a full day. Trying to visit The Met and The Cloisters in one day would be exhausting and only help diminish the pleasures to be had from devoting as much time as possible to the magnificent collections in both buildings.

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Images courtesy of The Cloisters website...

American Museum of Natural History

~ Image: Just like being there – diorama featuring a White Sheep in the AMNH

“The American Museum of Natural History is one of the world's preeminent scientific and cultural institutions. Since its founding in 1869, the Museum has advanced its global mission to discover, interpret and disseminate information about human cultures, the natural world and the universe through a wide-ranging program of scientific research, education and exhibition.” [Source: AMNH website]

Today was my second visit to the museum, and I spent a good 4-5 hours there, and that was without visiting any of the special exhibitions on offer, the Rose Center for Earth and Space, or any of the other special attractions which require a separate entry fee.

As with my previous visit in 2008, I was again fascinated by the many stunning diorama’s within the museum. As saddening as it is to see the variety and beauty of the magnificent animals now encased behind glass, the diorama’s are beautifully presented, and leave visitors with the impression that the settings for each creature are as close to their natural environment as you could hope for – short of being there yourself. But then, do you really want to be standing a few feet from a live grizzly bear, or family of wart hogs?

Pity the Poor Passenger Pigeon
~ Image: The Passenger Pigeon

Take a good look at the image on the left while you contemplate the question: Is there anything on the planet more stupid than humans?

The image shows a number of Passenger Pigeons (Ectopistes migratorius – for the scientifically inclined), behind glass at the museum. Signage next to the exhibition states in part: "The Passenger Pigeon was once the most abundant bird in North America. The naturalist Alexander Wilson, in 1808 estimated that a Kentucky flock numbered 2,230,000,000 birds. “

No, that is not a typo. Wilson estimated the number of birds on this one flock at over 2.2 billion!

The signage goes on to add that according to Alexander Wilson: “This flock filled the sky from horizon to horizon and took four hours to pass a given point."

Unfortunately, the pigeons nested in huge colonies, making it easy for hunters to slaughter them in vast numbers. They were sold for as little as a penny each in New York City, and were even fed to pigs. A hundred years after Wilson recorded his observations, the Passenger Pigeon was extinct in the wild, with the last captive bird dying in 1914.

I ask again, Is there anything on the planet more stupid than humans?

And to think, that the early European settlers in the United States, almost wiped out the bison as well.

Free iPhone Application
~ Image: Screen shot of the AMNH’s free Explorer iPhone app

If you are an iPhone user, before you visit the American Museum of Natural History you may want to download and install the museum’s free Explorer application which contains maps of each floor and the exhibitions on those floors; using GPS you can see where you are within the building, and the app even guides you to exhibitions or displays you particularly want to see; it also comes with pre-loaded tours, and gives you the ability to create your own custom tours, and much more.

Best of all, you can use the Museum’s free WiFi service to navigate your way around the building thereby saving your own bandwidth allocation.

As you might imagine, the most popular areas of the Museum are the galleries housing the dinosaur exhibits. These were packed with children and teens, their parents or carers, and were generally of little interest to me, although I did push my way through the crush of bodies on the way to other parts of the building.

Current exhibitions include Race to The End of The Earth (through until January 2, 2011), which examines the race between the Briton, Robert Scott and the Norwegian, Roald Amundsen to be the first to reach the South Pole; and Traveling The Silk Road (closing August 15, 2010), an exhibition that maps "...the greatest trading route in history - the legendary Silk Road."

If you have half a day to devote to it, the American Museum of Natural History is a fascinating place to visit – with or without children in tow. I’m sure you will come away with a greater appreciation of the vast biodiversity that holds this planet together, and the importance of our place as custodians of that biodiversity.

Summer Stage: Gil Scott-Heron

Image: Screen shot from the video for I'm New Here

The first time I heard Gil Scott-Heron was back in the early 1970s. At the time I was staying in a Youth Hostel in Paris. While many of the fine details are now lost to my ageing memory, I can still remember with absolute clarity, sitting in the lounge of the hostel one day, chilling out while music boomed over the in-house audio system.

At some point, this incredible piece of music began playing. It was unlike anything I had ever heard before. A mix of jazz and funk. A voice that was at once angry, insistent, and compelling. A voice that demanded attention as the performer spat out words to a poem which contained the recurring line/refrain, "the revolution will not be televised..."

The revolution will not be televised
You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and
Skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions...
© Copyright, Gil Scott-Heron

On and on went the voice, for what seemed much longer than the few minutes the song took to play through. I sat hypnotized by what seemed like the perfect mixture of form, rhythm, lyrics, and a performance by a man who clearly believed every word his was reciting. It was probably a year or more before I heard the piece again, confirming the name of the song, and before I finally found out who the performer was.

Gil Scott-Heron (born April 1, 1949) is an American poet, musician, and author known primarily for his late 1970s and early 1980s work as a spoken word performer and his collaborative soul works with musician Brian Jackson. His collaborative efforts with Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz, blues and soul music, as well as lyrical content concerning social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles by Scott-Heron. The music of these albums, most notably Pieces of a Man and Winter in America in the early 1970s, influenced and helped engender later African-American music genres such as hip hop and neo soul. Scott-Heron's recording work is often associated with black militant activism and has received much critical acclaim for one of his most well-known compositions The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. On his influence, Allmusic wrote "Scott-Heron's unique proto-rap style influenced a generation of hip-hop artists". [Source: Wikipedia...]
Last night, Gil Scott-Heron performed in Harlem’s Marcus Garvey Park, as part of the Summer Stage series of free open air concerts currently being held around New York City.

Gil didn’t perform The Revolution Will Not Be Televised last night, but he did enthrall an appreciative crowd of several thousand people with a 90 minute selection of songs from his new album, I’m New Here, and a number of classic songs from his recording career including Pieces of A Man and The Bottle.

It was a great performance from a man who, quite frankly, has not aged well. As little as three years ago, Scott-Heron was doing time in New York’s infamous Riker’s Island prison for cocaine possession. He looks ten years older than his 61 years. And yet. And yet, Gil Scott-Heron still has it. If his voice was any lower – it would be gravel. He still knows how to command a stage, and the audience was not there to see the last gasp of a great poet, songwriter, and author, but to see a man reborn.

As he sings in the title song of his new album, I’m New Here:

No matter how far wrong you’ve gone,
You can always turn around.

I’ve embedded the official video for his latest album, I’m New Here so you can see this great artist for yourself. The guitarist is Pat Sullivan.



Even now, over 30 years since I first heard it, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised still has ability to stop me in my tracks and distract me from whatever it is I am doing.

Click here to read more about Gil Scott-Heron and view the full lyrics to The Revolution...

You may also need to refer to this page on Wikipedia to help put many of the references in The Revolution Will Not Be Televised in context.

Finally, searching for Gil Scott-Heron on YouTube will reveal a host of clips, official and unofficial, showcasing the music and poetry of this unique artist.