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VIP Opening Reception of From Paris to New York

Monday, May 12, 2025 Galerie Gabriel at Sutton Tower

This landmark exhibition honors the transatlantic legacy of Galerie Néotù—the visionary design gallery founded by Gérard Dalmon and Pierre Staudenmeyer—and brings together groundbreaking works from both its Paris and SoHo eras. It runs through October of this year.

Galerie Gabriel celebrated the opening of this extraordinary revival of Néotù’s avant-garde spirit with a well-attended champagne reception at the gallery's 72nd floor Sutton Place penthouse, which offered spectacular views of the East River, Brooklyn, and midtown Manhattan. The exhibition features works by Martin Szekely, Garouste & Bonetti, Dan Friedman, Pucci de Rossi and more, curated by Michael Bargo and presented alongside pieces from CMS Collection.

Pioneers in the revival of French design during the 1980s and 1990s, Gérard Dalmon and Pierre Staudenmeyer operated not merely as gallerists, but as editors, scouts, and passionate advocates for a new creative language; one that dissolved boundaries between art, design, and daily life. Their galleries, first in Paris (founded in 1984), and later in New York (opened in 1990), hosted over a hundred exhibitions and championed around forty French and international designers.

The event was hosted by Galerie Gabriel and Mouvements Modernes.

[Photo credits: James Nova, Nana YaaSerwaah Akuoku / FromHouseToHaus.com, Galerie Gabriel]

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Maestros and the Machines: Mercer Labs Reimagines Masterpieces Through Technology

Thursday, April 24, 2025 21 Dey Street Manhattan Preview & Reception + Afterparty Art by Roy Nachum, SoundSculpture by Timbaland MĒRCER LABS/ Museum of Arts and Technology

The immersive and mostly interactive exhibition challenges the essence of art and its relationship to time. Maestros and the Machines invites visitors to imagine what the great maestros of the past — from Mozart and Da Vinci to Hokusai and more — would have created if they had access to modern technology. It is an active dialogue between past and future, reimagining what art can be in a world where technology is a tool to the creative process.

Multi-floored and multi-roomed, guests were dazzled and awed by a sometimes sensory-overloading experience involving mirrored rooms (think Yayoi Kusama), flashing and moving lights, robots (some quaint and one particularly frightening), intimate cubbyholes, a fogged chill-out foam-walled room perfect for snuggling, and a ball pit the size of a large pond (that was difficult to escape from) perfect for losing wallets and keys, all accompanied by mesmerizing sound.

Perhaps the only thing missing was silence. Only one whiff of weed was detected by me the entire long evening (there was no attempt to evict attendees, even while staff had begun cleanup), but for those who like to chemically enhance experiences, psychedelics would be in order.

The main floor, in addition to the dj booth, featured numerous circular couches (which, with all the trippy, flashing floor-to-ceiling video projections, were not easy to see, therefore, I tripped over them several times). There were swings suspended from the two-story ceiling, and both cocktail and champagne bars and another serving caviar. White gloved waiters collected the empty PS cups that weren't crushed underfoot, while others distributed hors d'oeuvres like tempura rutabaga (certainly a rarity, but questionable as a delicacy).

The exhibition opens to the general (paying) public on April 25. https://tickets.mercerlabs.com

[photo credits: Mercer Labs & James Nova/NYTCP]

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IFPDA Print Fair VIP Preview

On March 27, 2025, the IFPDA Print Fair, a celebration of 550+ years of prints and printmaking, opened at the Park Avenue Armory. A champagne reception for VIPs preceded the opening.

Established in 1987, the IFPDA is the preeminent international membership organization for galleries, dealers, and publishers specializing in prints and editions.

A very swanky VIP Print Fete event co-hosted by CULTURED was on March 26th at Greenhouse on the roof at Nine Orchard and the day before that, Hauser & Wirth galleriies hosted a VIP Reception and Private View of 'Dieter Roth: Islandscapes. Both events were great fun and we schmoozed with many art world luminaries and behind the scenes movers and shakers.

Photo credits: BFA and James Nova

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The Gilded Age Splendor of the New Frick

The Members-only Preview Champagne Reception for the grand reopening of the newly restored and expanded Frick Collection and the new 2nd floor galleries was held on April 9, 2025, from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm. Featured was "Vermeer's Love Letters", which reunites the museum's "Mistress and Maid" with two celebrated Vermeer canvases on loan from Europe.

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Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World

Mon, January 23, 2023 Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Harlem USA

“Long before any conglomerate realized it was time to wake up, hip hop had been speaking out and telling truths.” - Chuck D, lyricist

The Schomburg Center, in partnership with PBS, celebrated 50 years of Hip Hop with a preview of PBS's three-part series Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World. The screening was followed by a conversation with Hip Hop legend Chuck D (Public Enemy, Prophets of Rage).

Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World, explores Hip Hop’s political awakening over the last 50 years. With a host of rap stars and cultural commentators he tracks Hip Hop’s socially conscious roots. From The Message to Fight The Power 2020, he examines how Hip Hop has become "the Black CNN." The series is an incredible narrative of struggle, triumph and resistance brought to life through the lens of an art form that has chronicled the emotions, experiences and expressions of Black and Brown communities: Hip Hop.

[You can view a recording of the conversation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nLAyzFI2xU]

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CURVE NY

NYC's #1 business-to-business event for intimate apparel and activewear industry, The Curve show returned once again to the Javits Center. Curve, a division of Comexposium, provides buyers with opportunities to create new business, discover upcoming designers, network, and attend special events. 2023's February edition offered a global mix of 150+ brands showcasing their F/W 2023 collections.

The COVID pandemic preempted many live events for the past two years, Curve included. Surprisingly, we saw little innovation in sytles this year, most brands harking back to past decades for inspiration. The main innovations on display were technological, in fabrics and construction, with many brands keeping an eye on sustainable, eco-friendly fashion.

There were boudoir modeling and fashion performances throughout day, including burlesque by Pearls Daily, and Fit Bootcamp 1-hour classes gave attendees instruction on how to fit all body types.

Intima Magazine presented their awards for the Best-Selling Brands in North America and unveiled the results of retailer polls on the latest trends in the U.S. and Canada.

Guests were treated to a closing popcorn and prosecco party, with appropriately retro lounge chansons.

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NY NOW Winter 2023 Market

February 5-8, 2023 Javits Center, NYC

New York’s premier buyer's gift show, NY NOW bills itself as a Future Market. The sprawling event that takes over the main floor of the Javits Center, is a go-to for new and emerging brands. It is a vital resource for spotting design trends in everything from aromatherapy, skin care and wellness to home décor and tableware, eco-friendly, to stationery, toys, books, and contemporary craft from artisan workshops. The fair features eleven sections across more than 35 product categories, from the classic to the quirky, like CDB-infused dog biscuits.

The event can be overwhelming at times; it is like being in a Disneyland of color and optic overload. Walking every aisle was excellent excercise and speaking to so many interesting and amusing vendors passionate about the products the represent was great fun.

I volunteered to test out Jouvalle's expensive wrinkle and puffiness eye solution. It came in a giant syringe and after being gently massaged in by the skilled fingers of the attractive company rep, she left me with a handheld fan to dry the cream. I have profoundly wrinkled and puffy undereyes due to both age and vampire lifestyle, so I present quite a challenge, having even failed laser wrinkle removal (which ended up making it worse). However, I can honestly say I was shocked at the results. Only one eye was (cruelly) done, but it completely removed the wrinkles. I could feel the skin tightening for a good while afterwards. The effect lasted a few hours (it is to be used daily at first), then left a dry flaky remainder and some eye irritation. Still, for attending events and going on dates, it's a great idea.

The only product fail we experienced was the instant mimosa cubes. The size (and taste) of an ordinary sugar cube, the product is dropped in a glass of champagne or prosecco and dissolves like a seltzer tablet. But it tasted nothing like fruit juice; just a sweet, nondescript artificial flavor. On the next round at the complimentary prosecco bar we opted out of the 'enhancement'. Delightful rosé wine also flowed freely to keep fairgoers in a festive mood.

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Frieze NY 2022

The NYC art scene is back and the main course of the inaugural New York Art Week, Frieze New York kicked off with an invitation-only preview day on Wednesday, May 18. The art fair's public run is from May 19-22, 2022, at The Shed, near Manhattan's Hudson Yards.

Frieze New York is distinguished from other international art fairs through innovative and rigorous programming, and focused high-quality gallery presentations that act as extensions of gallery exhibitions (either through one-, two-, or three-person presentations or themed group shows). Frieze New York offers the opportunity to encounter an exceptional quality and range of artwork, featuring the world’s most exciting emerging talents together with iconic names in contemporary art.

Frame is a special section dedicated to galleries established less than 10 years ago. Galleries are selected on the basis of a proposed solo presentation. Frame allows visitors and collectors to see work by artists who have not previously benefitted from an international platform to show their work.

Frieze is also honoring the nation’s first all-female artists cooperative gallery, New York nonprofit A.I.R. Gallery, celebrating their 50th anniversary. Artists Space and Electronic Arts Intermix and Printed Matter, Inc., are also being celebrated for recently passing 50 and 45-year landmarks.

Like most major fairs and conventions, Frieze was hobbled by COVID-19 over the last two years. Having moved from its traditional location on Randall's Island, the fair, arguably second only to The Armory Show in the top tier of art fairs, this year is scaled down from 160 global galleries to 65. The advantage of the move is that more people are likely to view it at an easily-reached location. Further, by cutting back by 60%, the former free-for-all sprawl of the fair seems more focused now. That does not necessarily mean more challenging or original art, though. Big, bright, young, trendy, and easily digestible eye candy still dominate, and some would say overwhelm the more understated and introspective works.

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1-54 African art fair 2022

Harlem Parish, Harlem USA May 19. 2022

1-54 Art Fair, the leading international art fair dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and the African diaspora, returned to New York for its first in-person show in two years. The show ran from May 19–22 2022 at its new Manhattan venue, Harlem Parish, a newly-restored 19th century church building.

25 international galleries from across Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and New York presented a diverse group of artists, local partners, and galleries from New York City and the Harlem neighborhood. The fair was curated by Novella Ford, associate director for Public Programs and Exhibitions at Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Featured artists included: Ludovic Nkoth (Cameroon); Ibrahim El Dessouki (Egypt); Lord Ohene (Ghana); Johanna Mirabel (France); Audrey Lyall (United States); Elias Mung’ora (Kenya), and our personal favorite, the phenomenal artist and photographer Thandiwe Muriu (Kenya). Thandiwe, represented by 193 Gallery,

1-54 New York also hosted a program of talks, performances, and screenings that explore the work and practice of artists from Africa and its diaspora.

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Volta NYC 2022

Press Preview Chelsea, Manhattan NYC May 18. 2022

VOLTA NY returned this May during the Spring art fair week. Having severed its ties and neighboring space with the autumnal Armory Show, VOLTA debuted at the former Dia building in Chelsea, just downwind from the week's main art event, Frieze.

Featuring both solo and group presentations of mostly young, mid-market artists, the internationally-represented fair is a much quieter, toned-down affair than its slick, splashy big brother, Frieze. Abstract mixed media works and impressionistic portraiture were strongly represented in this edition, the originality of which varied considerably. The approachability of the gallerists and artists present was a pleasant contrast to the often off-putting nature of the bigger fairs that primarily cater to top-dollar collectors, rather than simply art aficionados.

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TEFAF New York 2022 VIP preview party by j- No Via Flickr: Thursday, May 5, 2022, Park Avenue Armory, Manhattan NYC

For the first time since 2019, TEFAF New York is hosting an in-person fair in Manhattan. This is the eighth edition of TEFAF New York to be held at its traditional venue: the Upper East Side's Park Avenue Armory. The fair runs May 6–10, 2022. An invitation-only VIP day was held on Thursday, May 5, which featured numerous champagne and cocktail bars throughout the Armory, roving oyster shuckers, and waiters serving a variety of hors d'oeuvres.

Featuring  91 world-class dealers from around the globe, TEFAF NY offers an unparalleled variety of quality modern and contemporary art, jewelry, antiques and antiquities, and design. TEFAF acts as an expert guide for both private and institutional collectors, and attracts lovers and buyers of art from near and far, including many familiar NYC art scene faces, dressed both in stylish elegance and outre' ensembles, like a face mask sprouting colorful fluttering butterflies.

TEFAF New York was founded in early 2016. Exhibitor stands flowed throughout the Armory’s landmark building, encompassing the cavernous drill hall and extending to both the first and second floors of the Armory’s period rooms. The mezzanine was converted into a champagne and wine bar and its balcony provided guests with a stunning view of the crowds mingling in the aisles of booths below.

TEFAF is a not-for-profit foundation that champions expertise and diversity in the global art community, which takes place annually in Maastricht and New York.

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The 62nd Annual ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF)

April 21-24, 2022, Park Avenue Armory, Manhattan NYC Press Preview/Opening night gala: April 21.

After two years in COVID quarantine, the eagerly-anticipated and essential book fair returned to its traditional venue in style. A mix of masked book collectors and curators and just the curious perused the mind-boggling array of items on offer at the booths of the nearly 200 exhibitors from around the world. Available for both ogling and carefully-monitored fondling were rare books (frequently one-of-a-kind), antique maps, and historical documents to author-signed first editions and gifted copies with celebrity autograph dedications.

Some top-dollar items include the iconic “Earthrise” photo taken from the moon's orbit by Apollo astronauts and a collection of 007 movie scripts and ephemera, both of which have asking prices of several hundred thousand dollars.

Also available were many fine illustrated materials, screen prints, illuminated manuscripts, rare prints and print ephemera.

For the less well-heeled collector, there were many affordable items, such as pulp paperbacks (many whose main value was their outrageous or sleazy cover art), vintage ads, magazines, posters, board games, photographs and quirky oddities.

Rarely cited as one of the fair's great attractions are the dozens of fascinating conversations that one can have with so many knowledgeable folks on hand.

I will admit to only spending $15 at the fair, and that did not include any trips to the cash bar, where non-wine drinkers were forced to go for champagne, beer, or cocktails. Shame on y'all for using disposable plastic cups, though. You lose major carbon credits for that enviro-blunder. The lavish-looking buffet was complimentary, but alas, strictly for carnivores. Being somewhat out-of-practice in making the event rounds (while waiting for Mayor Adam's full NYC recovery to arrive) I neglected to bring along emergency snacks and pack my hip flask.

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Holbein: Capturing Character

The Morgan Library & Museum, Manhattan NYC Feb. 10 , 2022, Press Preview

Capturing Character honors the remarkable talent and legacy of Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98– 1543), one of the most engaging artists of the European Renaissance. It is the first major U.S. exhibition dedicated to the artist. The works on display span the artist's entire career, from his early portraiture and book trading work in Basel to his stint in England, where he became the most sought-after artist among nobles.

Co-organized with the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, the exhibition features thirty-one paintings and drawings by Holbein himself, and around sixty other relevant objects from lenders across the globe. Exclusive works, such as the Frick Collection's painting of Sir Thomas More (1527) are among the many fascinating portraits that Holbein is known for. In addition to the range of Holbein’s esteemed portraits and drawings, the exhibition also explores the artist’s work as a designer of prints, book illustrations, jewels, and more.

Aside from his exquisite crafstmanship and nearly microscopic attention to detail, other qualities that makes Holbein stand apart from so many royal and aristocratic commissioned painters is his remarkable ability to not only imbue his subjects with idealistic regality, but his almost photorealistic renderings (down to More's gray 5-O'Clock shadow) also celebrated the individuals’ identities, values, aspirations, and achievements, indicated by the inclusion of inscriptions, insignia, and evocative attributes.

Holbein: Capturing Character includes some of Holbein’s best-known and most captivating works, including In A Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling (Anne Lovell?) (ca. 1526–28), Simon George (ca. 1535–40) and his portrait of William Parr, Marquess of Northampton (ca. 1538–42), as well as many other captivating portraits of courtiers, merchants, scholars, and statesmen.

The show runs through May 15, 2022.

[photo credit: James Nova for NYTCAP]

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The reopening of the Frick Collection as Frick Madison at the Breuer Building

The last time I was at the Frick was over a year and another era ago. A members-only strings-serenaded champagne soiree held in the mansion's befountained Romanesque Garden Court.

Little could I have known then that this would be my last visit to this stalwart sumptuous sanctuary for in-the-know New Yorkers for years to come, both because of the soon-to-drop COVID pandemic and the museum's two-year closure for renovations.

The art starvation that began with lockdowns and closures of innumerable galleries throughout the city, was partially alleviated by the Frick's genius weekly Friday night YouTube series, “Cocktails With A Curator” , where we got to not only get up close and personal with Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Fragonard, but also, thanks to Zoom, the stellar world-class collection's curators: granularly informative Deputy Director Xavier F. Salomon with his wardrobe of elegant dressing gowns, and the vivacious and historically contextualizing Associate Curator Aimee Ng and an endless variety of creative cocktails, many of which necessitated liquor store treasure hunts to gather all the components.

When it was announced late last year that the collection was being moved to the recently vacated Breuer Madison building (former home of the Whitney Museum, and briefly, as an annex for the Metropolitan), I was, like nearly everyone of the museum's stans, both delighted and trepidatious. Along with the Morgan Library, the Frick is one of my escapist fantasy homes-away-from-home. Those familiar with the stark, minimalist, almost industrial look and feel of the Breuer questioned the appropriateness of moving works that we were so accustomed to viewing in actual living wallpapered, carpeted, and chandeliered living quarters, amidst French Renaissance furnishings to what unkindly could be termed a warehouse.

  Rather than the idiosyncratic arrangement of works in the late Gilded Age steel baron's manse, Frick Madison has placed them in galleries focused on specific regions and eras. The new dialog between the paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts places them in a more logical and informative manner. This new light also forces one to question their prior perceptions and even appreciations of certain works. Freed from busy backgrounds, the colors and textures really pop now.

  Some beloved paintings now seem humbler in comparison with their new neighbors, who were perhaps slighted previously. Details emerge, like the weirdly elongated head, misaligned eyes and ears in El Greco's portrait of St. Jerome. The influence of the artist on Francis Bacon is now immediately apparent.

A religious painting that either I never saw before or passed by - forgive me father for I hate medieval Christian themes - struck me as amazing. In 'The Coronation of the Virgin' there is so much going on inside: a diadem of helter-skelter musicians, esoteric symbolism, obsessively intricate patterns.

One of the Frick's most recent acquisitions, a full-length life-size portrait by Gérard totally blew me away. Riffing on the title of one of the museum's recent publications, 'The Sleeve Should Be Illegal' - this painting should be illegal! The outrageously over-the-top attire of the subject, Prince Camillo Borghese, outdoes even Holbein's Cromwell for hyper-realistic fabric textures and jewelry iridescence.

The old context is more natural, if you like, as most of these were commissioned works, destined for the wall of a home or church, and this placement was very much in the artist's mind. We can think of this extended relocation as an airing out, like a visit to a spa. Being refreshed and renewed, how will the guests feel about their eventual re-acclimation? Will they experience the mixed feelings we all do on that last day of vacation, both missing the familiarity of home but feeling slightly depressed at having to give up the freedoms and delights experienced while away?

[photo credits: The Frick Collection]

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“Grief and Grievance” [Press Preview] @ The New Museum by j- No Via Flickr: LES Manhattan NYC Feb. 16, 2021 exhibition on show thru June 6, 2021

Opening to coincide with Black History Month, “Grief and Grievance” is an exhibition that focuses on the intersection of white nationalism and the cultural memory of Black grief as central to American life, as articulated in the work of contemporary Black American artists working in nearly every artistic medium.

The show, as conceived by the late Okwui Enwezor, was originally intended to begin prior to the 2020 U.S. presidential election, but due to the current global pandemic, the opening had to be delayed. The project was completed by Naomi Beckwith, Massimiliano Gioni, Glenn Ligon, and Mark Nash as curatorial advisors.

In Enwezor’s view, the works in this exhibition help illustrate the idea that "mourning is a practice that permeates the social, economic, and emotional realities of Black life in America as it is experienced across multiple generations", from the civil rights movement of the 1960s to issues of police violence in the United States in the 1990s and today. The works of these artists stand as proof that many of the concerns driving the current debates around race, discrimination, and violence in America and that Black grief remains a national emergency that must not be ignored.

The 37 artists included in the show include: Terry Adkins, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kevin Beasley, Dawoud Bey, Mark Bradford, Garrett Bradley, Melvin Edwards, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Charles Gaines, Ellen Gallagher, Theaster Gates, Arthur Jafa, Daniel LaRue Johnson, Rashid Johnson, Jennie C. Jones, Kahlil Joseph, Deana Lawson, Simone Leigh, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Julie Mehretu, Okwui Okpokwasili, Adam Pendleton, Julia Phillips, Howardena Pindell, Cameron Rowland, Lorna Simpson, Sable Elyse Smith, Tyshawn Sorey, Diamond Stingily, Henry Taylor, Hank Willis Thomas, Kara Walker, Nari Ward, Carrie Mae Weems, and Jack Whitten.

Upcoming public programs related to "Grief and Grievance," include a wide range of conversations with artists from the exhibition:

Theaster Gates in conversation with Massimiliano Gioni on February 25;

Melvin Edwards in conversation with Massimiliano Gioni on March 2;

LaToya Ruby Frazier in conversation with Margot Norton on March 12;

Kerry James Marshall in conversation with Massimiliano Gioni on March 18;

Dawoud Bey in conversation with Gary Carrion-Murayari on March 23;

Adam Pendleton in conversation with Andrew An Westover on April 1;

Hank Willis Thomas in conversation with Margot Norton on April 8;

Rashid Johnson in conversation with Massimiliano Gioni on April 15;

Tiona Nekkia McClodden in conversation with Margot Norton on May 3; with more to be announced.

Additionally, on February 24, the Museum will host “Workshop for Educators: Grief and Grievance: Art and Morning in America.” Designed for K-12 educators, this program will highlight and contextualize works in the exhibition with historic and contemporary social movements, and artists’ concerns today.

[photo credits: James Nova for NYTCAP]

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NYFW SS21: Flying Solo by j- No Via Flickr: SoHo Manhattan NYC Sept. 13, 2020

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The Met Cloisters Reopening

Press Preview September 11, 2020

(New York, September 9, 2020)—The Met Cloisters reopened to the public on Saturday, September 12, after six months of closure. The preceding two days were accessible by Met members and select Press.

The Metropolitan Museums's branch in Fort Tryon Park in at the far northern tip of Manhattan features the art and architecture of medieval Europe, as well as vibrant gardens and views overlooking the Hudson River.  Paintings, illuminated manuscripts, tapestries, sculptures, and other treasures from medieval Europe, including the seven monumental Unicorn Tapestries and the famed Early Netherlandish masterpiece the Merode Altarpiece are all on display in the serene, contemplative setting of Manhattan's "castle upon the hill".

Appropriate to our current pandemic-crippled world, inside the Medieval Treasury, The Belles Heures of Jean de Berry and The Cloisters Apocalypse are opened to pages in which the subject matter confronts the sober reality of plague.

The gardens, which feature many herbs and flowers that were once grown in the Middle Ages, received meticulous care throughout the Museum's closure. However, the new normal of sub-tropical summers in New York have taken their toll, despite best efforts. The Bonnefont Cloister herb garden seemed particularly parched and bereft of its traditional vibrant hues and enchanting scents.

The Cloisters will be open Thursday to Monday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through October (10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. November through February), and will be closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Member Preview Days will take place on September 10 and 11. Entry to the Museum is available by timed ticket or reservation only through The Met's website.

postscript: The sincere gesture of the Met to provide complimentary face masks is laudable, however, they do not meet proper hygiene standards. They are ill-fitting - too small for adult male faces - & their thin woven bilayers fail the light test.

[all photos © 2020 James Nova for NYTCAP]