This past week end I went to The Closters, located on four acres of woods and gardens, which were in bloom. I believe the pink tree is a weeping cherry. It is on the left as you enter the gardens.

The structure is comprised of five Medieval cloisters from Monastic sites in France. It is full of Medieval artifacts and art like stained glass windows, tapestries, furniture, and even tomb markers. There are two herb gardens in court yards surrounded by arches. The asp on the left is the Romanesque which has the
round arches.

The glass room is full of stain glass and silver stained roundels like this one.









The Cloisters were a bit like walking into another time. It was peaceful and hushed, even though many people were there. It is one of my favorite things I have done while in New York.

This past weekend I went to two exhibits. One was "Brucke: The Birth of Expressionism in Dresden and Berlin, 1905-1913," at the The Neue Gallery. My favorite piece, by Ernst Lugwig Kirchner, is named Portrait of a Woman, 1911. This tiny image represents the painting, but cannot begin to do it justice. This is one thing I have learned. Plates in art books and slides cannot communicate the true image. It may be better than nothing, but I have found that some of the works of art I have seen in books and not particularly enjoyed, I can totally appreciate in person. Portrait of a Woman is good sized, 46 3/8 x 34 5/8 inches. The colors in are vibrant and painted with expressive visible brush strokes. The contrasts between the colors give a vibration that is delightful to the eyes.

The second exhibit was at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. I went to see "Gustave Caillebotte: Impressionist Paintings from Paris to the Sea." My favorite piece in this exhibit was Oarsmen Rowing on the Yerres, 1877. The critics of the time made fun of the painting saying that Caillebotte cut of the man's head. I particularly like the work because of the perspective he used. It was a bit different from other impressionists and gives you the feeling you are riding in the boat with them. I can almost hear the water splashing as the oars lift in and out.

I also saw Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party. The museum website describes it as "a massive ceremonial banquet, arranged on a triangular table with a total of thirty-nine place settings, each commemorating an important woman from history. The settings consist of embroidered runners, gold chalices and utensils, and china-painted porcelain plates with raised central motifs that are based on vulvar and butterfly forms and rendered in styles appropriate to the individual women being honored. The names of another 999 women are inscribed in gold on the white tile floor below the triangular table." Here is another work of art you cannot appreciate until you see it. Each of the thirty nine plates is designed to relate a specific woman and the runner beneath it coordinates. The amount of work put into it is hard to imagine without seeing it and the work is beautiful.

Before I visited the museum I decided the day was too pretty to begin indoors so I walked through the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. It is early and many plants are still hibernating, but trees are budding, daffodils and tulip trees are blooming as well as the Japanese Cherry. There are rose gardens that bloom in June, so maybe the next intern will get to see them.