Cole's Catskill Creek, Book of Beasts

Episode No. 402 features curator and art historian H. Daniel Peck and curator Elizabeth Morrison.

The Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, New York is presenting "Thomas Cole's Refrain: The Paintings of Catskill Creek." For the first time, the exhibition considers Cole's paintings of Catskill Creek, a 46-mile long river that drains part of the Catskill Mountains and enters the Hudson just below the town of Catskill, as a series. It includes 12 Coles and paintings of Catskill Creek by artists who followed Cole, including Asher B. Durand and Frederic Edwin Church. "Thomas Cole's Refrain" was curated by H. Daniel Peck, a professor emeritus at Vassar College and is on view through November 3 before traveling to the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, NY. Peck is also the author of an excellent accompanying book also titled "Thomas Cole's Refrain." It was published by Cornell University Press's Three Hills imprint. Amazon offers it for $32.

On the second segment, the J. Paul Getty Museum's Elizabeth Morrison discusses "Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World," which she curated with assistance from with Larisa Grollemond. The bestiary is the tradition that brought animals -- both real and imagined -- to the pages of manuscripts, tapestries and to all manner of objects during the Middle Ages. The Getty exhibition includes not just manuscripts and tapestries, but also paintings, sculpture, decorative arts and contemporary works that demonstrate the influence of the 1,500-year-old bestiary tradition. It's on view at the Getty Center through August 18. The terrific exhibition catalogue was published by the Getty. Amazon offers its for $60.