Explore 5,000 years of art and culture at The Met. Plan your visit: metmuseum.org/visit
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The Met presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy. The Museum lives in two iconic sites in New York City—The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters. Millions across the globe can also experience the through our robust website, digital collection, and virtual events.
Follow the unexpected twists and turns of Korean art from the end of the 19th century until 1970.
Join us Friday, September 20 to explore the artists and ideas in the exhibition "Lineages: Korean Art" at The Met. Discover how different approaches to form highlight abundances and endurances in Korean art's 20th century.
Learn more: met.org/3Tq9PsM
Feeling inspired? Admire this sapphire💠
The birthstone of September is a sapphire, which is the central stone on this bracelet.
This elaborately decorated gold band has a richly jeweled exterior and finely detailed opus interrasile patterns on the inside. The luminous beauty of pearls was highly prized in the Byzantine world and was considered the bling of the day.
What would have been considered an elaborate accessory then has become a cherished piece of art in contemporary times.
💎 Made in probably Constantinople, Byzantine. Jeweled Bracelet, 500 - 700. Gold, silver, pearl, amethyst, sapphire, opal, glass, quartz, emerald plasma.
Is it a mare in the night or your next nightmare? 🐴😱
Happy !
Looking for more frights (or delights!)? Check out Met Open Access for over 492,000 images of public-domain artworks, available for free and unrestricted use.
Discover more: met.org/4gqGnfR
🎨 Laurede (French, late 18th century), engraver. The Night Mare, 1782. Stipple engraving, printed in brown ink.
Dive deeper into the work of Kosovar artist Petrit Halilaj.
Join us September 19 for a unique conversation between Halilaj and Met curator Iria Candela in celebration of The Roof Garden Commission: Petrit Halilaj, "Abetare."
Learn more: met.org/3ZtMcD8
Today, we pause to remember the events of September 11.
Reflecting on what he watched on television the morning of September 11, 2001, Thornton Dial’s semi-abstract drawing “9/11: Interrupting the Morning News” is composed of a pile of tangled lines—some whipping about like flames while others, hard and angular, suggest a fragmented structure.
Featuring faint faces scattered throughout the thicket of lines, it is an imaginative representation of the towers' collapse and an evocation of lives lost.
We love you, New York, today and always. ❤️
🎨 Thornton Dial (American, 1928–2016). 9/11: Interrupting the Morning News, 2002. Graphite, charcoal, and watercolor on paper. © Thornton Dial.
Excited to share that the MetLiveArts 2024-25 performance season is live!
We are thrilled to announce the newest season of groundbreaking music, dance, and performance art at The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters. This season, MetLiveArts breaks new ground in museum-based performance.
Join us to experience world premieres, novel interactions with the Museum’s vast collection, and for the first time ever, performances in a bespoke venue built directly into an exhibition!
Explore the full season: met.org/3B1Sn7t
📷: Shervin Lainez
You came, you saw, you played! 🎉
Today marks one year of learning and fun at the 81st Street Studio!
Since opening in September 2023, this immersive space for young learners has been a place where art, science, and imagination come to life for families.
We’re beyond thrilled to celebrate this milestone with you, and we can’t wait to welcome you and the little art-lovers in your life on your next visit. ❤️
Planning a trip to The Met? The 81st Street Studio is free for children and their caregivers—no Museum admission required—and open Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday through Sunday from 10 am–5 pm.
Learn more: met.org/3r1aupx
📷: .croissant_boy, and on Instagram
How can a physical photograph transform our understanding of the present?
LAST CHANCE—Visit "Don't Forget to Call Your Mother" before it closes on September 15. Drawing its title from a photograph by Italian provocateur Maurizio Cattelan, the exhibition consists of works in The Met's collection from the 1970s to today.
The works in the show reflect upon the complicated feelings of nostalgia and sentimentality while underlining the power of the found object.
Discover how many of the artists in the exhibition seek to fortify the legacy of family histories, emphasize the importance of intergenerational relationships, and consider how knowledge and respect for the past can inform our current moment.
Join leading Indigenous artists and curators for a dialogue on curating with, and for, Indigenous Australian communities.
On September 15, discover insights on influential exhibition projects and upcoming opportunities for the interpretation and international display of Indigenous Australian art and consider its global impact.
Details Yinimala Gumana (Dhaḻwaŋu clan, Yolŋu), artist and member of the curatorial team for Madayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from YirrkalaGunybi Ganambarr (Ŋaymil clan, Yolŋu), artist and member of the curatorial team for Madayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Austr...
Join artist Lee Bul for a conversation about The Genesis Facade Commission: "Lee Bul, Long Tail Halo."
On September 12, celebrate the opening of Bul's suite of four sculptures for The Met Fifth Avenue’s facade with a conversation that unpacks the artists' expansive career. Explore her performances, sculptures, and installations that address the aspirations and disillusions associated with the desire for progress.
Learn more: met.org/3Thdid6
Back to school—or back to bed? 🍎
The first decades of the 20th century saw a renewed interest in quilt-making—a resurgence influenced by both the nostalgia of the Colonial Revival, and after 1929, by the onset of the Great Depression, when making a quilt from leftover scraps of fabric seemed a particularly appealing act of thriftiness.
The schoolhouse pattern—a design that's still made today!—first became popular in the 1890s in the wake of remembrances of the disappearing one-room “little red schoolhouse."
🎨 Artist unknown. Schoolhouse quilt, ca. 1900–1920. American, made in Pennsylvania. Cotton.
Fashion is often associated with youth, but the realm of style transcends age.
Check out individuals in The Costume Institute Library that defy ageism and serve as aspirational symbols of self-expression through fashion.
Honoring fashion elders in The Costume Institute Library
How did one tree become a world-famous tonewood for guitars? 🎸
Deep in the forests of Belize, a wood importer from Florida discovered a rare tree that produced a sound unlike anything guitar virtuosos had ever heard before.
In Episode 7 of the , explore why this material casts such a spell. But at what cost?
🎧 Listen to learn more: met.org/3MxRExk
On Labor Day, a look at Thomas Hart Benton’s sweeping 1930s mural "America Today.”
Benton’s ten-panel mural powerfully promotes the idea of "progress," as he perceived it, predicated on modern technology and dependent on manual and industrial labor. In most of its panels, the mural shows bodies of large, heroic workers building cities, mining coal, farming, working with steel, and sawing lumber, among other types of labor. Although Benton received no fee for his work on commission, he was "paid" with free eggs, the yolks from which he created the egg tempera paint.
Did You Know: Abstract expressionist Jackson Po***ck, then a student under Benton, was likely the model for the figure illuminated by firelight on the right side of this first panel.
🎨 Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889–1975) America Today, 1930–31. Ten panels: Egg tempera with oil glazing over Permalba on a gesso ground on linen mounted to wood panels with a honeycomb interior. Featured panels here: Steel, City Building, Coal, Deep South, Changing West, and Midwest. On view in Gallery 909.
Rabbit Rabbit 🐇🐇Tibbar Tibbar 🤞✨
That may sound like gibberish, but it's actually a token of good luck! On the first day of the month, it's best to have the first words you speak be “rabbit rabbit,” with acceptable variations of “white rabbit” or “rabbit rabbit rabbit.”
Both this gouache-paint drawing and the saying “rabbit rabbit” come from Great Britain at around the turn of the 19th century. Some think the first to use the phrase were British sisters each saying “rabbits” on the first of every month as published in Notes and Queries in 1909, while others believe the saying’s debut was in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (1865) in which Alice is “luckily” guided by a white rabbit. Either way, President Roosevelt reportedly used the phrase each month without fail.
In William Bell Scott’s work, the two rabbits (technically hares) face one another in heraldic style. They once decorated Penkill Castle, Ayrshire, Scotland as a part of a twenty-seven work series centering animals, birds, reptiles, and insects.
❇️ Comment rabbit rabbit to claim good luck this month! ❇️
🖼️ William Bell Scott (British, Edinburgh, Scotland 1811–1890 Ayreshire). Two Hares, 1865–90. Gouache (bodycolor), heightened with gum arabic.
One of the many ways in which garments are “reawakened” in “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” is through smell. And while visitors might expect to smell a rose in the Red Rose gallery, they will encounter the unexpected.
Molecules from garments by Yves Saint Laurent for Dior and Jeanne Lanvin were extracted using a microfilter to trap air and moisture drawn through a glass barrel with a pump. The molecules were absorbed then analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, allowing for their identification and replication. Some of the peak smell molecules found include:
👃Methyl salicylate: found in acidic fruits when in contact with human skin and pharmaceutical products used for muscle aches
🥀Diphenyl oxide: found in rosy fragrances
🌹Tetracosane: found in toothpaste and other dental products
The variety of molecules remind us of the objects’ past lives before they came to the Museum.
Smell display designed by Sissel Tolaas with support from Symrise.
Explore artist Petrit Halilaj's constellation of words, images, and symbols.
Writer and scholar Sven Spieker considers how student graffiti in Southeastern European elementary schools inspired Halilaj's rooftop commission at The Met.
Writer and scholar Sven Spieker considers how student graffiti in Southeastern European elementary schools inspired Petrit Halilaj’s rooftop commission.
Descubra las diferentes plantas (¡e insectos!) utilizadas como tintes naturales en la época medieval para crear algunos de los tapices más emblemáticos de la colección The Met.
Únase a nosotros el 1 de septiembre para Met Expert Talks en español, un evento gratuito en The Met Cloisters. Aprenda de los expertos del museo mientras profundizan en la colección de los Claustros.
Más información: met.org/3AC7DYr
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Discover the different plants (and insects!) used as natural dyes in medieval times to create some of the most iconic tapestries in The Met collection.
Join us September 1 for Met Expert Talks en español, a free event at The Met Cloisters. Learn from Museum experts as they dive deep into the collection at the Cloisters.
Learn more: met.org/3AC7DYr
Final weeks! Don’t miss your chance to see fashion flicker to life. “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” reanimates objects from The Costume Institute’s collection, helping us experience them as they were originally intended—with vibrancy, dynamism, and life.
The exhibition closes Monday, September 2.
Learn more: met.org/4agyOVo
🎨 Jun Takahashi (Japanese, born 1969) for Undercover (Japanese, founded 1990). Dress, spring/summer 2024; Courtesy Undercover.
📸 Photography © Nick Knight, 2024.
Don't let the sun set on your summer without checking out Date Night at The Met ☀️
Every Friday and Saturday from 5–9 pm, enjoy live music and gallery chats—plus drinks, light fare, and epic views of Central Park on the Cantor Roof.
Learn more: met.org/DateNight
Ever wonder where your trash really goes?
For most of us, once our garbage hits the curb, it’s out of sight, out of mind. But where does it end up? Fresh Kills used to be that place for all of New York City.
In Episode 6 of the Immaterial Podcast, we uncover how trash can be transformed into art. Follow two people who seek the truth in trash—an archaeologist excavating ancient rubbish in Turkmenistan and an artist highlighting the the people who make our trash vanish.
Listen now: met.org/4cEziFo
The crazy quilt craze 🤩🪡
By the mid-1880s, crazy quilts were so popular that enterprising manufacturers offered them in ready-to-sew kits, which often included appliqués. This practice explains the strangely uniform quality of many crazy quilts, and makes those crazy quilts that are not formulaic seem all the more extraordinary.
🧵 Unidentified maker. Quilt Top, Crazy pattern, ca. 1885. Made in New York, United States. Silk, satin, velvet, and cotton.
“Anyway, here’s Wonderwall...” 🎸
This painting by Caravaggio is actually an allegory representing music. Cupid can be spotted on the left, and a sneaky self-portrait of the young artist is captured in the second boy from the right.
Few artists had such an explosive and expansive impact on the history of art as Caravaggio. He painted figures viewed in darkness, illuminated by a shaft of light that emphasizes their studied expressions and gestures, freezing a decisive moment.
🎵 Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi) (Italian, Milan or Caravaggio 1571–1610 Porto Ercole). The Musicians, 1597. Oil on canvas.
Don’t let his cuteness fool you!
This statuette (known to many as “William”) depicts one of the most dangerous animals in the ancient Egyptian world. 🦛
He is decked in lotus flowers, considered symbols of regeneration and rebirth.
Learn more: met.org/3YKQMwu
When Met fellow Yeo-Jin Katerina B**g came across a 17th century copy of Rusconi’s edition of Vitruvius’s “Ten Books on Architecture” in the Department of Drawings and Prints, she was elated by her discovery—but disheartened by the book’s physical condition.
Go behind the scenes at The Met as curator Femke Speelberg and book conservator Clare Manias discuss the book’s history and extensive illustrations as it is conserved for an upcoming exhibition.
"Twenty-five years ago, in Gallery 154 at The Met, I conceived the idea for Percy Jackson and the Olympians when I stood in front of this stele, a grave marker for a youth who died circa 530 BCE."
—Rick Riordan
Learn more about Riordan's moment of inspiration in The Met’s Greek and Roman Art galleries.
Despite its grandeur, the monument seemed so personal, so intimate and melancholic.
“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.” 🌷
— Frances Hodgson Burnett
Barbara Regina Dietzsch was a virtuosic painter of botanical subjects who lived and worked in eighteenth-century Nuremberg. Hailed by her contemporaries, Dietzsch is one of the era’s most noteworthy watercolorists.
This drawing exemplifies the technical precision and animated composition that characterize Dietzsch’s work. The artful arrangement of the flower’s twisted stem, splayed petals, and curled leaves imbues the painting with a sense of movement and liveliness. The artist even includes enough detail to identify the species of bugs!
Drop by Gallery 690 through September 24 to see “Human/Nature: Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints."
🏞️ Barbara Regina Dietzsch (German, Nuremberg 1706–1783 Nuremberg). A tulip, a butterfly of the species Arctia caja (garden tiger moth), and a beetle (possibly a longhorn), second or third quarter 18th century. Opaque and transparent watercolor on parchment; partial framing line in metallic gold paint (trimmed at upper edge).
Did you know peridot is the birthstone of August? A large, cushion-shaped peridot appears at the center of this gold brooch, accompanied by diamonds, pearls, and green enamel. Late nineteenth-century American jewelers incorporated a variety of colored stones into their designs.
This beautifully crafted piece reflects the Renaissance Revival style that became fashionable towards the end of the nineteenth century. It bears the mark of Marcus & Company, an outstanding New York firm established in 1892 by the Dresden-trained jeweler Herman Marcus. The brooch can be adapted as a pendant by removing the pin fastener and threading a chain through the scrolled hook on the back.
💎 Made in New York, New York, United States, Marcus and Co. (American, New York, 1892–1942). Brooch, ca. 1900. Gold, peridot, diamonds, pearls, and enamel.
A glow up forty years in the making 🖼️✨
Considered one of The Met’s most important paintings and the most important Rembrandt in the United States, conservator Dorothy Mahon and scientist Silvia A. Centeno had quite the assignment to prepare “Aristotle with a Bust of Homer” for the reopening of The Met European Paintings galleries last November.
After extensive technical examination and analysis, Rembrandt’s painting was cleaned and restored. Since the painting’s last cleaning in 1980, the appearance had deteriorated significantly due to the degradation and increasing opacity of a modern, synthetic varnish. The methods used during the current restoration are safe, effective, and should ensure that the aesthetic appearance will last well into the future.
🎨 Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn) (Dutch, 1606–1669). Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, 1653. Oil on canvas. On view in Gallery 616.
Hey, audio-lovers! 🎧 Did you know you can access The Met's audio guides even if you aren't on site?
Visit our website to listen to exhibition playlists, highlights tours, family tours, and more: met.org/Audioguide
Feeling feline? So were these artists. Happy International Cat Day!
From ancient Chinese sculpture to the modern Broadway stage, cats have long been a source of inspiration for artists. This unusual film juxtaposes famous depictions of cats from the Museum's collection with their contemporary counterparts. Curators and staff muse on our feline friends' legendary stubbornness and implacable curiosity, their endless capacity for mischief, and ultimately how they have held our attention for millennia.
Make your next date night a masterpiece ✨
Every Friday and Saturday night, it’s Date Night at The Met. Bring a friend, a partner, or enjoy a solo evening of live music, drinks, special programming, and 5,000 years of art.
Learn more: met.org/DateNight
Did you know painters historically made their own paints? 🎨
In Episode 5 of the , dive into a scientific mystery and explore the history of paint-making! Though many unique paint recipes exist, all oil paint is made from a pigment and binder. Pigment is color, usually a powder, and binders are the glue that hold pigments together and adhere them to the surface of the paintings.
For centuries, one of the most prized mediums of art at museums like The Met has been oil painting, a European tradition embodied by the so-called “Old Masters.” This is the story of how the oil of the chia seed—the same one that’s a staple add-on for smoothies and açai bowls—and its origins in Mexico could help us look at oil painting and our world with fresh eyes.
Listen here: met.org/46yWHqz
On a trip to Tunisia in 1914, Klee fell in love with color, and by 1915 he had devised the unique style of abstracted forms and symbols that characterized much of his later work.
His piece “Temple Gardens” recalls impressions from his visit. While the watercolor’s intense pigmentation and the geometric patterns add to the unique nature of this piece, Klee goes the extra mile by rearranging the composition with scissors. Perhaps in this instance, he thought the work looked too symmetrical and therefore cut it into three sections and moved the center one to the left. Now the site depicted in Temple Gardens, which earlier was only pleasantly full of the "angles and corners" as he had admired in Kairouan, has become an abstract labyrinthine.
He was influenced by the Cubism of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso and took great interest in the paintings of Robert Delaunay and August Macke, which employed abstract planes of translucent color. Klee was lifelong friends with Wassily Kandinsky, and was associated with the Blaue Reiter group. His inspirations and associations greatly informed his work.
🟧 Paul Klee (German (born Switzerland), Münchenbuchsee 1879–1940 Muralto-Locarno). Temple Gardens, 1920. Gouache and traces of ink on three sheets of paper mounted on paper mounted on cardboard.
LAST CHANCE—Visit “The Real Thing: Unpackaging Product Photography” before it closes August 4!
Spanning the first century of photographic advertising, and illustrating how commercial camerawork contributed to the visual language of modernism, this exhibition traces links between the promotional strategies of vernacular studios and the tactics of the interwar avant-garde.
If every product tells a story, the items gathered in one’s glove box or breast pocket betray an entire biography. The best advertisers understood that the objects we covet and carry are constructions of the self—some conscious, others not. For Vogue, master portraitist Irving Penn conjures an entire woman from the contents of her clutch. And as it happens, all of these objects are available for purchase.
📸 Irving Penn (American, 1917–2009). Theatre Accident, New York, 1947, printed 1984. Dye transfer print. Gift of The Irving Penn Foundation, 2022 (2022.373.9) © Condé Nast
Learn more: met.org/4ce2BzO
En garde 🤺
Photographer Georges Demeny was the principal assistant to Etienne-Jules Marey, one of the 19th century's premier scientific investigators of the phenomenon of movement. In 1882, they set up Marey's "station physiologique"—the studio where they carried out pioneering motion studies.
Using a process that could make multiple exposures on a single photographic plate in rapid succession, Marey and Demeny could capture the visible traces of an entire motion in regular intervals and study that action at a level of detail not attainable by earlier photographic technologies.
This picture was made in 1906, after Marey's death, while Demeny was professor of physiology at the national school of gymnastics and fencing at Joinville, which he established. A sport based in a repertoire of very precise, economical moves, fencing lent itself naturally to Demeny's photography.
📸 Georges Demeny (French, 1850–1917). [Fencer], 1906. Gelatin silver print.
Tennis under the Eiffel Tower and swimming in the Seine sounds great and all… but nothing can top the first Olympic Games. 💪🥇🏋️
According to myth, Greek gods and heroes competed in the first games at Olympia: Zeus wrestled his father, Kronos, for the throne; Apollo outran Hermes and beat Ares at boxing; and Herakles, often credited with founding the Olympic games, won victories in wrestling and the pankration, a no-holds-barred combat sport.
The Olympics of antiquity involved traditional athletic, musical, and equestrian competitions. It also featured more unusual events, including contests in male beauty, dancing in armor, a chariot-mounting and dismounting race (while the chariot was in motion!), and torch and boat races.
Learn more:
Highlights from The Met collection illustrate the many athletic games held in ancient Greece, featuring celebrity athletes, grand prizes, and the mythical origins of the first Olympics.
How do our clothes tell the story of our family, home, and community? Through the cultural practice of embroidery known as tatreez, Palestinian women decorated their thobe (or dress) with symbols of history, memory, and place, telling the tale of the maker’s life and her connection to the land through colorfully stitched motifs.
Learn how these traditions have transcended time and discover the unique stories embroidered into each garment.
Read more: https://met.org/46tVXD6
Robe (detail), 1800–1942. Palestine. Linen, silk; embroidered, 51 1/2 x 53 1/2 in. (130.8 x 135.9 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of the Estate of Mr. and Mrs. F. J. Shepard, 1942 (C.I.42.176.1). Photo by Elena Kanagy-Loux
Since 2019, The Met facade commission has featured work by contemporary artists. Today we’re excited to announce a multi-year partnership with Genesis Worldwide, who will support the annual commission.
Coming in September, “The Genesis Facade Commission: Lee Bul, Long Tail Halo” will be the fifth in the series. Lee is widely recognized as the preeminent artist from South Korea. She is known for her sophisticated use of industrial and labor-intensive materials, such as fabric, metal, plastic, silicone, porcelain, and glass, incorporating artisanal practices and technological advancements into her work.
You can see sculptures by Lee now in The Met exhibition “Lineages: Korean Art at The Met,” through October 20.
Learn more: https://met.org/3zSvYJ3
Installation view of Lee Bul: “From Me, Belongs to You Only,” Mori Art Museum, Tokyo. © Lee Bul. Photo: Watanabe Osamu. Courtesy of the artist and Mori Art Museum.
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NOW ON VIEW–Experience The Genesis Facade Commission: Lee Bul, “Long Tail Halo” displayed on the Museum’s exterior. ✨ The four sculptures are Lee Bul’s first major project in the United States in more than twenty years and the fifth in the series of contemporary commissions for The Met Fifth Avenue’s facade niches. Widely recognized as the preeminent artist from South Korea, is known for her sophisticated use of both highly industrial and labor-intensive materials, incorporating artisanal practices as well as technological advancements into her work. Her sculptures, often evoking bodily forms that are at once classical and futuristic, address the aspirations and disillusions that come with progress. See the #GenesisFacadeCommission now through May 27, 2025. Genesis Worldwide #MetLeeBul
Who’s visited The Met Cloisters? ✋✨ Ever wondered what a cloister really is? Griffith Mann, our Curator in Charge of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, is here to give you the inside scoop! Go behind the scenes to discover the history of The Cloisters and to learn more about our collection and gardens. #MetCloisters
Curious about medieval art? ✨ Andrea Achi, the Mary and Michael Jaharis Associate Curator of Byzantine Art, is here to break it down! #DYK: Medieval art isn’t just at The Cloisters? The Met Fifth Avenue has seven galleries devoted to medieval and Byzantine art. Follow along as Andrea shares the rich history of these works and unpacks the terms "medieval" and "Byzantine." #MetMedieval
A star of the Moore ceramic collection ✨ This freshwater jar features a whimsical composition with a procession of grasshoppers and a few wasps. The grasshoppers, carrying flowers as weapons or insignia, accompany an insect cage that resembles the carriage of a high-ranking lady in a formal procession. Inspired by paintings of the same subject, the theme must have appealed to Moore, who gravitated to anthropomorphic insects and animals. Visit the “Collecting Inspiration: Edward C. Moore at Tiffany & Co.’ through October 20. To watch the full exhibition tour, go to the link in our bio. #MetCollectingInspiration. Makuzu Kōzan I (Miyagawa Toranosuke) (Japanese, 1842–1916). Freshwater Jar (Mizusashi), 1870–80s. Stoneware with polychrome overglaze enamels and gold, wood lid, ivory knob (Makuzu ware).
One of the many ways in which garments are “reawakened” in “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” is through smell. And while visitors might expect to smell a rose in the Red Rose gallery, they will encounter the unexpected. Molecules from garments by Yves Saint Laurent for Dior and Jeanne Lanvin were extracted using a microfilter to trap air and moisture drawn through a glass barrel with a pump. The molecules were absorbed then analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, allowing for their identification and replication. Some of the peak smell molecules found include: 👃Methyl salicylate: found in acidic fruits when in contact with human skin and pharmaceutical products used for muscle aches 🥀Diphenyl oxide: found in rosy fragrances 🌹Tetracosane: found in toothpaste and other dental products The variety of molecules remind us of the objects’ past lives before they came to the Museum. Smell display designed by Sissel Tolaas with support from Symrise.
Final weeks! Don’t miss your chance to see fashion flicker to life. “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” reanimates objects from The Costume Institute’s collection, helping us experience them as they were originally intended—with vibrancy, dynamism, and life. The exhibition closes Monday, September 2. Learn more: met.org/4agyOVo 🎨 Jun Takahashi (Japanese, born 1969) for Undercover (Japanese, founded 1990). Dress, spring/summer 2024; Courtesy Undercover. 📸 Photography © Nick Knight, 2024.
When Met fellow Yeo-Jin Katerina Bong came across a 17th century copy of Rusconi’s edition of Vitruvius’s “Ten Books on Architecture” in the Department of Drawings and Prints, she was elated by her discovery—but disheartened by the book’s physical condition. Go behind the scenes at The Met as curator Femke Speelberg and book conservator Clare Manias discuss the book’s history and extensive illustrations as it is conserved for an upcoming exhibition.
A glow up forty years in the making 🖼️✨ Considered one of The Met’s most important paintings and the most important Rembrandt in the United States, conservator Dorothy Mahon and scientist Silvia A. Centeno had quite the assignment to prepare “Aristotle with a Bust of Homer” for the reopening of The Met European Paintings galleries last November. After extensive technical examination and analysis, Rembrandt’s painting was cleaned and restored. Since the painting’s last cleaning in 1980, the appearance had deteriorated significantly due to the degradation and increasing opacity of a modern, synthetic varnish. The methods used during the current restoration are safe, effective, and should ensure that the aesthetic appearance will last well into the future. 🎨 Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn) (Dutch, 1606–1669). Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, 1653. Oil on canvas. On view in Gallery 616.
Feeling feline? So were these artists. Happy International Cat Day! From ancient Chinese sculpture to the modern Broadway stage, cats have long been a source of inspiration for artists. This unusual film juxtaposes famous depictions of cats from the Museum's collection with their contemporary counterparts. Curators and staff muse on our feline friends' legendary stubbornness and implacable curiosity, their endless capacity for mischief, and ultimately how they have held our attention for millennia.
What happens when our most intimate possessions end up in art museums? In Episode 4 of the #ImmaterialPodcast, we take a closer look at the threads of identity that bind us together. Quilter Loretta Pettway Bennett, and most of the other residents of Gee's Bend, Alabama, are the direct descendants of the enslaved people who worked the cotton plantation established by Joseph Gee in 1816. In 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. visited the isolated town and urged residents to take the ferry across the river to register to vote, but the neighboring town stopped the ferry in response. After organizing for a year to find a solution to this injustice, the people of Gee's Bend formed the Freedom Quilting Bee Cooperative. The Freedom Quilting Bee was a key step in helping the women of Gee’s Bend use their skills and artistry to build financial and social stability for themselves for a generation. Their quilts have been displayed in museums around the world. Hear from Gee’s Bend quilters and descendants, Marie Watt, and Met Textile Conservation. Listen here: met.org/4deNh5K
Ready for a break from the heat wave? Take a deep breath and enjoy the calming sounds of a summer rainstorm in The Met Cloisters Trie Garden. 🌧️ The flowery meadow familiar from so many medieval works of art is re-created in the Trie Cloister garden, where a multitude of plants blooms in different seasons on a ground bordered with periwinkles. The fragrant display is accompanied by the sound of running water from the central fountain, which is composed of late medieval and modern elements. Together with the chirping birds, butterflies, and bees, the plantings transform this delightful enclosure into a vivid display of the flora and fauna seen in tapestries of the Middle Ages.
Meet Louisa Lam, Senior Security Guard at The Met 👋 Have you ever wondered how physical spaces influence art and our experience of it? Our security guards, who interact with visitors daily, have a unique understanding of how the Museum's spaces impact everyone. In Episode 3 of the #ImmaterialPodcast, we go behind the scenes with an architect, a security guard, a curator, and a conservator to explore the hidden and complex ecosystem of The Met. Listen here: met.org/FS2E3
Mirror mirror on the wall🪞✨ There is more than meets the eye in this 16th-century mirror. During this time, painted mistress portraits were frequently concealed behind shutters or curtains. Only an actively engaged voyeur could behold the subject—a convention that served to heighten the erotic content of the image by arousing desire and underscoring the forbidden aspect of the painting. LAST CHANCE—Experience the intrigue of this mirror along with many other multisided portraits in the exhibition “Hidden Faces: Covered Portraits of the Renaissance” now through July 7. 🎨 Unknown artist. Tabernacle mirror frame, 1540-60. Walnut.
What happens when the unbreakable shatters? NOW AVAILABLE– Listen to Episode 1 of The Met's Immaterial podcast. Go behind the scenes of the dramatic repair of an important Renaissance sculpture that fell and broke into dozens of pieces. Stone objects like these were made to survive decay and destruction, but from the moment that stone is extracted from the earth, it is bound to become a more fragmented version of itself—chiseled, chipped, and sometimes shattered over time. Explore how cracks and cavities in stone sculptures reveal complex stories of our humanity. Listen here: https://met.org/S2E1
Go behind the scenes with artist Petrit Halilaj, who discusses with curator Iria Candela the inspiration and making of his "2024 Roof Garden Commission: Abetare." Kosovar artist Petrit Halilaj (born 1986, Kostërc, former Yugoslavia) has transformed The Met’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden with a sprawling sculptural installation, the artist's first major project in the United States. Halilaj's work is deeply connected to the recent history of his native country, Kosovo, and the consequences of cultural and political tensions in the region. After a formative period in Italy, where he studied art at the Accademia di Brera in Milan, he moved to Berlin in 2008, where he still lives and works. Abetare reflects the artist’s personal experience as a refugee of war and the universal hopes and fears captured in children’s drawings. Learn more: met.org/3WlnSCa
Join Andrew Bolton, Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute, on a tour of the exhibition “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” The Costume Institute’s spring 2024 exhibition, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, reactivates the sensory capacities of masterworks in the Museum’s collection through first-hand research, conservation analysis, and diverse technologies—from cutting-edge tools of artificial intelligence and computer-generated imagery to traditional formats of x-rays, video animation, light projection, and soundscapes. On view through September 2. Learn more: met.org/ReawakeningFashion
What would it feel like to be surrounded by the lush meadows of medieval Europe, without leaving your room? 🌿 Follow along as Met fellow Isabella Weiss guides an immersive journey into the world of millefleurs tapestries, exploring them as "portable meadows." Learn more about Isabella's work and the groundbreaking research of other Met fellows in Research Out Loud: Met Fellows Present 2024. Join us throughout May for a series of exciting in-gallery activations as fellows expand on their research through gallery talks, installations, and tours. Check out the link in bio for more.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms, stepmoms, grandmothers, sisters, aunts, and mentors who guide us in our journeys. ❤️ What happens when you reappropriate an artwork or an ad for another purpose? In “Kama Mama, Kama Binti (Like Mother, Like Daughter),” artist Hank Willis Thomas examines how an Afro Sheen ad—with and without its branding—celebrates the beauty of African American women and the intimacy between mothers and daughters. Thomas himself draws inspiration from his mother—an artist, curator, and photo historian—throughout his work. Take a cute from him and call your mother today! 🌸 See this photo and more on view in “Don’t Forget to Call Your Mother” through September 15. 📸 Hank Willis Thomas (American, born 1977). Kama Mama, Kama Binti (Like mother like daughter), 1971/2008. Chromogenic print. © Hank Willis Thomas
Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms, stepmoms, grandmothers, sisters, aunts, and mentors who guide us in our journeys. ❤️ What happens when you reappropriate an artwork or an ad for another purpose? In “Kama Mama, Kama Binti (Like Mother, Like Daughter),” artist Hank Willis Thomas examines how an Afro Sheen ad—with and without its branding—celebrates the beauty of African American women and the intimacy between mothers and daughters. Thomas himself draws inspiration from his mother—an artist, curator, and photo historian—throughout his work. Take a cute from him and call your mother today! 🌸 See this photo and more on view in “Don’t Forget to Call Your Mother” through September 15. 📸 Hank Willis Thomas (American, born 1977). Kama Mama, Kama Binti (Like mother like daughter), 1971/2008. Chromogenic print. © Hank Willis Thomas
Starting Friday, May 10 “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” opens to the public—this could be you (no ball gown required) 😉#ReawakeningFashion #MetGala
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