"Motes to trouble the mind’s eye": Marcel Duchamp and Trompe l'Oeil
Michael Leja, James and Nan Wagner Farquhar Professor of the History of Art, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
Elizabeth Cowling, Professor Emeritus of History of Art, Honorary Fellow, University of Edinburgh, and cocurator of the exhibition
Trompe l’oeil (“deceive the eye”) motifs are calculated to puzzle eye and mind, perception, and cognition. Artist Marcel Duchamp’s notorious disdain for the realm of the “retinal” implicitly discredited fooling the eye. In this talk, Michael Leja explores how Duchamp’s work produces an array of conceptual conundrums by pushing trompe l’oeil devices to extremes.
Revisiting Rembrandt: Case Histories in Connoisseurship
John Walsh, Director Emeritus, J. Paul Getty Museum
In the inaugural Michael and Juliet Rubenstein Lecture on Connoisseurship, join art historian and curator John Walsh, Director Emeritus, J. Paul Getty Museum, as he demonstrates that connoisseurship has its own history with unique twists and turns, strengths, and limitations.
Tune in to explore object examples from The Met collection and other institutions that point to the shifting standards applied to the works of Rembrandt over many generations.
A Picasso Sketchbook: Fantasy and Reality
Neil Cox, Head of the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art, The Met
In his inaugural talk at The Met, scholar Neil Cox explores Picasso’s Sketchbook No. 26, which the artist kept until his death. Deciphering written notes and Cubist drawings, Cox reveals Picasso’s drawing processes and explores connections with his other sketchbooks, paintings, drawings, and sculptures from around 1913.
Designing Tomorrow’s Met: Frida Escobedo
Frida Escobedo, architect
David Breslin, Leonard A. Lauder Curator in Charge, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, The Met
Join Frida Escobedo to learn about her unique practice of wielding architecture to create powerful spatial and communal experiences. Demonstrating the dexterity and sensitivity in her elegant use of material, this conversation sheds light on today’s socioeconomic and ecological issues and the solutions discovered through architecture. Through her partnership with The Met, Escobedo has already exemplified her vision to create enthralling new modern and contemporary art galleries that challenge the embedded hierarchies of our history and chart a more accessible trajectory for the new Oscar L. Tang and H. M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing.
The presentation is followed by a brief discussion with David Breslin, Leonard A. Lauder Curator in Charge, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art.
Time-Lapse—Hanging the Troy Tapestry
How many Met staff members does it take to hang a single tapestry? (A lot!)
The Tudors loved how tapestries could tell stories at a monumental scale within their palaces. Keeping up with the movement of the court, the staff of the Great Wardrobe—a royal department responsible for furnishings—continuously installed and deinstalled tapestries.
These great wool and silk images shifted between different palaces, rolled up and transported by horse and cart. (Our staff here at The Met are happy not to rely on a horse and cart to transport this one.)
See this tapestry in "The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England,” on view through January 8: met.org/MetTudors
The Tudors—Hanging the Troy Tapestry
How many Met staff members does it take to hang a single tapestry? (A lot.)
The Tudors loved how tapestries could tell stories at a monumental scale within their palaces. Keeping up with the movement of the court, the staff of the Great Wardrobe—a royal department responsible for furnishings—continuously installed and deinstalled tapestries.
These great wool and silk images shifted between different palaces, rolled up and transported by horse and cart. (Our staff here at The Met are happy not to rely on a horse and cart to transport this one.)
See this tapestry in "The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England,” on view through January 8: met.org/MetTudors
Hanging the Troy Tapestry—Time-Lapse
How many Met staff members does it take to hang a single tapestry? (A lot.)
The Tudors loved how tapestries could tell stories at a monumental scale within their palaces. Keeping up with the movement of the court, the staff of the Great Wardrobe—a royal department responsible for furnishings—continuously installed and deinstalled tapestries.
These great wool and silk images shifted between different palaces, rolled up and transported by horse and cart. (Our staff here at The Met are happy not to rely on a horse and cart to transport this one.)
See this tapestry in "The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England,” on view through January 8: met.org/MetTudors
Ghetto Gastro's Black Power Kitchen
Join Ghetto Gastro for an evening celebrating the launch of their first cookbook, Black Power Kitchen. Ghetto Gastro is a culinary collective that uses food as a platform to spark conversation about larger issues surrounding inclusion, race, access, and how food—and knowing how to cook—provides freedom and power. This panel conversation, moderated by Jessica B. Harris, PhD, culinary historian, and author of the New York Times bestseller, High on the Hog, centers on Black culinary traditions and food and art as tools for resistance.
Virtual Opening—The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England
Splendor. Power. Politics. England under the volatile Tudor dynasty was a thriving home for the arts.
Join Met curators Elizabeth Cleland and Adam Eaker for a virtual tour through "The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England," which traces the transformation of the arts in Tudor England through spectacular portraits, tapestries, manuscripts, sculpture, and armor—from both The Met collection and international lenders.
Visit the exhibition through January 8, 2023. #MetTudors
Ballet Hispanico at The Met
What work of art moves you? For Dandara Veiga, dancer at Ballet Hispanico, it's Rufino Tamayo's "Children's Games," on view at The Met.
As we celebrate the final day of Latinx and Hispanic Heritage Month, Veiga shares in dance and in words how #ArtMoves her:
"'Childrens' Games' caught my attention with how the painting presents itself in such a dynamic way. The combination of the warm colors along with the image of the children playing in a sort of half circle brought me joy. The abstract shapes made it even more fun to find movement to pair with this beautiful art piece.
Once I started exploring the movements to match my interpretation of the painting, Rufino’s message became even more clear to me which is the vast joy and imagination of children that echoes in the arts."
#LatinxHeritageMonth
#HispanicHeritageMonth
The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England
Splendor. Power. Politics. England under the volatile Tudor dynasty was a thriving home for the arts.
An international community of artists and merchants, many of them religious refugees, navigated the high-stakes demands of royal patrons, including England’s first two reigning queens.
Against the backdrop of shifting political relationships with mainland Europe, Tudor artistic patronage legitimized, promoted, and stabilized a series of tumultuous reigns, from Henry VII’s seizure of the throne in 1485 to the death of his granddaughter Elizabeth I in 1603.
In our new exhibition, trace the transformation of the arts in Tudor England through more than 100 objects from both The Met collection and international lenders.
NOW ON VIEW—Visit "The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England" through January 8, 2023.
Learn more: met.org/MetTudors
Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty
Every design starts with a sketch.✨
Coming May 2023—explore the artistic methodology and stylistic vocabulary of Karl Lagerfeld's designs in “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty.”
The exhibition opens to the public on May 5, 2023. The Costume Institute Benefit, known also as The Met Gala, will celebrate the exhibition on Monday, May 1.
Learn more: met.org/KarlLagerfeld
The exhibition and the benefit for The Costume Institute are made possible by CHANEL.
Major support is provided by Fendi.
Additional funding provided by KARL LAGERFELD and Condé Nast.
🎥 Directed by Loic Prigent. Produced by DERALF – BANGUMI.
Virtual Opening—Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina
Join co-curators Adrienne Spinozzi, The Met; Ethan Lasser, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and Jason Young, University of Michigan, to go inside "Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina" and explore on the work of African American potters in the 19th-century American South.
Learn more: met.org/HearMeNow
Immaterial [Bonus Episode]—Tarot Cards
Are tarot cards art?
As we head into the spooky season, tune in to our special bonus episode of Immaterial on all things tarot. Experts take a look at the history of tarot cards—including the world’s oldest set at The Morgan Library & Museum—and explore questions of representation and artistic merit.
What do you think: are tarot cards art? Tell us in the comments.
🎧 Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/3LaMjJh
From the Vaults—Nevelson in Process (1977)
Happy birthday to sculptor Louise Nevelson ✨
Nevelson was in her 40s before she sold a work to anyone other than a fellow artist, and in her 60s before the press conceded her stature as one of America's foremost sculptors—a reminder that it's never too late to pursue our passions.
🎥 Learn more about her creative process in the full 29-minute documentary made in 1977: met.org/3DKzZ29
An Evening with Artist Hew Locke (Livestream)
Hew Locke, artist
Tumelo Mosaka, Mellon Project Director, African American and African Diaspora Studies, Columbia University
Kelly Baum, Acting Curator in Charge and Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky Curator of Contemporary Art, The Met
Join artist Hew Locke for a conversation about The Facade Commission: Hew Locke, Gilt, which references works of art in The Met collection that span continents and millennia. The conversation considers how Locke’s work relies on the strategy of appropriation and an aesthetic of theatricality to deconstruct iconographies of power and to explore global histories of conquest and migration.
Immaterial—Metals I
"It's a natural desire of people, of craftsman, of artists to want to take common, everyday, ordinary things and make them beautiful in some way...You don't *need* to put gold inlay or etch the Virgin Mary on the chest of your armor to protect you from a sword blow. But when you're Emperor Ferdinand, you want a fancy armor."
Join The Met's Edward Hunter and other experts as they explore the fascinating world of metals—specifically iron, bronze, tin, and copper—in this two-part episode of our podcast, Immaterial.
Listen and download on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/3LaMjJh
Bijayini Satpathy at The Met
Challenging the traditions of classical Indian dance, the incomparable choreographer and dancer Bijayini Satpathy explored unexpected areas of the Museum's collection during her time as a 2021–2022 #MetLiveArts Artist in Residence—including inside our Islamic art galleries, seen here.
Now, don’t miss her fifth and final performance next Tuesday, September 13, as she builds on her prior explorations of movement and art. ✨
Entitled "Dohā," Satpathy's extraordinary evening-length performance will navigate the relationship between prayer and play, moving away from the Odissi dance form’s customary theistic depictions to highlight the bhāva—emotional experience—of prayer as an embodied human act. Within the discipline of ritualized prayer, Satpathy embraces play and playfulness as an essential part of the individual’s search for the divine.
Reserve your tickets: met.org/3D5Y2YZ
Mercury, silver, and gold. Three of the most powerful substances on Earth are also among the most enigmatic.
These metals have been used to finance empires, inspire myths, justify atrocities, and advance our scientific understanding of the universe.
But it may be their innate properties—the way they glimmer and shine—that fascinate us most.
🎧 Explore these endless fascinating metals this week on the final episode of #MetImmaterial, available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/3LaMjJh
Exhibition Tour—In America: An Anthology of Fashion
Final week! Go inside the American Wing period rooms as never before in "In America: An Anthology of Fashion," on view through September 5: met.org/InAmericaAnthology
Can't make it in real life? Bookmark this video to visit as often as you'd like.
MetCollects—The Four Seasons Guitars
What does summer sound like? ☀️
Have a listen with John Monteleone's "Four Seasons" guitars, played by guitarist and composer Anthony Wilson.
Conceived as a complete musical ensemble and decorated with precious stones, gold, and silver, each guitar visually and sonically reflects the mood of one of the four seasons.
Learn more about the summer guitar: met.org/3dNeGCe
Insider Insights—The Japanese Kimono
Join Met experts Monika Bincsik and Marco Leona to explore the history and modernization of the Japanese kimono.
Learn about Japan’s famed weaving, dying, and embroidery techniques along with discoveries from new scientific research. 🔬
Exhibition Tour—Hilla & Bernd Becher
Working as a rare artist couple, the Bechers changed the course of late 20th-century photography, focusing on a single subject: the disappearing industrial architecture of Western Europe and North America that fueled the modern era.
Go inside our new exhibition "Bernd & Hilla Becher" with Met curator Jeff Rosenheim as your guide.
Plan your visit: met.org/MetBecher
Exhibition Tour—In America: An Anthology of Fashion
FINAL MONTH—Don't miss "In America: An Anthology of Fashion" on view in The Met's American Wing period rooms through September 5.
Can't make it to the exhibition? We've got the next best thing—a guided virtual tour with Met curator Andrew Bolton.
#MetInAmerica