The American Wing of The Met

Explore exceptional works of decorative arts across time and place. ✨ Join Met curator Medill Higgins Harvey as she explores the objects that inspired Edward C. Moore, the visionary who led Tiffany & Co. to success in the late 19th century. Visit “Collecting Inspiration: Edward C. Moore at Tiffany & Co.” now through October 20 to see over 180 extraordinary pieces from Moore’s personal collection, alongside 70 magnificent silver objects designed and created at Tiffany & Co. under his direction.
   🎞️ Head to the link in bio to watch the full #MetCollectingInspiration tour.

In Episode 2 of the #ImmaterialPodcast , Shania Hall shares the story of her life and her first-ever trip to New York to see her photograph in person.   Join us as we dive into the artistic journeys of artists like Hall and @rachelwhitereadofficial . Explore the transformative power of art and how the material of space can convey meanings that nothing else can.   Tap the link in our bio to listen! 🎧

Here’s your silver lining for today: copies of “Collection Inspiration: Edward C. More at Tiffany & Co.” are available now @TheMetStore . Accompanying the @metamericanwing exhibition at @metmuseum , this book is the first study of Edward C. Moore’s life, collection, and influence. Edward C. Moore (1827–1891) was the silversmith, designer, and prodigious collector who brought Tiffany & Co. to unparalleled originality and success during the late nineteenth century. Texts and illustrations feature more than 170 examples from his vast collection, ranging from Greek and Roman glass to Spanish vases, Islamic metalwork, and Japanese textiles. These are juxtaposed with 60 magnificent silver objects created by the designers and artisans at Tiffany who were inspired by Moore’s acquisitions. Get your copy of the book and don’t miss the exhibition on view through October 20, 2024.

Have you ever been tempted to eat clay? 😝 If you’re a 17th-century European aristocrat, the answer might be yes.   Used to contain water, ceramic vessels like this—known as búcaros—were appreciated not only for their exotic shapes and New World origin, but also for the distinctive aroma and taste of the clay from which they were made. The clay gave the water a pleasing flavor, too.    In the 17th century, it was fashionable among Spanish and Italian elites—especially women—to consume fragments of the pottery, which was thought to have medicinal qualities. This unusual practice also made their complexions pale, which was considered desirable at the time.   To learn more, tune into The Met’s podcast Immaterial, episode “Clay.” Tap the link in bio to listen and subscribe on @ApplePodcasts or wherever you get yours. #MetImmaterial 🏺Covered jar, ca. 1675–1700. Mexican. On view in Gallery 626.

Look who stopped by! ✨ Thrilled to welcome artist #TitusKaphar to see his painting “William ‘Billy’ Lee: Portrait in Tar” on view in the newly reinstalled Alexandria Ballroom in the American Wing. ⁣ ⁣ Acclaimed for his academically painted portraits that address the erasure of Black figures in Western art, Kaphar and his work explore how that invisibility impacts the telling of truthful histories. ⁣ ⁣ In this work, Kaphar uses tar as a form of painterly impasto to foreground the lack of accurate visual representations of a man enslaved by Washington’s family. Kaphar imagines how Lee might have presented himself if able to sit for formal portraits. ⁣ ⁣ The representation of Lee is inspired by a painting in The Met collection by John Trumbull, who would have known Lee from their wartime service—yet in Trumbull’s painting, Lee is marginalized in his rendering as a visual trope and depicted in a turban, based on European Orientalist conventions associated with Black figures. ⁣ ⁣ Visit “William ‘Billy’ Lee: Portrait in Tar” on view in Gallery 719 on the 2A mezzanine level of The Met’s American Wing.⁣ ⁣ 🎨 Titus Kaphar (American, born 1976). William “Billy” Lee: Portrait in Tar, 2016. Tar and oil on canvas. Lent by Collection of Bill and Christy Gautreaux. #MetAmericanWing

This Friday, Kent Monkman returns to The Met! ✨ ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Join us at the Museum on December 15 for an evening with Cree artist Kent Monkman—an unmissable event for anyone interested in an art-drenched, gloriously queer, Indigenous look at the “true” history of North America/Turtle Island, with a special appearance by Miss Chief Eagle Testickle.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ In conversation with Met curator Patricia Marroquin Norby (Purépecha), Monkman and his longtime collaborator Gisèle Gordon will discuss “The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle: A True and Exact Accounting of the History of Turtle Island”—a new, genre-defying book based on Monkman’s paintings that tells a story of the land called North America, reframing the narrative to be one of Indigenous resilience.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ This program is free with Museum admission, but registration is recommended. ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Tap the link in bio to learn more and sign up. ⁣ ⁣ 🎨 Kent Monkman (First Nations, Cree, born Saint Marys, Ontario 1965). Being Legendary, 2018. Acrylic on canvas. ⁣ ⁣ @metmodern ⁣ @metamericanwing

NOW ON VIEW—“Bélizaire and the Frey Children” is a rare American portrait of an enslaved Black subject depicted with the family of his enslaver. Attributed to Jacques Guillaume Lucien Amans—the leading French émigré portraitist working in 1830s-50s New Orleans—the painting illuminates the complex relationships of intimacy and inhumanity that defined domestic enslavement. The portrait’s later history also reveals the consequential afterlives of slavery. At the turn of the 20th century, the prominent depiction of the enslaved Afro-Creole teenager, Bélizaire, who is positioned against a Louisiana landscape above the three young Frey siblings presumably in his care, was deliberately concealed—likely by a member of the Frey family. The figure was only revealed after a careful conservation treatment. Archival research has also recovered the identities and some of the histories of all four subjects. Bélizaire survived the Civil War and lived to experience freedom. Both Frey sisters died the same year the portrait was painted, their brother some nine years later. See the painting on view now in the American Wing in Gallery 756. 🎨 Attributed to Jacques Guillaume Lucien Amans (Franco-American, 1801–1888). Bélizaire and the Frey Children, ca. 1837. Oil on canvas.

Pueblo Indian pottery embodies four main natural elements: earth, water, air, and fire. 🌎 💦 🌬️ 🔥 It is an art form literally of land and place and is one of America’s ancient Indigenous creative expressions. ⁣ ⁣ On view in the @metamericanwing , "Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery"—the first community-curated Native American exhibition in the history of The Met—features more than 100 ancestral, modern, and contemporary clay works that foreground Pueblo voices and aesthetics. ⁣ ⁣ This Thursday, October 12, join us for a Pueblo community panel to hear from community leaders, curators, artists, and collaborators on the exhibition. Get a personal glimpse into the artists’ processes and discover the significance of the visual and material languages embodied by the artworks. ⁣ ⁣ Tap the link in the bio to learn more. #IndigenousPeoplesDay #GroundedInClay "Grounded in Clay" is on view during regular hours at The Met and by appointment at the @vilcekfoundation through June 4, 2024.

John Singer Sargent had a history of repurposing antique frames for his paintings. For this portrait of Mrs. Hugh Hammersley (1892), Sargent probably acquired this asymmetrical 18th Century German Rococo giltwood frame in London and had it extended to fit the portrait. Over the years, sections of the exuberant carvings had broken off and had been replaced but were poorly executed. To restore the frame, old repairs were removed and leaf components were modelled to mimic other parts of the frame. These substitutions were gilded to blend with the historic appearance. The newly reanimated frame now suits the exuberance of the sitter and her vivid velvet dress. The painting and its beautifully restored frame will be included in the exhibition “Fashioned by Sargent” opening at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston on October 8, 2023.   1.     Overall, after treatment 2.     Overall, before treatment 3.     Detail, center crest carving, before treatment 4.     Detail, center crest carving, during treatment 5.     Detail, center crest carving, after treatment 6.     Detail, center base carving before treatment 7.     Detail, center base carving, during treatment 8.     Detail, center base carving, after treatment   [Conservator: Cynthia Moyer | Photo credits: Cynthia Moyer]   John Singer Sargent Mrs. Hugh Hammersley, 1892 Oil on canvas 81 x 45 ½ in; Framed: 91 1/2 x 52 5/8 x 4 3/4 in. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Douglass Campbell, in memory of Mrs. Richard E. Danielson, 1998 1998.365   #metpaintingsconservation #metmuseum #themetropolitanmuseumofart #themet #paintingsconservation #metamericanwing #mfaboston #fashionedbysargent #johnsingersargent #mrshughhammersley #rococoframe

✨Ready for her close up.✨ Flashback 📸 to when John Singer Sargent’s Madame X recently visited The Met’s Photo Studio for new photography. 🖼️ John Singer Sargent, Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau), 1883-84 (16.53). #MetAmericanWing #MetImaging

Now on view in The American Wing at @metmuseum : Grounded in Clay. The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery. Foregrounding Pueblo voices and aesthetics, Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery is the first community-curated Native American exhibition in the history of The Met. The effort features more than one hundred historical, modern, and contemporary clay works and offers a critical understanding of Pueblo pottery as community-based knowledge and personal experience. Dating from the eleventh century to the present day, the featured artworks represent the aesthetic lineages of New Mexico’s nineteen Río Grande Pueblos as well as the West Texas community of Ysleta del Sur and the Hopi tribe of Arizona—sovereign Indigenous nations where pots and other ceramic works have been made and used for millennia. Visual and material languages of pottery and intergenerational narratives are highlighted throughout the exhibition. Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery was curated by the Pueblo Pottery Collective, a group that includes sixty individual members of diverse ages, backgrounds, and professions, who represent twenty-one source communities. Selected works are from two significant Pueblo pottery collections—the Indian Arts Research Center of the School for Advanced Research (SAR) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the Vilcek Foundation, New York, New York.

The American Wing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art mourns the loss of Curator emerita H. Barbara Weinberg, our colleague, mentor, and friend. Following a noteworthy career as a professor of art history at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center, Barbara joined The Met in 1990 as Curator of American Painting and Sculpture. Over more than two decades at the Museum, she engaged and educated legions of visitors through groundbreaking exhibitions, dynamic gallery installations, incisive publications, and immensely popular lectures, while mentoring the next generation of scholars. Her legacy continues to inspire and inform our work today.