My Met

[All images via The Met. Detailed credits with links follow below]

I've been exploring My Met, a new, free, easy to access interactive service created by The Metropolitan Museum  of Art. 

[19th-century Japanese stoneware tea bowl with peony.]

Curious to see who else shares your obsession with Indian-inspired French paisley, vintage Italian bags, or Egyptian faience? Want to let Met curators know which objects in the Museum's collections most inspire you? My Met makes it easy to do so via Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, etc. But there's a less public side to the feature, too.

["Paul Gauguin: The Artist's Portfolio, Pont-Aven". 1894. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.]

I initially used the service to hone in on very specific interests -- a few were blue-green beads, striped textiles, and botanicals. By tapping a string of New Kingdom scaraboids, I received a reminder that a new exhibition, The Dawn of Egyptian Art, opens April 10. I could also determine which of my favorite pieces are currently on view in the galleries and which aren't.

Here's my little virtual tour, beginning with the mix at top, clockwise from the center top:

Ellsworth Kelly's Orange, graphite on paper, 1968. (Don't forget, the first major retrospective of the artist's botanicals, Ellsworth Kelly: Plant Drawings, opens at the Met June 5.)

Detail view of a 19th-century wool, silk 'paisley' shawl. More on paisley here.

Egyptian faience scaraboids with a Downton Abbey connection. Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter excavated the strand in 1911 and it was later purchased by the Museum from Lady Carnarvon in 1926.

Portrait of the Elephant 'Alam Guman, circa 1640. If you're a fan of old Indian art, don't miss Enfilade's coverage of the Asia Society show, Princes and Painters in Mughal Dehli 1707-1857.

Camellia and Bird by Utagawa Hiroshige, circa 1833.

Italian leather bag, late 1960s.

Learn about the Edo period tea bowl with peony here, and Gauguin's handmade portfolio here.

 

[My friend Janet snapped this wisteria at the National Gallery.]

BTW, in related news, over at Enfilade, Craig Hanson reports on the recent launch of our National Gallery's new public service, NGA Images. Read all about it here.