New York Art Tours celebrates the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s reopening to the public today with a look at this Seated Male Figure from the museum’s current ‘Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara’ exhibition. Fueled by global trade and transformed by the arrival of Islam, the region’s empires produced masterpieces like this terracotta figure whose identity is unknown. (On view through Oct 26th. View the Met’s new guidelines before visiting.)
Gianni Versace’s 1991-92 jacket, featuring a Madonna and child embroidered in crystals, draws on the gold tile and opulent patterning of Ravenna’s Byzantine architecture. Part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s stunning ‘Heavenly Bodies’ Costume Institute exhibition, the garment joins icons from the Met’s collection in a contemporary reinterpretation of opulence. (On view on the Upper East Side through Oct 8th).
Japanese artist Tanabe Chikuunsai IV created this stunning woven bamboo sculpture on-site at the entrance to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s current show of bamboo art from the Abbey Collection, announcing the amazing craftsmanship and inventiveness on display in this exhibition. (On view through Feb 4th).
