Both kingdoms eventually and simultaneously succumbed to the successors of the Medes, the Persians, whose king Cyrus captured Sardis in 546 B.C.

The sprawling geographic region that is Island Southeast Asia comprises more than seventeen hundred islands, including the modern nations of the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, and eastern Malaysia. A common language and culture may at an early time have unified the peoples of this vast region, and in spite of the impact of colonialism and extensive contact with four of the world's great religions, a commonality remains. The visual arts powerfully illustrate this tenacious unity. The Fred and Rita Richman Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, is an impressive assemblage of the art of these myriad islands. Many of the art forms represented no longer survive, and those that do are seldom created in their original social and religious context,making the work a valuable record of an irretrievable past. Made in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the art in the collection represents a dynamic period in Southeast Asia's history, during which mercantile exploits gave rise to social, political, and economic changes. The art of Island Southeast Asia is thus one of continuous change. Nevertheless, because of shared ethnic, linguistic, and cultural sources, different forms of artistic expression remain formally and conceptually related, and while the meanings given to similar art forms and their stylistic renderings vary, the concepts they reflect are universal. Broadly stated, the art addresses two fundamental concerns, fertility and protection. Four important images evoke these themes: the seated human figure, the omega-shaped mamuli ornament, the water buffalo, and the naga serpent-dragon. The works, many rendered powerful by natural and supernatural forces, visually conjoin spirit worlds and island realms.

MetLiveArts Intern Veronica Brown recounts her experience processing from The Met Breuer to The Met Fifth Avenue as part of the Museum's staging of Lygia Pape's Divisor (Divider).

"No place for a blind girl in a city of ash."

Rachel High converses with curator Iria Candela, author of the exhibition catalogue for Lygia Pape: A Multitude of Forms, about the artist's career and significance in the history of modern and contemporary art.

Lygia Pape (1927–2004) was one of the most acclaimed and influential Brazilian artists of the twentieth century. As a prominent member of a generation of artists, architects, and designers who embraced the optimistic and constructive spirit of postwar Brazil, she is particularly known for her participation in the experimental art movement Neoconcretism, which sought to rework the legacy of European avant-garde abstraction to suit a new cultural context. Beyond the specific aims of Neoconcretism, however, Pape engaged with a wide range of media painting, drawing, poetry, graphic design and photography, film and performance—constantly experimenting in a quest to confront the canonical and discover unexplored territories in modern art. Following a coup d’etat in 1964, when the establishment of an authoritarian regime shattered dreams of shared prosperity in Brazil, Pape continued to pursue her art against difficult odds. The streets of Rio de Janeiro became her ultimate source of inspiration, as she created participatory works that questioned the space between artist and viewer and the social context of art itself. This beautifully illustrated publication accompanies the first major exhibition in the United States devoted to the work of Lygia Pape. Featuring essays by art historians in both North and South America, as well as two previously untranslated interviews with the artist and an illustrated chronology, Lygia Pape is a testament to the artist’s lasting importance to the modern art and culture of Latin America and to her position as a major figure of the international avant-garde.

Conservators Glenn Petersen and Mecka Baumeister and Jan G. Reeder, former consulting curator for the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Costume Institute, examine the mystery behind and debunk the myths around Pierre Yantorny and his work.

Among the gorgeous garments on display in the exhibition American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity (closing August 15) is an exquisite black evening dress attributed to Madame Marie Gerber of the house of Callot Soeurs. I spoke with Andrew Bolton, curator in the Met's Costume Institute, about the dress's bold design and glamorous, influential owner.

The spring 2010 exhibition organized by The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art is American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity, the first drawn from the newly established Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Met. The exhibition, on view from May 5 through August 15, 2010, explores developing perceptions of the modern American woman from the 1890s to the 1940s, and how they have affected the way American women are seen today. Focusing on archetypes of American femininity through dress, the exhibition reveals how the American woman initiated style revolutions that mirrored her social, political, and sartorial emancipation. Early mass-media representations of American women established the fundamental characteristics of American style – a theme explored via a multimedia installation in the final gallery.

Quicksilver Brilliance is the first museum exhibition devoted to Adolf de Meyer in more than twenty years and the first ever at The Met, and includes some forty works, drawn entirely from The Met collection, that demonstrate the impressive breadth of his career.

On view December 4, 2017–April 8, 2018