chanda and i were out early this morning to ride the number 6 line to 86th street . .
for coffee and pastry at cafe sabarsky . .
(after soft boiled eggs and challah bread . . )
we then walked the three blocks to the met museum to roam through two exhibits that will be ending soon.
the visitors to versailles exhibit . .
and the painted in mexico exhibit . .
the versailles exhibit had beautiful examples of 18th century french embroidery that graced gowns and men's coats (we imagined the people bent over their work, stitching away so quickly and precisely . . ) along with diagrams of how the palace grew from one simple mansion to a village of aristocracy. at its height the palace employed ten thousand people!
the paintings from mexico were rich and beautiful portraits of the wealthy families of 18th century "new spain," along with the religious themes that covered sacristies and choirs. it showed a side of mexico i don't remember learning about in my public school's history classes.
i was curious about seven ponds and a few raindrops that was listed on the latest exhibitions pamphlet.
it was mobile sculpture by ranjani shettar who likes to use natural and industrial materials such as wood, lacquer, steel, cloth, beeswax, organic dyes and vegetables pastes. she molded pieces of stainless steel and covered them with muslin that was dyed with a natural paste made of tamarind (a craft she observed in kinnala, a small village in india, well known for its wooden toys and use of tamarind dye).
we then visited the asian wing, which we always seem to return to for our journal sketches . .
a handscroll from the 14th - 15th centuries, ink and color on silk.
a fan mounted as an album leaf: ink, color and gold on silk. the green and blue are made from malachite and axurite.
a page from the painter wang hui's album that he made for his teacher, wang shimin, in 1674.
a page from wang shengmo's landscape album of 1636: ink and color on paper. a poem by wang shengmo accompanied each drawing he made for the album.
maybe it would be nice to visit again? this exhibition was titled, streams and mountains without end, landscape traditions of china. it's on exhibit until 2019, so we have plenty of time . .
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