So every semester I visit the MET just before class starts to see if all the stuff I want my students to look at are in the same places where I left them. In the past, this means visiting the works and ticking them off the list. BUT, this time I found they had moved TONS of stuff around - to great new places - and they provide new and exciting labels. Good work you guys.

Here are a few things I saw on this trip -

So always go to the MET on Mondays early in the day. In 2013 they started opening the museum 7 days a week, but many folks (including myself) forget this and don't go. The galleries are very quiet and serene. The tourists are few and are mostly polite, and they speak languages that I don't understand so I don't have to listen to them discuss the artwork. And the guards and café folks are happy to see you - they have emerged from the shell-shock that is the holidays.

Go see the Charles and Valerie Diker collection show consisting of, "116 masterworks from more than fifty cultures across North America, ranging in date from the second to the early twentieth century." The MET has never had a great showing of North American, Native American works. They mix it all in with stuff from Africa, Meso and South America - in the (ahem) primitive wing. This fixes this - if they get this promised gift. I saw great - katsina / kachina figures, Arctic snow goggles, a "Maria" pot, marvelous North West Coast masks, and the labels are terrific! It's up till May 13, 2019. Get there.

They moved the statue of Ganesha into a case. According to the MET, "The potbellied, elephant-headed Hindu god is venerated throughout India bestowing success and abundance through his removal of obstacles. Before any important task is begun, an offering is made to Ganesha." So whenever I went to see him I would check his pedestal for "offerings" - coins, subway tokens back in the day, folding currency and there was often a lot But, I guess the curators had enough and put him in a glass case.

The reinstallation of all the abstract works up on the second floor is GREAT in a section called Epic Ab-straction - Pollock to Herrera, including our favorite Pollock - moved to a new location, Noguchi's Kouros, several Rothko, and a gigantic Louis Nevelson called Mrs. N's Palace. Stunning.

On this Monday Winter morning and afternoon - the light was raking and beautiful in the Dendur, American, and Greek and Roman courtyards.

I found the European Galleries a mess…but I understand. Leaky roofs and the desire for natural light is a plus. Can't wait till 2020?

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