The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street
New York, New York 10028-0198
Gallery 521
Victorian Electrotypes - Old Treasures, New Technology
Until the 22nd April 2012
For the first time in nearly a century, The Metropolitan Museum of Art is displaying a selection from its large collection of electrotypes, the metalwork reproductions that were among the first European decorative arts purchased by the Museum in the 1870s and 1880s. These highly sculptural and often monumental pieces were intended to represent to the American public the most ambitious examples of Mannerist and Baroque goldsmiths' work and to serve as inspiration for artists and manufacturers. They were made by electroforming, a technology first developed in the 1840s that produced an extremely precise copy of an original by running an electrical charge through a solution to deposit metal into a mold.
The exhibition includes approximately 110 works. The earliest purchases were made with the advice of the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum), whose director Henry Cole was a prime mover in an international project designed to distribute casts and copies "for the promotion of art" to museums across the world.
Opening Hours:
Tuesday—Thursday: 9:30 a.m.—5:30 p.m.
Friday and Saturday: 9:30 a.m.—9:00 p.m.
Sunday: 9:30 a.m.—5:30 p.m.
Closed Monday (except Met Holiday Mondays), December 25, and January 1
Please note: The Museum will close at 4:45 p.m. on Saturday, December 24, and Saturday, December 31.
Admission: $25
http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/li ... ectrotypes