Free Art Books from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Art Lovers Rejoice: 

the Metropolitan Museum of Art has FREE art books to download

Met Publications offers five decades of Met publications on art history, available to read, download and/or search for free. Launched in 2012, Met Publications continually adds to their collection of free online books.

Every year The Met produces stunning art catalogues to promote their exhibitions: but if you don't live in New York City, and can't continuously purchase the many wonderful art catalogues, that art goes unseen. Now, art catalogues as well as other art books that are out of publication and readily available to the public through The Met's free download program. Virtual museum tours are a wonderful opportunity for armchair travel to some of the world's outstanding museums, the Met's online art books allow you to continue your virtual art education.

Met Publications books can be read online, or downloaded as a PDF. Each available art book lists:

• book title
• author
• description
• year released
• book cover image

Some of the titles available for download are:

Christian Dior by Richard Martin and Harold Koda (1996)

La Belle Epoque by Philippe Julian and Diana Vreeland

Masterpieces of the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Barbara Burn (2006)

Ancient Egyptian Jewelry by Ambrose Lansing (1940)

Note: The Met also has over 400,000 free art images online for you to download.

à la prochaine,

Shirley

Virtual Museum Tours - Field Trips Online

Have you ever read about a museum you would love to visit, but circumstances - time - money - travel - make it impossible to visit the museum in person? Often I read of a wonderful exhibit in Savannah, or a new museum in Paris, an architectural wonder in South America, and wish I could drop everything and visit.


Today museums, world heritage sites, historical artifacts and monuments can all be explored via the digital world.

Here are some of my favorite online resources for virtual field trips:

• Google Cultural Institute and World Wonders - Over 500 Google partners from 60+ countries have uploaded over 6.2 million objects and artifacts to the Google Cultural Institute website. In one year from June 2013 - June 2014 over 19 million unique visitors have viewed over 200 million web pages. FREE

• MoMA, New York City - The Museum of Modern Art App for iPhone lets you see and hear a wide variety of exhibits and artists, find out about upcoming events, and organize and share your favorite museum artworks. FREE 

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• Musée Du Louvre, Paris - Discover the Louvre Museum with this iPhone app that presents over 1000 pieces from the museum's collection, presents a history of the castle that houses the museum, and has a video tour of the Louvre. FREE

• National Gallery, London - The National Gallery iPhone app has over 250 artworks with video and audio stories about the collection. Famous artists, writers and experts discuss the artworks and introduce the stories behind the masterpieces. $2.99

• Smithsonian Museums, Washington DC - Each Smithsonian Museum offers different virtual websites and apps for online tours, exhibits and background. The Museum of Natural History offers a panoramic room-by-room tour of the museum. FREE

What are your favorite virtual museum and cultural tours? Leave me a comment, I'd like to visit!

a la prochaine,

Shirley