Press release

SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS JANUARY - APRIL 2000

New Exhibitions
Upcoming Exhibitions
Continuing Exhibitions
New and Recently Opened Installations
Traveling Exhibitions
Visitor Information

OF SPECIAL NOTE:

• A major retrospective of 175 vintage prints by American photographer Walker Evans coincides with the Metropolitan's opening of the Walker Evans Archive, acquired by the Museum in 1994

Ancient Faces displays 70 superb examples of the startlingly realistic masks that were placed over the heads of Egyptian mummies in the Greco—Roman era

• Masterworks by Braque, Matisse, Modigliani, Monet, Picasso, and other major 20th—century artists, all from the Museum's collection, are shown together for the first time in Painters in Paris: 1895—1950

• With the opening of the new Cypriot Galleries in April, a selection of 600 works from the renowned Cesnola Collection returns to public view

NEW EXHIBITIONS

SEAN SCULLY ON PAPER
January 11 — March 12, 2000
An installation of watercolors, pastels, graphic works, and photographs featuring works in the Museum's collection: Pomes Penyeach, a 1993 suite of etchings that accompanies a suite of poems written by James Joyce between 1904 and 1924 in Dublin, Trieste, Zurich, and Paris; and Harris and Lewis Shacks, photographs taken by the artist in 1990 on the Isles of Harris and Lewis in Scotland.

KOREAN CERAMICS FROM
THE MUSEUM OF ORIENTAL CERAMICS, OSAKA

January 25 — June 4, 2000
The 48 exquisite works on loan from the distinguished collection of the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, represent the period of highest achievement in the Korean peninsula's long ceramic tradition. Dating from the 12th to the 19th century, the selection includes luminous jade—green celadon wares of the Koryo dynasty (918—1392) as well as superb examples of the innovative stoneware known as punch'ong and white porcelains of the Choson dynasty (1392—1910). The objects are exhibited alongside the Metropolitan's own Korean art collection in the Museum's permanent Arts of Korea gallery, which was inaugurated in June 1998.

The exhibition is made possible by The Kun—Hee Lee Fund for Korean Art.

EUROPEAN HELMETS, 1450—1650:
TREASURES FROM THE RESERVE COLLECTION

January 25, 2000 — January 2001
Helmets are the earliest known form of body armor and remain today an essential element of protection not only for soldiers but also for sportsmen. In the later Middle Ages and Renaissance, helmet design reached its apogee, the European armorer creating head defenses of ingenious construction and powerful sculptural form. The Metropolitan Museum's holdings of European helmets are among the largest and most diverse in the world. This exhibition offers a representative survey of some 75 helmets drawn entirely from storage, revealing the depth of the collection and a glimpse of objects that are rarely on public display.

The accompanying publication is made possible by the Grancsay Fund.

WALKER EVANS
February 1 — May 14, 2000
This major retrospective of the work of American photographer Walker Evans (1903—1975) displays some 175 vintage prints from public and private collections throughout the United States and Canada, and draws on newly available material from the photographer's archive, which was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum in 1994. The photographs span the artist's long and productive career, focusing not only on the classic pictorial documents of America during the Depression, but also on little—known experimental images from the 1920s, photo—essays for Fortune magazine from the 1940s and 1950s, and SX—70 Polaroid color prints from the 1970s. The exhibition is accompanied by two publications: a monographic treatment of Evans's work; and an anthology of materials that makes available for the first time the artist's early short stories, important letters, and critical essays now housed in the Walker Evans Archive.

The exhibition is made possible by Prudential Securities.

The conservation of the Walker Evans Archive has been made possible through the generous support of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation as part of the Save America's Treasures program.

Additional conservation support has been provided by The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Henry J. Nias Foundation, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The accompanying publication is made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

PERFECT DOCUMENTS:
WALKER EVANS AND AFRICAN ART, 1935

February 1 — September 3, 2000
In 1935, a large and groundbreaking exhibition of African sculpture was mounted at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In it, the works were shown as art objects rather than as ethnographic objects. Walker Evans, then 32 years old, was commissioned to create a photographic portfolio of a selection of works in the show, including some 477 images. Seventeen portfolios, each comprising four volumes, were then produced. Perfect Documents displays 50 of the photographs from Walker Evans's portfolio (with a rotation in June), along with several related sculptures. The exhibition complements the Metropolitan's full—scale retrospective of the work of Walker Evans, described above.

This exhibition is sponsored by Philip Morris Companies Inc.

The accompanying catalogue is made possible by the Doris Duke Fund for Publications.

THE WORLD OF SCHOLARS' ROCKS:
GARDENS, STUDIOS, AND PAINTINGS

February 1 — August 20, 2000
Rocks have long been admired in China as an essential feature in gardens. By the early Song dynasty (960—1279), small ornamental rocks were also collected as accoutrements of the scholar's study, and the portrayal of rocks, often joined by an old tree or bamboo, became a favorite and enduring pictorial genre. Particularly admired are stones that have been sculpted by natural processes of erosion — or that appear natural even if they have been artfully enhanced by man — as embodiments of the transformational powers of nature. This exhibition features more than 30 scholars' rocks from the noted collection of the Richard Rosenblum family, ranging in size from desktop pieces to freestanding works of several feet in height. They are accompanied by around 100 paintings dating from the 11th to 20th century, drawn primarily from the Museum's collection.

NORTHERN RENAISSANCE
DRAWINGS AND ILLUMINATIONS
IN THE ROBERT LEHMAN COLLECTION

February 8 — May 21, 2000
This is the second rotation of northern drawings culled from the Metropolitan's Robert Lehman Collection. On view are 15th— and 16th—century German, French, and Netherlandish drawings and illuminations selected from the trove of treasured master drawings and manuscripts amassed by Robert Lehman, supplemented with several loans from the Museum's Department of Medieval Art. Four autograph sheets by Albrecht Dürer are among the highlights of the presentation that also includes works by Martin Schongauer, Hans Baldung Grien, Maerten van Heemskerck, and artists in the circles of Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden.

This installation has been organized to coincide with the publication of the Lehman Collection catalogue Fifteenth— to Eighteenth—Century Drawings in the Robert Lehman Collection: Central Europe, The Netherlands, France, and England.

The exhibition is made possible by Robert Lehman Foundation, Inc.

TILMAN RIEMENSCHNEIDER:
MASTER SCULPTOR OF THE LATE MIDDLE AGES

February 10 — May 14, 2000
Striking a rare balance between formal elegance and expressive strength, the sculpture of Tilman Riemenschneider (c. 1460—1531) stands solidly anchored in the late Gothic tradition while also reflecting emerging humanist concerns. This international loan exhibition brings together many of the sculptor's finest works from throughout his career, including elements from altarpieces, cult figures, objects of private devotion, models, and sculpture with a secular function. Riemenschneider, active in Würzburg from around 1483 until 1531, was one of the first sculptors to abandon polychromy on occasion, making a conscious aesthetic decision to leave visible his favored material, limewood. Here on display are examples of both his monochrome and polychrome wood sculptures, as well as exquisite works in alabaster and sandstone. The inclusion of a few outstanding works by Riemenschneider's most important predecessors and contemporaries — such as Niclaus Gerhaert von Leiden, Michel Erhart, and Veit Stoss — allows his achievement to be viewed in its proper context.

The exhibition is made possible in part by Bayerische Landesbank.

The exhibition is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

An indemnity has been granted by the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Educational programs have been supported in part by the Anna—Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation.

The accompanying catalogue is made possible by the Doris Duke Fund for Publications.

ANCIENT FACES: MUMMY PORTRAITS FROM ROMAN EGYPT
February 15 — May 7, 2000
During the first to third century A.D. in Egypt, painted panel portraits — also known as Fayum portraits — were sometimes placed over the heads of mummies. With their direct full gaze and strong presence, these portraits, at once Greco—Roman in their painting style and intrinsically Egyptian in their purpose, bring the inhabitants of ancient Egypt before us with compelling immediacy. Based on a similar exhibition at the British Museum in 1997, Ancient Faces presents approximately 70 of the finest Fayum portraits, drawn from museums throughout Europe and the U.S. Accompanied by examples of beautiful contemporary mummy coverings and masks, jewelry, funerary stelae, and related works, the exhibition places the portraits into the complex culture of Roman Egypt.

The exhibition is made possible in part by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in collaboration with The British Museum.

Accompanied by a catalogue.

PAINTERS IN PARIS: 1895—1950
March 8 — December 31, 2000
During the first decades of the 20th century, France was host to many foreign artists and Paris was central to the development of modern art. This revelatory exhibition, which brings together for the first time more than 100 prime examples from the Metropolitan's collection of paintings by artists of the School of Paris, begins with the Impressionist tradition, represented by Monet, and chronologically continues through the Fauves, Cubists, and Surrealists. Many of these works — by 38 modern masters including Braque, Chagall, Dubuffet, Matisse, Miró, and Modigliani, as well as 19 paintings by Picasso — were acquired through major gifts and bequests during the past two decades. United in this exhibition, the works recall a period and place of great vitality and reveal unexpected relationships between the artists who so profoundly shaped the art of their century.

The exhibition is sponsored by Aetna.

Accompanied by a publication.

THE ART OF JAPAN FROM
THE MARY GRIGGS BURKE COLLECTION

March 28 — June 25, 2000
This unprecedented exhibition drawn from the renowned Burke Collection, the most comprehensive private holding of Japanese art in the West, features some 200 masterpieces in various media, dating from the second millennium B.C. to the early 19th century. Works selected for the exhibition, some of which are recent acquisitions, include sculptures and paintings made to honor native Shinto gods or foreign Buddhist deities. Some of the finest ink—monochrome paintings were produced for the service of Zen Buddhist communities. Elegant polychromatic paintings — hanging scrolls, handscrolls, and folding screens (byobu) — reflect the indigenous tastes of the Japanese. Some works illustrate Japan's oldest and finest literary masterworks, such as the Tales of Ise (10th century) and Tale of Genji (ca. 1005), while others depict the joys and pleasures of the common people. Also featured are powerful abstractions of landscapes in bold and dramatic designs, executed in brilliant gold and colors; ceramics that reflect the tradition of the tea ceremony; and Negoro, Kodaiji, and Namban lacquerwares.

The accompanying publication is made possible through the generous support of The Dillon Fund.

SUBJECTS AND SYMBOLS IN AMERICAN SCULPTURE:
SELECTIONS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION

April 11 — August 20, 2000
This exhibition of American sculpture from the 19th and early 20th centuries draws on historical, allegorical, and literary subjects and considers the popularity of such themes as the seasons and the times of day. Bronze and marble statuettes and reliefs such as Erastus Dow Palmer's Sappho, Augustus Saint—Gaudens's Diana, and Adolph Alexander Weinman's Descending Night, are featured, accompanied by a selection of medals and works on paper from the Museum's holdings.

NOW! MODERN PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION
April 18 — October 22, 2000
An installation of postwar photography, including large—scale contemporary works being exhibited at the Metropolitan for the first time.

KLEE'S LINE
April 25 — August 13, 2000
A selection of works that displays the artist's imaginative use of line, changing from early naturalism to spidery playfulness to the thick contours of his late years, is installed in the Lila Acheson Wallace Wing's south mezzanine gallery.

AFTER NICOLAS POUSSIN: NEW ETCHINGS BY LEON KOSSOFF
April 25 — August 13, 2000
Drawn from the Museum's collection of works by the London painter Leon Kossoff (b. 1926), a selection of 14 etchings — some with aquatint — after eight paintings by the 17th—century French artist Nicolas Poussin are on view in the north mezzanine gallery of the Lila Acheson Wallace Wing.

ART AND ORACLE: SPIRIT VOICES OF AFRICA
April 26 — July 30, 2000
Throughout history, people everywhere have developed divinatory strategies as a means of harnessing spiritual forces that can be used to resolve their problems. Many of the most renowned and sublime works of art from Africa were conceived as part of such quests for understanding and enlightenment. This millennial exhibition explores the relationship between artistic creation and divine inspiration by bringing together some of the finest works relating to the cosmologies and religious systems that inform divination practices across sub—Saharan Africa. Works of art designed as instruments for professional diviners and prescribed as remedies to the individuals who consult them include the full repertory of finely carved implements, used for over half a millennia, by Yoruba Ifa diviners as well as figurative sculptures from Senufo, Baule, Mende, Igbo, and a score of other cultures. Works conceived to enhance the destinies of their individual owners range from monuments commissioned by kings to miniature protective amulets. The exhibition features some 200 works of sculpture in a full range of media from European and American collections.

The exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Rietberg Museum, Zurich.

Accompanied by a catalogue.

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

A CENTURY OF DESIGN, PART II: 1925—1950
May 9 — October 29, 2000
This will be the second in a four—part series of exhibitions surveying design in the 20th century through the presentation of significant objects in all media drawn from the Museum's collection by major European modernist designers of the Bauhaus, De Stijl, Scandinavian, and other avant—garde design movements.

THE FORGOTTEN FRIEZES FROM THE CASTLE OF VÉLEZ BLANCO
May 12, 2000 — January 9, 2001
An extraordinary group of four large relief friezes from the Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris will be on display to celebrate the Museum's reopening of the newly renovated Renaissance patio from the Fajardo castle at Vélez Blanco in southern Spain (see page 18). Recently discovered, these 16th—century wooden reliefs, each more than 15 feet in length, were once part of the decoration of the reception halls in the same castle and are boldly carved with classical and mythological scenes representing the Triumph of Julius Caesar and the Labors of Hercules.

SCULPTURE AND DECORATIVE ARTS OF THE SPANISH RENAISSANCE
May 12, 2000 — January 9, 2001
The Museum's small but select collection of Spanish polychrome sculpture — among the most important such holdings in the U.S. — will be displayed in the gallery adjacent to the newly reopened Vélez Blanco Patio (see page 18). The sculptures, dating from the early 16th to the mid—17th century, will be augmented by groupings of Spanish decorative arts, displayed to reveal the varied strands of influence — Moorish, Flemish, and Italian Renaissance — that enriched the glittering and vibrant material culture of Renaissance Spain. Among the highlights of the installation will be two rare and delicate 11—foot—high embroidered hangings depicting heroic events in the Catholic reconquest of Spain. Long in storage, they will be displayed to celebrate the patio's reopening.

DAVID SMITH ON THE ROOF
May 16 — late fall 2000 (weather permitting)
A selection of works in burnished stainless steel by David Smith (1906—1965), considered the most original and influential American sculptor of his generation, will be installed on the Museum's 10,000—square—foot open—air Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, which offers a panoramic view of the Manhattan skyline and Central Park. Beverage and sandwich service will be available from 10:00 a.m. until closing, including Friday and Saturday evenings.

AMERICAN MODERN, 1925—1940: DESIGN FOR A NEW AGE
May 16, 2000 — January 7, 2001
On display will be approximately 150 objects — furniture, clocks, appliances, lamps, textiles, posters, and more — created by the first generation of American industrial designers including Norman Bel Geddes, Donald Deskey, Henry Dreyfuss, Paul Frankl, Raymond Loewy, Eliel Saarinen, Walter Dorwin Teague, Walter Von Nessen, Russel Wright, and others. Employing new technologies and materials available in America, these pioneering designers rejected historicist ornament, preferring the clean, uncluttered lines and geometric forms of European functionalism. They sought to define a new style appropriate to the 20th century and, in so doing, to a great extent transformed the American domestic landscape.

The exhibition is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Federation of Arts.

Support has been provided by the National Patrons of the AFA.

THE ANNENBERG COLLECTION OF IMPRESSIONIST
AND POSTIMPRESSIONIST MASTERPIECES

Late May — mid—November 2000
In an annual event, the 53 paintings, drawings, and watercolors that compose the Annenberg Collection of Impressionist and Postimpressionist masterworks will once again be on view in the Museum's Nineteenth—Century European Paintings and Sculpture Galleries. The collection, acknowledged as one of the most distinguished private collections of its kind, includes the work of 18 of the greatest artists of the 19th and early 20th centuries, among them Manet, Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Picasso. Assembled by the Honorable Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg, the collection is loaned generously by them to the Metropolitan for six months of every year.

JOHN SINGER SARGENT BEYOND THE PORTRAIT STUDIO: PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS FROM THE COLLECTION
June 6 — September 10, 2000
Some 100 paintings and drawings selected from the Museum's extensive holdings will illuminate episodes in Sargent's career as he studied and sought inspiration outside the confines of the portrait studio. These works reflect his travels to Spain, Morocco, and other destinations in North Africa and the Near East; his enduring fascination with Venice; his summer holidays in the Italian lake district and the Alps; his tours of the United States, including Florida and the Rocky Mountains; and his travels to the western front during World War I as an official war artist. Also on view will be his preparatory sketches for allegorical murals for the Boston Public Library, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Harvard University's Widener Library. The exhibition commemorates the 75th anniversary of the artist's death and the 50th anniversary of the gift of numerous works to the Metropolitan by his sister, Mrs. Francis Ormond.

The exhibition and its accompanying publications are made possible by the Marguerite and Frank A. Cosgrove Jr. Fund.

OTHER PICTURES: VERNACULAR PHOTOGRAPHS
FROM THE THOMAS WALTHER COLLECTION

June 6 — August 27, 2000
This selection of approximately 60 anonymous vernacular photographs from the 1920s to the 1960s teases the eye and delights the mind. Cut loose from their original context but infused with the aesthetic spirit of their time, these unintended and unexpected masterpieces often call to mind the work of master photographers such as Henri Cartier—Bresson, László Moholy—Nagy, or Robert Frank. Drawn from the collection of Thomas Walther, these surprising images shed new light on one of the most prolific and eccentric artists of our century: "Photographer Unknown."

Accompanied by a publication.

FIREWORKS
June 6 — September 17, 2000
More than 100 prints and drawings, culled primarily from the Metropolitan's collection, illustrate celebrations in which fireworks mark special occasions, such as births, weddings, and royal entries. The works range in date from the 15th to the 20th century and include depictions of firework displays at the Vatican, on the Arno in Florence, lighting up the cathedral in Antwerp, at Versailles, in St. Petersburg and Vienna, and celebrating the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge. Among the artists represented are Antonio Tempesta, Jacques Callot, Claude Lorrain, Jean—Louis Desprez, Francesco Piranesi, Winslow Homer, Edgar Degas, and the lithographers Currier and Ives.

Accompanied by a Museum Bulletin.

CHARDIN
June 27 — September 3, 2000
This major loan exhibition will offer a survey of Chardin's distinguished career as a still—life and genre painter, as seen in 67 works from international collections. The son of a Parisian artisan, Jean Siméon Chardin (1699—1779) was received into the French Academy in 1728. The quality of his naturalistic painting in the 17th—century Dutch tradition was exceptional and his success as a painter of animals, birds, and fruit was immediate. The artist later turned to half—length figures and genre scenes and his interior views, which depict 18th—century bourgeois life, are remarkable for the studied harmony of their pictorial structure. The critic Diderot wrote in 1763 that a still life by Chardin "is nature itself; the objects free themselves from the canvas and are deceptively true to life." Among the highlights of the exhibition are The Ray (Musée du Louvre, Paris), Girl with a Shuttlecock (private collection), The Governess (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa), and Basket of Wild Strawberries (private collection), as well as Soap Bubbles, a painting in the Metropolitan Museum's collection.

The exhibition is made possible by The Florence Gould Foundation.

The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris, the Kunstmuseum and Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf, and the Royal Academy of Arts, London.

An indemnity has been granted by the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Accompanied by a catalogue.

THE EMBODIED IMAGE: CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY
FROM THE JOHN B. ELLIOTT COLLECTION

September 15, 2000 — January 7, 2001
The Elliott Collection is perhaps the finest collection of Chinese calligraphy outside Asia, spanning the period from the inception of writing as a fine art in the fourth century to the modern era. More than 50 calligraphic works — hangings and handscrolls, album leaves, and other treasures — and 10—12 objects from the collection will be featured in this exhibition, accompanied by selections from the Metropolitan Museum's renowned Crawford Collection. The presentation of these two collections together in a large—scale exhibition, featuring some 130 works in all, will constitute the most important display of calligraphy ever assembled in the West.

Accompanied by a catalogue.

ART AND THE EMPIRE CITY: NEW YORK, 1825—1861
September 19, 2000 — January 7, 2001
In America during the second quarter of the 19th century — between 1825, when the Erie Canal was built, and 1861, when the Civil War began — the visual arts proliferated. This landmark exhibition explores in unprecedented depth the history of American art of this period as epitomized in New York City, which at that time blossomed into the largest city in the Western Hemisphere and became the center of manufacturing, culture, and the arts. More than 300 works — paintings, sculpture, architectural and city planning documents, photography, lithography, and the full gamut of decorative arts, including furniture, silver, ceramics, and glass — will be shown, assembled from some 100 lenders in the United States and Europe and including approximately 100 works in all media from the Metropolitan's own collection. The exhibition has been scheduled to coincide with the celebration of the millennium being planned for New York City.

The exhibition is made possible by Fleet.

Accompanied by a catalogue.

"LA DIVINE COMTESSE": PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE COUNTESS DE CASTIGLIONE
September 19 — December 31, 2000
Considered the most beautiful woman of her time, the Countess de Castiglione was a special agent for the cause of Italian unification, mistress of Napoleon III, and a mysterious recluse notorious for her multiple love affairs. She collaborated with photographer Pierre—Louis Pierson to chronicle her natural beauty and extravagant couture and to recreate for posterity the great moments of her public life. This exhibition of approximately 50 photographs, many of which were elaborately painted under her direction, will tell an extraordinary tale of narcissism and delusion — and of a surprisingly innovative approach to photography.

Accompanied by a publication.

QUEEN VICTORIA AND THOMAS SULLY
September 21 — December 31, 2000
The highlight of the career of the Philadelphia portraitist Thomas Sully (1783—1872) was his 1837—38 commission to paint the young Queen Victoria. This exhibition will explore the artist's experiences in London during the exciting coronation year and the success of his portraits of the queen. Included will be oil portraits, wash drawings, and graphite sketches by Sully, along with a selection of related works by other artists and various ephemera. The exhibition will be mounted in commemoration of the anniversary of Queen Victoria's death in 1901.

The exhibition is made possible by Crown Equipment Corporation.

Accompanied by a catalogue.

THOMAS SULLY IN THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
September 21 — December 31, 2000
Presented in conjunction with Queen Victoria and Thomas Sully, described above, this display of the Museum's collection of paintings and drawings by Sully will feature works given by his grandson, Francis T. S. Darley.

EGYPTIAN ART AT ETON COLLEGE:
SELECTIONS FROM THE MYERS MUSEUM

September 26, 2000 — January 21, 2001
Eton College houses one of the world's finest collections of ancient Egyptian decorative arts. Little known outside of Eton, the core of the collection was amassed by Major William Joseph Myers (1858—1899), an alumnus of the college. The exhibition will highlight a selection of approximately 150 works of art, including a series of stunning chalices and bowls of Egyptian faience, an exceptionally rare pectoral of electrum, and a finely carved, fragmentary wooden statuette of a man.

The exhibition is organized by The Myers Museum, Eton College and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Accompanied by a publication.

THE YEAR ONE
October 3, 2000 — January 14, 2001
As part of its celebration of the Year 2000, the Metropolitan Museum is preparing an exhibition of masterpieces from its own collection that were produced some 2,000 years ago in the period just before and after the Year One. Drawn from six departments in the Museum, the approximately 150 works — among them, portraits, marble architectural elements, wall frescoes, decorative villa sculpture, glass, silver, small bronzes, ceramics, gems, cameos, and funerary art — come from regions as diverse as Western Europe, the Mediterranean, Africa, the Middle East, India, China, Southeast Asia, and the Americas. The exhibition not only will feature magnificent and distinctive works from each of these areas, but also will highlight the interconnections that existed between these widely separated parts of the world.

Some relationships were established through the extension of Roman power under the rule of Augustus, the first Roman emperor (27 B.C.—A.D. 14), others through the overland and maritime trade routes that provided the East and West with tantalizing glimpses of each other and also linked cultures of Asia in an unprecedented fashion. This exhibition will give the public an opportunity to see the richness and variety of cultures that flourished 2,000 years ago and the numerous interconnections that already existed between far—flung parts of the world.

Accompanied by a publication.

ROMANTICISM AND THE SCHOOL OF NATURE:
NINETEENTH—CENTURY DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS
FROM THE COLLECTION OF KAREN B. COHEN

October 17, 2000 — January 21, 2001
More than 100 paintings, drawings, and oil sketches will be on view in this exhibition of selected works from the holdings of Karen B. Cohen, noted New York collector. Included will be landscapes, portraits, figure compositions, and still lifes by great artists of the Romantic period, the School of Barbizon, and their followers, from Prud'hon to Seurat. The Cohen collection represents several artists in depth; thus, the exhibition will feature a varied range of work by such masters as Couture, Gericault, Daubigny, Rousseau, and especially Delacroix, several of whose drawings and watercolors are promised gifts to the Metropolitan. Among other highlights will be a group of oil paintings — both landscapes and portraits — by Courbet and a series of cloud studies by Constable.

A CENTURY OF DESIGN, PART III: 1950—1975
November 2000 — April 2001
This will be the third in a four—part series of exhibitions surveying design in the 20th century through the presentation of significant objects in all media drawn from the Museum's collection.

THE GOLDEN DEER OF EURASIA
October 2000 — early February 2001
This exhibition will display spectacular finds of gold and silver recently excavated at Filippovka in Bashkortostan, Russia — works that have never been seen in the United States — along with related Scythian, Sarmatian, and Siberian objects from the Hermitage Museum. Created around the fifth to fourth century B.C. by nomadic people who lived in the open steppe in the southern Ural Mountain region, the distinctive works of art from Filippovka include wooden deerlike creatures overlaid with sheets of gold and silver, as well as gold attachments for vessels with representations of animals and gold plaques originally attached to leather or fabric. The subjects commonly represented on the Filippovka gold are similar to the animal repertory of contemporary Scythian art, but the vibrant and decorative curvilinear elaboration of the body surfaces is unique in this area and resembles the style of works of art found much further east in the frozen tombs of the Altai Mountain region of Siberia and in western China.

Accompanied by a catalogue.

ANNUAL CHRISTMAS TREE AND NEAPOLITAN BAROQUE CRÈCHE
Late November 2000 — early January 2001
For description, see below.

CONTINUING EXHIBITIONS

ANNUAL CHRISTMAS TREE AND NEAPOLITAN BAROQUE CRÈCHE
Through January 9, 2000
The Museum continues a long—standing holiday tradition with the annual presentation of its Christmas tree, a favorite of New Yorkers and visitors from out of town. A vivid 18th—century Neapolitan crèche scene, embellished with a profuse array of diminutive, lifelike attendant figures and hovering, silk—robed angels, adorns the candlelit spruce. Recorded music adds to the enjoyment of the holiday display. Lighting ceremony Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:00.

The installation is made possible by The Loretta Hines Howard Trust.

THE ARTIST AS COLLECTOR:
MASTERPIECES OF CHINESE PAINTING
FROM THE C. C. WANG FAMILY COLLECTION

Through January 9, 2000
On view are some 60 paintings from the C. C. Wang Family Collection in the Metropolitan Museum. Highlighted are 12 promised gifts from this renowned collection — including Riverbank, one of the earliest and most important landscape hanging scrolls in the history of Chinese art — made by Oscar L. Tang, a member of The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Board of Trustees, and his family. A choice group of loans from The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Art Museum of Princeton University, and the Wang family is also included, as well as a small selection of paintings by C. C. Wang. Spanning ten centuries of painting history, the exhibition illuminates the entire tradition of scholar painting from its birth and early development in the Song and Yuan dynasties (10th to 14th century) to its later transformation and elaboration during the Ming and Qing dynasties (14th to 20th century).

A full—day, international symposium was held on December 11 in conjunction with the exhibition, exploring issues of authentication and connoisseurship in Chinese art.

The exhibition and catalogue are made possible with the support of the Tang Fund.

The symposium and accompanying publication are made possible by the Tang Fund. Additional support is provided by The B. Y. Lam Foundation.

CARLETON WATKINS: THE ART OF PERCEPTION
Through January 9, 2000
This major exhibition demonstrates the artistry of Carleton Watkins (1829—1916), the finest American landscape photographer of the 19th century. A New Yorker who moved to California with the Gold Rush, Watkins made his name photographing the awe—inspiring Yosemite Valley in the 1860s. His large albumen silver prints are dazzling tours de force that propose, with crystalline clarity, an ideal harmony between man and nature. The controlled grandeur of his vision is displayed in over 70 exquisite mammoth plate prints, while the brilliance of his compositional eye is featured in binocular video displays of stereographs that recreate the sensational and perceptual early form of popular entertainment.

The exhibition is organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, in association with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and with special cooperation from the Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California.

The exhibition is made possible by the Henry Luce Foundation, Inc. Additional major support has been provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Silicon Graphics 320 Visual Workstations and StereoGraphics CrystalEyes Eyeware were contributed for this exhibition.

Accompanied by a catalogue.

EGYPTIAN ART IN THE AGE OF THE PYRAMIDS
Through January 9, 2000
The astonishing sculpture, reliefs, paintings, and works of decorative art on view were created in Egypt during the third millennium B.C.E., the period of the Old Kingdom, when the famous pyramids at Giza were built. Youthful vigor, confidence, and joy in life are reflected in the distinctly lifelike images of the pyramid builders, whose sculptors and craftsmen defined once and for all the essence of Egyptian art. This major international loan exhibition displays some 250 works from more than 30 museums in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United States. Included are portraits of kings and queens, a statue of the architect of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, several portraitlike heads (the so—called reserve heads), delicate relief scenes, elegant luxury vessels, and furniture, together with a great variety of sculptures depicting high officials and their families. The exhibition opened at the Grand Palais in Paris and will travel to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto following its presentation at the Metropolitan Museum.

The exhibition is made possible by Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman.

Additional support has been provided by The Starr Foundation.

The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris, and the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.

An indemnity has been granted by the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Educational programs have been supported by the Malcolm Hewitt Wiener Foundation.

The accompanying catalogue is made possible by The Adelaide Milton de Groot Fund, in memory of the de Groot and Hawley families.

NORTHERN DRAWINGS OF THE 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES
IN THE ROBERT LEHMAN COLLECTION

Through January 9, 2000
The remarkable 17th— and 18th—century Dutch, Flemish, French, and British drawings acquired by Robert Lehman earlier this century and now part of the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art are currently on view at the Museum for the first time in nearly a decade. Some 90 drawings reflect Mr. Lehman's diverse interest in northern draftsmanship, with sheets by celebrated masters such as Rubens, Rembrandt, Boucher, Fragonard, and Gainsborough presented alongside works of exceptional quality by lesser—known and in some cases unknown artists. This installation has been organized to coincide with the publication of the Lehman Collection catalogue Fifteenth— to Eighteenth—Century Drawings in the Robert Lehman Collection: Central Europe, The Netherlands, France, and England.

The exhibition is made possible by Robert Lehman Foundation, Inc.

AMERICAN FOLK ART IN THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
Through January 23, 2000 (paintings)
This exhibition, drawn from the Museum's distinguished collection of folk art, features works by Rufus Hathaway, Edward Hicks, Joshua Johnson, Ammi Phillips, and others working within naive and provincial traditions in the United States during the 18th and 19th centuries. The selection of works covers the full range of subject matter and themes delineated by these artists, including portraiture, landscapes, mourning scenes, and historical and religious works.

The exhibition is supported in part by Jan and Warren Adelson.

FAROUK HOSNY/ADAM HENEIN:
CONTEMPORARY EGYPTIAN ARTISTS
AND HEIRS TO AN ANCIENT TRADITION

Through January 23, 2000
Long known for its ancient art, Egypt is also a modern country with contemporary artists working in all media. These artists draw on Egypt's rich past and vibrant present as well as their own individual creative vision. The exhibition features approximately 21 paintings and 50 sculptures by two of the most prominent contemporary Egyptian artists, abstract painter Farouk Hosny and sculptor Adam Henein.

Accompanied by a catalogue.

NATIVE PATHS III: AMERICAN INDIAN ART
FROM THE COLLECTION OF CHARLES AND VALERIE DIKER

Through January 23, 2000
The Metropolitan Museum of Art continues a special installation of more than 75 Native American works of art, dating mostly from the 19th to the early 20th century. On display are elaborately quilled and beaded garments, as well as an important group of Plains Indian drawings — known as ledger drawings — which record events in the lives of the artists and the triumphs and tragedies of the history of their people. Other objects range from ceramic vessels made at the turn of the century by the well—known Hopi—Tewa potter Nampeyo, to a round—bodied, small—mouthed degikup basket created by Louisa Keyser of Nevada, also called Datsolalee. The Pacific Northwest is represented by wooden masks, carved rattles, baskets, and ceremonial objects.

Accompanied by a catalogue.

THE NATURE OF ISLAMIC ORNAMENT, PART IV:
FIGURAL REPRESENTATION

Through January 30, 2000
This is the last in a four—part series examining the basic forms and sources of Islamic ornament. Through about 25 objects in many media chosen primarily from the Museum's permanent collection, the exhibition examines the widespread but false perception that figural representation is never permitted to appear in Islamic art.

The exhibition is made possible by The Hagop Kevorkian Fund.

"ONLY THE BEST": MASTERPIECES OF
THE CALOUSTE GULBENKIAN MUSEUM, LISBON

Through February 27, 2000
Born in Istanbul of Armenian parentage, Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian (1869—1955) became a pioneer in the international oil industry, a philanthropist, and a widely respected art collector. His vast collection — which totaled some 5,000 works — included European paintings ranging from the Renaissance to Impressionism, Egyptian sculpture, Roman medals, Islamic ceramics and textiles, illuminated manuscripts, 18th—century French furniture and silver, and spectacular jeweled objects by Lalique. The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon opened in 1969 to house this extraordinary collection. The exhibition, which coincides with a major renovation of the Gulbenkian Museum, displays highlights from the collection, including masterpieces of painting by Rubens, Fragonard, Turner, Manet, and Monet.

The exhibition is made possible by The Hagop Kevorkian Fund and The Kossak Family Foundation.

Additional support has been provided by Patti Cadby Birch.

The exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon.

An indemnity has been granted by the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

The accompanying publication is made possible, in part, by the Roswell L. Gilpatric Fund for Publications.

KLEE PAINTINGS
Through March 12, 2000
The first exhibition devoted solely to the paintings from The Berggruen Klee Collection and spanning the years 1920 to 1937, installed in the south mezzanine gallery of the Lila Acheson Wallace Wing.

ROCK STYLE
Through March 19, 2000
This exhibition spotlights classic rock—'n'—roll performers and their pervasive influence on fashion. More than 50 major rock artists who have influenced style from the 1950s to the present — including image icons such as Madonna, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, The Beatles, Elvis Presley, and Bono — are represented by fashions lent by rock artists and drawn from the collections of The Costume Institute and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland.

The Rock Style exhibition and the benefit for The Costume Institute are made possible by Tommy Hilfiger U.S.A., Inc.

Additional support has been provided by Condé Nast and The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.

The exhibition has been organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Cleveland.

A CENTURY OF DESIGN, PART I: 1900—1925
Through March 26, 2000
This is the first in a four—part series of exhibitions surveying design in the 20th century through the presentation of significant objects from the Museum's collection. Part I highlights Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco, displaying furniture, metalwork, glass, ceramics, textiles, jewelry, and drawings that trace the evolution of design through the first quarter of the century.

CELEBRATING THE AMERICAN WING:
NOTABLE ACQUISITIONS 1980—1999

Through November 12, 2000
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of The American Wing — which contains the world's most comprehensive collection of historical American decorative and fine arts — the Metropolitan presents an exhibition of notable acquisitions made by gift or purchase since 1980, when the original wing was expanded to its current size. Important works are featured in their customary settings in the permanent collection galleries, revealing how they complement existing holdings. All these recent additions are highlighted by special labels that describe their significance within the context of the Museum's collection and the circumstances of their acquisition. Drawings, watercolors, and miniatures are displayed in The Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art through March 26, 2000; textiles are shown during the same period in Gallery 116.

The exhibition is made possible by The Bank of New York and The George Link, Jr. Foundation.

NEW AND RECENTLY OPENED INSTALLATIONS

NEW CYPRIOT GALLERIES
Opening April 5, 2000
With the opening of the Cypriot Galleries this spring, 600 works from the historic Cesnola Collection — which totals approximately 6,000 objects from Cyprus in all major media and ranges in date from ca. 2500 B.C. to ca. A.D. 300 — return to public view. The newly designed installation marks the end of Phase II in the renovation of the Greek and Roman Galleries. Acquired by General Luigi Palma di Cesnola while he was serving as American consul in Cyprus, these works were purchased by the newly formed Metropolitan Museum between 1874 and 1876 and constituted its first large collection of archaeological materials. In 1879, Cesnola was named the Museum's first director. The new presentation will emphasize the collection's particular strengths in the areas of sculpture, bronze, and precious metals.

Accompanied by a publication.

THE VÉLEZ BLANCO PATIO
Reopening May 12, 2000
The early 16th—century Fajardo castle at Vélez Blanco was an important landmark in the history of the Spanish Renaissance. The delicate ornamental carved marbles that composed the castle's magnificent arcaded patio were acquired early in the 20th century for installation in the Park Avenue home of George Blumenthal, a future president of the Metropolitan Museum, and were bequeathed to the Museum at the time of his death in 1941. The patio, which was reconstructed at the Museum in 1964, has for the past three years undergone conservation and refurbishment with the addition of a new marble floor more in keeping with the original structure. In addition, the patio arcade will feature a prized new acquisition: a remarkable early—Renaissance Flemish tapestry depicting The Triumph of Fame, believed to have been in the collection of Queen Isabella of Spain.

NEW BYZANTINE AND EARLY MEDIEVAL GALLERIES
Opening November 2000
This fall, the new Mary and Michael Jaharis Byzantine and Early Medieval galleries will open in a dramatically expanded and redesigned space that includes an intimate gallery under the Grand Staircase in the Great Hall — an area never before accessible to the public. Featured in the installation will be the Museum's extensive collection of superb secular and religious art of the Byzantine Empire produced from its capital in Constantinople to its southern border in Egypt. Some of the earliest images developed by the Christian church will be on display as well as contemporary works from the surviving Greco—Roman tradition and examples of Judaica. Selections from the Museum's rich collection of provincial Roman and barbarian jewelry will demonstrate the accomplished artistry of the diverse people beyond the Western borders of the Byzantine state who helped shape early Europe. The opening of the Jaharis galleries constitutes the first phase in the planned reinstallation of the permanent collection of the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters.

NEW GALLERIES FOR ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN ART
Opened October 19, 1999
Newly renovated and reinstalled, with natural light now illuminating the Assyrian reliefs within, the galleries that house the permanent collection of the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art recently reopened to the public. The new installation displays sculpture, metalwork, seals, and other objects dating from 8000 B.C. to A.D. 700 from ancient Mesopotamia, Iran, and their neighbors, ranging from Anatolia and the Arabian Peninsula to the Indus Valley, and Central Asia to the Mediterranean Sea. Throughout, these works of art are set in contexts that illuminate their use and significance in antiquity as well as their connections to the art of neighboring cultures. Among the strengths of the collection are objects excavated by Museum—sponsored projects at Nippur, Nimrud, and Hasanlu; superb ivories from Anatolia, Syria, and Mesopotamia; silver and gold objects from Iran; and foreign long—term loans from the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences, Tadjikistan, the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, and the British Museum, London.

Support for the reinstallation of the Galleries for Ancient Near Eastern Art has been provided by The Hagop Kevorkian Fund.

THE NEW GREEK GALLERIES
Opened April 20, 1999
Following several years of planning and construction, seven completely renovated and reinstalled galleries for Archaic and Classical Greek art are open to the public on the Museum's first floor. This latest stage in the three—phase expansion of the exhibition space devoted to Greek and Roman art comprises the Mary and Michael Jaharis Gallery — the grand vaulted gallery that was formerly known as the Cypriot corridor, now fully skylit and clad in limestone walls as originally envisioned by McKim, Mead and White in 1917 — and the six flanking galleries. Refurbished to their original Neoclassical grandeur, the galleries house a generous selection of the Museum's finest works from the sixth through fourth century B.C. The new galleries constitute the largest and most comprehensive permanent installation of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.

ARTS OF KOREA
Opened June 9, 1998
The opening of the new, permanent gallery for the Arts of Korea represents the final stage in the Museum's master plan for the presentation of Asian art. Currently on view is a display of works from the Museum's own collection — including ceramics, metalwork, lacquerware, sculpture, and paintings — and selected loans. An exhibition of Korean ceramics on loan from the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, will be on view in the galleries from January 25 through June 4, 2000 (see page 2). The establishment of and program for the Arts of Korea Gallery have been made possible by The Korea Foundation and The Kun—Hee Lee Fund for Korean Art.

NEW CHINESE GALLERIES
Opened May 22, 1997
After two years of major reconstruction, the Museum reopened its galleries for later Chinese art — a superbly renovated and significantly expanded 13,400—square—foot exhibition space housing the Metropolitan's extensive and world—renowned collection. The new galleries showcase the Museum's important holdings of Chinese painting and calligraphy dating from the 8th through the 20th century as well as a magnificent selection of jades, lacquers, textiles, metalwork, and other decorative art objects from the 12th through the 18th century.

These newly renovated and enhanced galleries have been made possible by Mrs. Vincent Astor and The Vincent Astor Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Dillon and The Dillon Fund, Florence and Herbert Irving, Oscar L. Tang, and Charlotte C. Weber.

PHASE I OF THE NEW GREEK AND ROMAN ART GALLERIES:
THE ROBERT AND RENÉE BELFER COURT

Opened June 1, 1996
The Belfer Court constitutes Phase I of the renovation of the Greek and Roman Galleries and reinstallation of the Greek and Roman collections. The western section of the court, devoted to the earliest Greek art, contains Neolithic, Cycladic, Minoan, Mycenaean, and Geometric objects, while the eastern section documents the rich and colorful picture of Archaic Greece, with a comprehensive representation of major regions and artistic centers.

TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS

PLEASE NOTE: These exhibitions originate at The Metropolitan Museum of Art with works of art from the Museum's collections selected and organized by Museum staff members. Please confirm the opening and closing dates with the local exhibiting museums as they may be subject to change.

AMERICAN FOLK ART IN THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
Oil paintings, drawings, watercolors, and portrait miniatures from the Museum's distinguished collection of folk art, featuring works by Rufus Hathaway, Edward Hicks, Joshua Johnson, Ammi Phillips, and others working within naive and provincial traditions in the United States during the 18th and 19th centuries. The exhibition is on view at the Metropolitan Museum through January 23, 2000.

New York State Museum—February 14 — April 23, 2000—Albany, New York

JACKSON POLLOCK AND AMERICAN ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM:
WORKS ON PAPER SELECTIONS FROM
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

A selection of 20th—century works drawn from the Museum's Department of Modern Art.

Fundación Juan March —May 8 — July 2, 2000—Madrid, Spain

VISITOR INFORMATION AND MUSEUM HOURS

MAIN BUILDING
Fridays and Saturdays— —9:30 am — 9:00 pm
Sundays, Tuesdays — Thursdays— —9:30 am — 5:30 pm
Mondays— —Closed

THE CLOISTERS
(March — October hours)
Tuesdays — Sundays— —9:30 am — 5:30 pm
Mondays— —Closed
(November — February hours)
Tuesdays — Sundays— —9:30 am — 4:45 pm
Mondays— —Closed

ADMISSION
Suggested admission to the Main Building and The Cloisters
Adults— —$10.00
Students, senior citizens— —$5.00
Members and children under 12 accompanied by adult— —Free

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December 29, 1999

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