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• Closed Circuit: Video and New Media at the Metropolitan

  Thursday, January 25, 2007, 5:00 a.m.

  The first multi-artist exhibition of video art and new media at The Metropolitan Museum of Art will be presented from February 23 to April 29, 2007. Drawn entirely from the collection of the Museum's Department of Photographs, Closed Circuit: Video and New Media at the Metropolitan features video and new media works made between 1994 and 2004 by eight American and international artists: Darren Almond, Lutz Bacher, Jim Campbell, Omer Fast, Ann Hamilton, David Hammons, Maria Marshall, and Wolfgang Staehle. These highly respected figures in contemporary art will be represented in Closed Circuit by some of their best-known and most celebrated works, only one of which has been on exhibit before at the Met.

• Opening of New Classical Galleries in Metropolitan Museum's American Wing Represents First Phase in Multi-Year Construction Project

  Monday, January 22, 2007, 5:00 a.m.

  (New York, January 23, 2007)—A suite of galleries devoted to American art created between 1810 and 1840 was formally opened on the first floor of the American Wing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art today. The opening of the new galleries marks the completion of the first phase of a project to reconfigure, renovate, or upgrade nearly every section of the American Wing by 2010. A major goal of the plan is to improve public access to, and visitor flow within, the American Wing galleries.

• Architectural Elements from Medieval Monastery Installed at The Cloisters

  Monday, January 22, 2007, 5:00 a.m.

  A dozen architectural elements from the medieval monastery of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa, which is located in the northeast Pyrenees, have gone on public display at The Cloisters – the branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art dedicated to the art and architecture of the Middle Ages. Part of the collection of The Cloisters since 1925, the pieces of carved stone have been in storage for nearly 70 years. The carvings, which include decorative elements from three nearly complete arches, and blocks carved with images of a musician, the Lamb of God, and other figures, have recently been embedded in the east wall of the Cuxa Cloister. Although the walls surrounding the Cloister are modern, the series of marble columns, boldly carved capitals, and arches forming the Cuxa Cloister date from the 12th century and also originated from Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa. All are carved from the beautiful pinkish stone of the Pyrenees known as "Languedoc marble." The installation also will incorporate new lighting and a new sound system.

• Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Presidents' Day – January 15 and February 19 – Head List of Metropolitan Museum's 2007 Schedule of "Met Holiday Mondays"

  Thursday, January 11, 2007, 5:00 a.m.

  (New York, January 10, 2007) – The Metropolitan Museum of Art will be open to the public on two upcoming holiday Mondays – January 15 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) and February 19 (Presidents' Day) – as the latest in its popular "Holiday Monday" programs. The Museum will also open the doors of its main building on May 28 (Memorial Day), July 2 (Independence Day Holiday), September 3 (Labor Day), and October 8 (Columbus Day).

• Photographs of the Discovery of Tutankhamun's Tomb on Display at Metropolitan Museum

  Thursday, December 14, 2006, 5:00 a.m.

  An exhibition of vintage photographs celebrating one of the most memorable episodes in the history of archaeology – the discovery and exploration of the tomb of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun (Dynasty 18; ruled ca. 1336-1327 B.C.) – will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning December 19. The photographs, documenting every stage in the process of the excavation, were taken by the renowned archaeological photographer Harry Burton, who was a staff member of the Metropolitan Museum Egyptian Expedition when he was "lent" to Howard Carter, the famed excavator of Tutankhamun's tomb. Discovering Tutankhamun: The Photographs of Harry Burton features his spectacular black-and-white images of the entrance passage to the tomb, the opening of the sealed chambers inside, the first view of the contents and removal of the objects, and the beautifully made and decorated treasures that were found. The four chambers of the tomb were crammed with objects such as gold-covered chariots; elaborately inlaid furniture and chests; a vast array of the king's personal belongings, including jewelry; a series of shrines and coffins that protected the king; and the famous solid-gold mask that adorned his mummy – the last, among the most iconic examples of ancient Egyptian art ever to have come to light.

• Venice and the Islamic World, 828 – 1797

  Thursday, December 14, 2006, 5:00 a.m.

  With nearly 200 works of art from more than 60 public and private collections around the world, Venice and the Islamic World, 828 – 1797 is the first major exhibition to explore one of the most important and distinctive facets of Venetian art history: the exchange of art objects and interchange of artistic ideas between the great Italian maritime city and her Islamic neighbors in the eastern Mediterranean. Glass, textiles, carpets, arms and armor, ceramics, sculpture, metalwork, furniture, paintings, drawings, prints, printed books, book bindings, and manuscripts tell the fascinating story of the Islamic contribution to the arts of Venice during her heyday, from the medieval to the Baroque eras. 828, the year two Venetian merchants stole Saint Mark's hallowed body from Muslim-controlled Alexandria and brought it to their native city, and 1797, when the Venetian Republic fell to the French conqueror Napoleon Bonaparte, form the chronological parameters of the exhibition that opens at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on March 27, 2007.

• Сады музея The Met Cloisters

  Saturday, December 2, 2006, 6:45 p.m.

• Музей The Met Cloisters. Краткий обзор

  Saturday, December 2, 2006, 4:49 p.m.

• Metropolitan Museum Participates in 18th Annual "Day Without Art" Observance of World AIDS Day

  Thursday, November 30, 2006, 5:00 a.m.

  The Metropolitan Museum of Art will participate in World AIDS Day for the 18th consecutive year by observing Day Without Art on Friday, December 1, 2006. In recognition of the devastating losses suffered by the cultural community as a result of AIDS, the Metropolitan will remove from view or shroud 16 objects around the Museum. Black ribbons will be tied around the flowers in the Great Hall. In addition, the Museum will lower the flags on its plaza to half-mast to symbolize the losses due to AIDS-related deaths in the art community.

• WELLINGTON Z. CHEN ELECTED A TRUSTEE AT METROPOLITAN MUSEUM

  Sunday, November 26, 2006, 5:00 a.m.

  (New York, November 14, 2006)--Wellington Z. Chen has been elected to the Board of Trustees of The Metropolitan Museum of Art representing the borough of Queens, it was announced today by James R. Houghton, the Museum's Chairman. The election took place at the November 14 meeting of the Board.

• Mother-of-Pearl: A Tradition in Asian Lacquer

  Sunday, November 19, 2006, 5:00 a.m.

  An exhibition of exquisite Asian lacquer decorated with mother-of-pearl will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on December 2. Featuring some 50 works dating from the eighth to the 19th century, Mother-of-Pearl: A Tradition in Asian Lacquer will illustrate the remarkable variety of effects found in the use of minute pieces of mother-of-pearl to create mosaic-like patterns and dazzling scenes. It will also explore the importance of lacquer decorated with mother-of-pearl in interregional trade from the 12th to the 19th century and in the development of maritime global trade – particularly works made in India and Japan – in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Drawn largely from the Museum's permanent collection, the exhibition will include recent acquisitions as well as several important loans from public and private collections in the United States.

• Schedule of Exhibitions Through July 2017

  Wednesday, November 15, 2006, 9:00 p.m.

• Frank Stella: Painting into Architecture & Frank Stella on the Roof

  Monday, November 13, 2006, 5:00 a.m.

  The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present two concurrent exhibitions featuring recent work by the renowned American artist Frank Stella (born 1936) in spring 2007.

• Medieval Treasury Reopens at The Cloisters

  Monday, November 13, 2006, 5:00 a.m.

  The Treasury – an intimate gallery displaying some of the most precious small-scale works at The Cloisters, the branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art dedicated to the art and architecture of the Middle Ages – has reopened to the public after two years of renovation. Originally constructed in 1988 in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the opening of The Cloisters, the Treasury houses small luxury objects acquired in the years subsequent to the branch museum's 1938 founding.

• 圖示和言傳：說故事的中國畫

  Thursday, November 2, 2006, 3:45 p.m.

• 图示和言传：说故事的中国画

  Thursday, November 2, 2006, 3:43 p.m.

• The Met Cloistersの庭園

  Wednesday, November 1, 2006, 8:20 p.m.

• "Holidays at the Met" to Include First-Ever Extended Hours in December and Special Seasonal Programming

  Wednesday, October 25, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  The Metropolitan Museum of Art will offer an unprecedented roster of Holidays at the Metprograms and activities this season, including extended evening hours during the final weekend of 2006, family programs, and additional holiday offerings in the galleries, restaurants, and shops, from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day. At the centerpiece of this holiday celebration, the Museum will continue its traditional Christmas tree and Neapolitan Baroque crèche display, this year adding to its schedule of spectacular tree lightings, with additional lightings daily and during the Museum's popular Friday and Saturday evening hours. Special holiday decorations and programming will also be offered at The Cloisters, the Metropolitan Museum's branch for medieval art in upper Manhattan.

• 메트로폴리탄 박물관에서 선보이는 국립중앙박물관 소장 대작들

  Tuesday, October 17, 2006, 5:12 p.m.

• Nan Kempner's Chic, Iconic Styles to be Focus of Winter Exhibition at Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute

  Tuesday, October 17, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  Nan Kempner – the late New York style icon, connoisseur of the couture, and member of The Best Dressed List's Hall of Fame – will be the subject of the winter exhibition in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, from December 12, 2006, through March 4, 2007. Known for a seemingly effortless style that nonetheless displayed a meticulous attention to detail, she was a passionate client and collector of such designers as Yves Saint Laurent, Valentino, and Oscar de la Renta from the 1960s onward.

• Jardins do The Met Cloisters

  Saturday, October 14, 2006, 7:08 p.m.

• Die Gärten der Met Cloisters

  Saturday, October 14, 2006, 7:01 p.m.

• Splendor of Islamic Art to be Theme of October 8 Sunday at the Met Program

  Sunday, October 1, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, and His Highness Prince Aga Khan Shia Imami Ismaili Council for the United States of America will present a special program at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Sunday, October 8, 2006. The theme of this Sunday at the Met program will be Islamic art and culture, and it will include a film, a lecture, and a musical performance, as follows:

• Présentation du musée The Met Cloisters
  (Cloîtres du Met)

  Friday, September 29, 2006, 3:37 p.m.

• Chinese 'Art of Writing' Is Explored in New Metropolitan Museum Exhibition

  Thursday, September 28, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  Bringing together masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection with important loans from private collections, Brush and Ink: The Chinese Art of Writing explores the 1,600-year history of calligraphy from its genesis as a fine art in the fourth century A.D. The exhibition presents some 70 works of calligraphy executed by renowned traditional masters – Huang Tingjian (1045-1105), Zhao Mengfu (1254-1322), Ni Zan (1306-1374), and Dong Qichang (1555-1636) – as well as by five contemporary artists. Early inscribed ritual bronzes, dynamic scholars' rocks, and objects made for the artist's study complement the calligraphy.

• Sean Scully: Wall of Light – Celebrated Artist's First Major Solo Museum Exhibition in New York – Features His Most Important Series to Date

  Thursday, September 14, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  The Wall of Light series by celebrated artist Sean Scully (born 1945) will be the focus of an exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from September 26, 2006, through January 15, 2007. Sean Scully: Wall of Light will showcase the artist's most important series to date and highlight his mastery of color, light, gesture, and range of emotional and narrative themes. Scully works and exhibits throughout the world, yet this is his first major solo museum exhibition in New York. Featured are 60 works in the Wall of Light series — some 20 of which are large-scale oil paintings — that Scully has created in recent years, first inspired by his travels to Mexico.

• Metropolitan Museum Announces Fall 2006 Schedule of Programs for Children and Families

  Thursday, September 14, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  (New York, September 12, 2006)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced its schedule of weekday and weekend programs for children, including special family activities, for the period September 30, 2006, through February 2, 2007. These drop-in programs are free with Museum admission. Reservations are not required unless otherwise noted, and all materials are provided.

• Robert Joffe Elected a Trustee at Metropolitan Museum

  Thursday, September 14, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  (New York, September 12, 2006)—Robert D. Joffe has been elected to the Board of Trustees of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was announced today by James R. Houghton, the Museum's Chairman. The election took place at the September 12 meeting of the Board.

• Mrs. Russell B. Aitken Elected Honorary Trustee at Metropolitan Museum

  Monday, September 11, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  Irene Roosevelt Aitken has been elected an Honorary Trustee of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was announced today by James R. Houghton, the Museum's Chairman. The election took place at the September 12 meeting of the Board of Trustees.

• Metropolitan Museum of Art Announces the 2006-07 Season of Concerts

  Thursday, September 7, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  The 53rd Season Features the Piano Forte Series with András Schiff, Ivo Pogorelich, and Ivan Moravec; Jordi Savall in Two Concerts; Bach's Mass in B Minor and Handel's Acis and Galatea; Anoushka Shankar, Richie Havens, and Patti Smith; and a Season Opening Concert by Orpheus in the Great Hall

• Olena Paslawsky Named Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer At Metropolitan Museum

  Wednesday, September 6, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  (New York, September 12, 2006)—Olena Paslawsky has been named Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was announced by Emily K. Rafferty, President of the Museum. She joined the Museum in August, and will oversee initiatives in finance, technology, purchasing, office services, and internal audit. Prior to coming to the Metropolitan, she was Controller of the Worldwide Securities Division of JP Morgan Chase & Company.

• New Orleans after the Flood: Photographs by Robert Polidori

  Monday, September 4, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  To mark the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent floods that devastated New Orleans, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present New Orleans after the Flood: Photographs by Robert Polidori. On view from September 19 through December 10 in The Howard Gilman Gallery, the exhibition will feature approximately 20 large-scale color photographs made by Robert Polidori on four extended visits to New Orleans between September 2005 and April 2006. The quietly expressive photographs present a candid and intimate look at widespread urban ruin — an incomprehensible, topsy-turvy landscape of felled oak trees, houses washed off their foundations, and tumbled furniture that leaves the viewer with more questions than answers.

• SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS SEPTEMBER — DECEMBER 2006

  Tuesday, August 22, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: Information provided below is subject to change. To confirm scheduling and dates, call the Communications Department at (212) 570-3951. CONTACT NUMBER FOR USE IN TEXT IS (212) 535-7710.

• Glitter and Doom: German Portraits from the 1920s

  Monday, August 14, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  Political, economic, and social turmoil shaped Germany's short-lived Weimar Republic (1919–1933). These pivotal years also became a most creative period of 20th-century German culture, generating innovation in literature, music, film, theater, and architecture. In painting, a trend of matter-of-fact realism took hold in Germany like nowhere else in Europe. Disillusioned by the cataclysm of World War I, the most vital German artists moved towards a Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), in particular its branch known as Verism. These artists looked soberly, cynically, and even ferociously at their fellow citizens and found their true métier in portraiture, as seen in the 40 paintings and 60 works on paper featured in Glitter and Doom: German Portraits from the 1920s. The presentation, which opens at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on November 14, 2006, features gripping portraits by ten renowned artists: Max Beckmann, Heinrich Maria Davringhausen, Otto Dix, George Grosz, Karl Hubbuch, Ludwig Meidner, Christian Schad, Rudolf Schlichter, Georg Scholz, and Gert H. Wollheim.

• Metropolitan Museum's Fall 2006 Lecture Series Features Director Philippe de Montebello Speaking on the Collecting of Antiquities

  Sunday, August 13, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  Seventy lectures comprise the Fall 2006 schedule of The Metropolitan Museum of Art's stellar series, now in its 53rd season. Metropolitan Museum curators and educators, as well as guest speakers, will present talks on a broad range of exhibition- and arts-related topics.

• Art Traditions of Papuan Gulf Explored through Rare Objects and Photographs in Metropolitan Museum Exhibition

  Monday, July 31, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  An exhibition of some 60 powerful and graphically elaborate sculptures and 30 rare historical photographs from the Papuan Gulf area of the island of New Guinea will go on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, beginning October 24. Featuring sacred objects as well as photographs, Coaxing the Spirits to Dance: Art of the Papuan Gulf will demonstrate how deeply embedded art was in the region's social life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The exhibition is the first in-depth investigation of these art traditions in 45 years. Drawn from public and private collections, as well as the Museum's own holdings, many of the works will be exhibited for the first time.

• Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde

  Wednesday, July 26, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  The first comprehensive exhibition devoted to Ambroise Vollard (1866-1939) – the pioneer dealer, patron, and publisher who played a key role in promoting and shaping the careers of many of the leading artists during the late 19th and early 20th centuries – will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 14. One hundred paintings as well as dozens of ceramics, sculpture, prints, and livres d'artistes commissioned and published by Vollard, from his appearance on the Paris art scene in the mid-1890s to his death in 1939, will comprise the exhibition Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde, which will feature works by Bonnard, Cézanne, Degas, Derain, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Maillol, Matisse, Picasso, Redon, Renoir, Rouault, Rousseau, Vlaminck, Vuillard, and others. Highlights will include six paintings from Vollard's landmark 1895 Cézanne exhibition; a never-before-reassembled triptych from his 1896-97 Van Gogh retrospective; the masterpiece Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? from his 1898 Gauguin exhibition; paintings from Picasso's first French exhibition (1901) and Matisse's first solo exhibition (1904); and three pictures from Derain's London series, painted in 1906-1907 at Vollard's suggestion. Also on view will be numerous portraits of Vollard by leading artists, among them Cézanne, Bonnard, Renoir, and Picasso.

• Sean Scully: Wall of Light – Celebrated Artist's First Major Solo Museum Exhibition in New York – Features His Most Important Series to Date

  Wednesday, July 19, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  The Wall of Light series by celebrated artist Sean Scully (born 1945) will be the focus of an exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from September 26, 2006, through January 14, 2007. Sean Scully: Wall of Light will showcase the artist's most important series to date and highlight his mastery of color, light, gesture, and range of emotional and narrative themes. Scully works and exhibits throughout the world, yet this is his first major solo museum exhibition in New York. Featured are more than 50 works in the Wall of Light series — some 20 of which are large-scale oil paintings — that Scully has created in recent years, first inspired by his travels to Mexico.

• Impact of Paris on 19th-Century American Art Shown in Landmark Fall Exhibition at Metropolitan Museum

  Wednesday, July 12, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  In the late 19th century, American artists by the hundreds – including such luminaries as James McNeill Whistler, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Eakins, and Winslow Homer – were drawn irresistibly to Paris, the world's new art capital, to learn to paint and to establish their reputations. By studying with leading masters and showing their work in Paris, these artists aimed to attract patronage from American collectors who had begun to buy contemporary French art in earnest soon after the end of the Civil War. Paris inspired decisive changes in American painters' styles and subjects, and stimulated the creation of more sophisticated art schools and higher professional standards back in the United States.

• Exhibition on the Face in Medieval Sculpture Opens at Metropolitan Museum in September

  Wednesday, July 12, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  More than 80 medieval sculpted heads – half from the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and half selected loans from American and European collections – are the focus of the upcoming exhibition Set in Stone: The Face in Medieval Sculpture, opening on September 26. The exhibition, which includes heads from the third century A.D. through the early 1500s, will consider such artistic and thematic issues as: iconoclasm and the legacy of violence, sculpting identity and the evolving notions of the "portrait," sculpture without context and the search for provenance, head reliquaries as power objects, and Gothic Italy and the antique. Created from materials as diverse as marble, limestone, polychromed wood, and silver gilt, the works represent mostly French, but also German, Italian, Spanish, Byzantine, English, and other sculptural traditions. By examining the works in different ways, the exhibition will draw together science and connoisseurship, archaeology and history. On view will be a recently acquired 13th-century limestone Head of an Angel, related to the sculpture from the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. The exhibition is made possible by The Florence Gould Foundation.

• SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS MAY - AUGUST 2006

  Wednesday, July 12, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: Information provided below is subject to change. To confirm scheduling and dates, call the Communications Department at (212) 570-3951. CONTACT NUMBER FOR USE IN TEXT IS (212) 535-7710.

• RICHARD L. CHILTON, JR. ELECTED TRUSTEE AT METROPOLITAN MUSEUM

  Saturday, June 3, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  The election of Richard L. Chilton, Jr. to the Board of Trustees of The Metropolitan Museum of Art was announced today by James R. Houghton, the Museum's Chairman. Mr. Chilton's election took place at the May 9 meeting of the Board.

• Raphael at the Metropolitan: The Colonna Altarpiece

  Thursday, May 25, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  Raphael at the Metropolitan: The Colonna Altarpiece will highlight the Colonna Altarpiece, the only one by Raphael in America and, since 1916, a treasure of The Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection. This exhibition will reunite the altarpiece's two main panels with the scenes from its predella, which were separated from the altarpiece in 1663. A select group of drawings and paintings by Raphael produced close in time to the Colonna Altarpiece, including a preparatory study for the Metropolitan's predella panel, will also be included. The exhibition will be on view at the Metropolitan from June 20 through September 3, 2006.

• On Photography: A Tribute to Susan Sontag

  Thursday, May 25, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  A major force in New York intellectual life for more than 40 years, the novelist, essayist, and critic Susan Sontag (1933-2004) was renowned for her brilliant and impassioned writing on photography. From June 6 through September 3, 2006, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present an exhibition of some 40 photographs that celebrate Sontag's contribution to the history of the medium, featuring works from the Metropolitan's collection by a wide range of artists, including Julia Margaret Cameron, Edward Steichen, Eugène Atget, Walker Evans, Edward Weston, Robert Frank, Andy Warhol, and Peter Hujar.

• Laurelton Hall, Country Estate of Louis Comfort Tiffany, to be Featured in Major Fall 2006 Metropolitan Museum Exhibition

  Thursday, May 25, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  Between 1902 and 1905, on more than 600 acres overlooking Long Island Sound, the noted American artist and designer Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) built his dream home, an extraordinary country estate called Laurelton Hall. Every aspect of the project was designed by Tiffany himself, from the exotic 84-room, eight-level house surrounded by fountains, pools, and terraced gardens to the stables, tennis courts, greenhouses, chapel, studio, and art gallery also located on the property. Often cited as Tiffany's most important work, Laurelton Hall was destroyed by fire in 1957. Surviving architectural elements and windows salvaged by Hugh F. and Jeannette G. McKean are now part of the collections of the museum Mrs. McKean founded, The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, Florida. The monumental four-column loggia with its colorful glass and pottery floral capitals was saved from Laurelton Hall and has graced the American Wing's Charles Engelhard Court since 1980, a gift of Mr. and Mrs. McKean.

• Americans in Paris, 1860–1900

  Thursday, May 25, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  In the late 19th century, American artists by the hundreds – including such luminaries as James Abbott McNeill Whistler, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Eakins, and Winslow Homer – were drawn irresistibly to Paris to learn to paint and to establish their reputations. The world's artistic epicenter, Paris inspired decisive changes in American painters' styles and subjects, and stimulated the creation of newly sophisticated art schools and professional standards back in the United States.

• Rembrandt Drawings and Prints, A Selection in Honor of the Artist's 400th Birthday

  Thursday, May 25, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  The Metropolitan Museum of Art celebrates the 400th birthday of Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn with the display of a selection of 58 drawings and prints from its extensive collection of works by the great 17th-century Dutch master and artists of his school. Forty-four of the works on view are by Rembrandt himself. The exhibition has been drawn primarily from the holdings of the Museum's Department of Drawings and Prints and the Robert Lehman Collection. One sheet, a charcoal sketch of a lioness, has been borrowed from a New York private collection.

• Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde

  Thursday, May 25, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  The first comprehensive exhibition devoted to Ambroise Vollard (1867-1939) – the pioneer dealer, patron, and publisher who played a key role in promoting and shaping the careers of many of the leading artists during the late 19th and early 20th centuries – will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 14. One hundred paintings as well as dozens of ceramics, sculpture, prints, and livres d'artistes commissioned and published by Vollard, from his appearance on the Paris art scene in the mid-1890s to his accidental death in 1939, will comprise the exhibition Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde, which will feature works by Bonnard, Cézanne, Degas, Derain, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Maillol, Matisse, Picasso, Redon, Renoir, Rouault, Rousseau, Vlaminck, Vuillard, and others. Highlights will include seven paintings from Vollard's landmark 1895 Cézanne exhibition; a never-before-reassembled triptych from his 1896 Van Gogh retrospective; the masterpiece Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? from his 1898 Gauguin exhibition; paintings from Picasso's first French exhibition (1901) and Matisse's first solo exhibition (1904); and three pictures from Derain's London series, painted in 1906-1907 at Vollard's suggestion. Also on view will be numerous portraits of Vollard by leading artists, among them Cézanne, Renoir, Bonnard, and Picasso.

• Set in Stone: The Face in Medieval Sculpture

  Thursday, May 25, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  More than 80 medieval sculpted heads – half from the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and half selected loans from American and European collections – are the focus of the upcoming exhibition Set in Stone: The Face in Medieval Sculpture, opening this fall. The exhibition, which includes heads from the third century A.D. through the early 1500s, will consider such artistic and thematic issues as: iconoclasm and the legacy of furor, sculpting identity and the evolving notions of the "portrait," sculpture without context and the search for provenance, head reliquaries as power objects, and Gothic Italy and the antique. Created from materials as diverse as polychromed wood, silver, silver gilt, marble, and limestone, the works represent mostly French, but also German, Italian, Byzantine, and English sculptural traditions. By examining the works in different ways, the exhibition will draw together science and connoisseurship, archaeology and history. On view will be a recently acquired 13th-century limestone Head of an Angel, newly identified as having come from the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.

• Major Maya Exhibition at Metropolitan in June Explores Fascinating Ancient American Civilization

  Thursday, May 25, 2006, 4:00 a.m.

  Treasures of Sacred Maya Kings – opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on June 13, 2006 – will explore the growth of the concept of divine kingship among ancient Maya peoples. Featuring some 150 objects – from large-scale relief sculpture in stone to small precious pieces of worked jade – the exhibition will display the grandiose ambitions of earthly rulers when they transformed themselves into gods. Dating principally from 200 B.C. to 600 A.D., the works in the exhibition are lent primarily from public collections in Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, as well as from collections in Europe and the United States. Emphasis will be placed on recently excavated objects that will be on view for the first time in the United States. Notable among them are pieces from the renowned Maya sites of Calakmul in Mexico, Tikal in Guatemala, and Copan in Honduras. Maya jade objects discovered in tombs in the famous Pyramid of the Moon at Teotihuacan – the contemporary but distant central Mexican city – will also be included.