Schedule of Exhibitions Through July 2016

UPCOMING
Major Exhibitions
Exhibitions
Installations
Continuing Exhibitions and Installations
Asian Art 100
New Galleries
Chronological List of Exhibitions

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SPECIAL NOTE: All exhibitions take place in the Met's Fifth Avenue building unless otherwise noted.

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UPCOMING MAJOR EXHIBITIONS

Vigée Le Brun: Woman Artist in Revolutionary France
February 15–May 15, 2016
Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842) is one of the finest 18th-century French painters and among the most important of all women artists. An autodidact with exceptional skills as a portraitist, she achieved success in France and Europe during one of the most eventful, turbulent periods in European history. In 1776 she married the leading art dealer in Paris; his profession at first kept her from being accepted into the prestigious Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. Nevertheless, through the intervention of Marie Antoinette, she was admitted at the age of 28 in 1783, becoming one of only four women members. Obliged to flee France in 1789 because of her association with the queen, she traveled to Italy were in 1790 she was elected to membership in the Accademia di San Luca, Rome. Independently, she worked in Florence, Naples, Vienna, St. Petersburg, and Berlin before returning to France, taking sittings from, among others, members of the royal families of Naples, Russia, and Prussia. While in exile she exhibited at the Paris Salons. She was remarkable not only for her technical gifts but for her understanding of and sympathy with her sitters. This will be the first retrospective and only the second exhibition devoted to Vigée Le Brun in modern times. The 80 works on view will be paintings and a few pastels from European and American public and private collections.
The exhibition is made possible by the Gail and Parker Gilbert Fund, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, the Diane W. and James E. Burke Fund, and Bank of America.
Additional support is provided by gifts made in memory of Parker Gilbert.
The exhibition is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Réunion des Musées Nationaux – Grand Palais, and the National Gallery of Canada, with the exceptional participation of the Château de Versailles.
Accompanied by a catalogue. 
The catalogue is made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Press Preview: Monday, February 8, 10:00 a.m.–noon
#VigeeLeBrun

Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible
March 18–September 4, 2016
Location: The Met Breuer
This innovative scholarly exhibition examines a subject critical to artistic practice: the question of when a work of art is finished. Beginning with the Renaissance masters, it examines the term “unfinished” in the broadest possible way, looking not only at works left incomplete by their makers, a decision that often provides insight into the process of their creation, but also at those that partake of a non finito—intentionally unfinished—aesthetic that embraces the unresolved and open-ended. Some of history’s greatest artists explored such an aesthetic; among them were Titian, Rembrandt, Turner, and Cézanne. The unfinished has been taken in entirely new directions by modern and contemporary artists—among them, Janine Antoni, Lygia Clark, Jackson Pollock, and Robert Rauschenberg—who alternately blurred the distinction between making and un-making, thereby extending the boundaries of art into both space and time and recruiting viewers to complete the objects they had begun. With 190 works dating from the Renaissance to the present—about one-third of the works are drawn from the Museum’s own collection, and the remaining are major national and international loans—this exhibition demonstrates the Met’s unique ability to mine its rich collection and scholarly resources to present modern and contemporary art within a deep historical context. The accompanying catalogue will expand the subject to include the “unfinished” in literature and film, as well as the role of the conservator in elucidating a deeper understanding of artistic thought on the subject of the unfinished. 
Accompanied by a catalogue.
The catalogue is made possible by the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, Inc. and the Roswell L. Gilpatric Publications Fund.
Press Preview: Monday, March 1, 10:00 a.m.–noon
#MetBreuer
#MetUnfinished

Nasreen Mohamedi
March 18–June 5, 2016
Location: The Met Breuer
A singular artist to emerge in post-independence India, Nasreen Mohamedi (1937–1990) created a body of work vital to the evolution of international modernism and abstraction. The Met Breuer exhibition marks the largest presentation of Mohamedi's work to date, and explores the conceptual complexity and visual subtlety that made her practice unique in its time. Mohamedi drew upon a range of inspirations in her work, from Paul Klee and Agnes Martin, to Mughal architecture and Indian classical music. She experimented with organic lines, delicate grids, and hard-edged forms in her oeuvre, and this aesthetic informed and infused the photographs she took throughout her life. With more than 130 paintings, drawings, and photographs, Nasreen Mahamedi surveys the different stages of the artist’s career and the development of her aesthetic approach, which made her one the most significant artists of her generation. The exhibition is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, in collaboration with the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. It will be accompanied by a substantial catalogue with essays by international scholars, published by the Museo Reina Sofía.
Press Preview: Monday, March 1, 10:00 a.m.–noon
#MetBreuer
#NasreenMohamedi

Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World
April 18–July 10, 2016
In the three centuries following the conquests of Alexander the Great (r. 336-323 B.C.), Hellenistic kings ruled large kingdoms with cosmopolitan cities that fostered an unparalleled growth in the arts. The Hellenistic Age witnessed the beginning of art history, when the first art collections and museums as well as great libraries were formed within elaborate palaces. This landmark exhibition represents an historic collaboration between The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, whose celebrated sculptures will comprise approximately one-third of some 265 artworks on display. The focus is on the rich diversity of art forms that arose through the patronage of the royal courts of the Hellenistic Kingdoms, with special emphasis placed on Pergamon, capital of the Attalid dynasty, which ruled over large parts of Asia Minor. Carefully selected masterpieces in all media highlight the innovations and technical mastery achieved by Hellenistic artists, whose enduring legacy profoundly influenced Roman art.
The exhibition is made possible by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and Betsy and Edward Cohen / Areté Foundation.
Additional support is provided by Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman, Renée Belfer, Diane Carol Brandt, Mary and
Michael Jaharis, and The Vlachos Family Fund.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
The catalogue is made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and James and Mary Hyde Ottaway.
Press Preview: Monday, April 11, 2016, 10:00 a.m.–noon
#MetPergamon

Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs
April 27–July 24, 2016
One of the most productive periods in the history of Iranian and Anatolian art corresponds to the rule of the Seljuqs and their immediate successors. Under the Seljuqs, Iran’s prosperous middle class spurred arts patronage, technological advancements, and a market for luxury goods. In contrast, in Anatolia, northern Iraq, and Syria, which were controlled by the Seljuq successor dynasties, art was produced under royal patronage, and Islamic iconography was introduced to a predominantly Christian area; furthermore, many of the artists had fled to the region from Iran after the Mongol conquest in 1220. Because patrons, consumers, and artists came from diverse cultural, religious, and artistic backgrounds, distinctive arts were produced and flourished in the western parts of the Seljuq realm. Approximately 270 objects in diverse media from American, European, and Middle Eastern public and private collections will be shown, including a selection of representative objects from Turkmenistan.
Press Preview: Monday, April 25, 10:00 a.m.–noon
#CourtandCosmos

manus x machina: fashion in an age of technology
May 5–August 14, 2016
The Costume Institute’s spring 2016 exhibition, presented in the Museum’s Robert Lehman Wing and Anna Wintour Costume Center, will explore the impact of new technology on fashion and how designers are reconciling the handmade and the machine-made in the creation of haute couture and avant-garde ready-to-wear. The exhibition will propose a new view in which the hand (manus) and the machine (machina), often presented as oppositional, are shown to be equal protagonists. More than 100 ensembles, dating from a Worth gown from the 1880s to a 2015 Chanel suit, will be on view.  
The exhibition is made possible by Apple.
Additional support is provided by Condé Nast.
Press Preview: Monday, May 2, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.
#manusxmachina

The Roof Garden Commission: Cornelia Parker 
May 17–October 30, 2016 (weather permitting)
This spring British artist Cornelia Parker will create a site-specific installation atop the Met’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden. The installation will be the fourth in a series of commissions created specifically for the outdoor space.
The exhibition is supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies. 
Additional support is provided by Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon B. Polsky.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
The catalogue is made possible by the Blanche and A.L. Levine Fund and the Mary and Louis S. Myers Foundation Endowment Fund.
Press Preview: Monday, May 16, 10 a.m.–noon
#MetRoof

diane arbus: in the beginning
July 12–November 27, 2016
Location: The Met Breuer
Featuring the rarely seen early work of Diane Arbus (1923–1971), this exhibition explores the genesis of one of the most influential and controversial artists of the 20th century. The show focuses on Arbus's first seven years working with the camera on the streets of New York City (1956–1962), a dramatic era in American history and the period when the artist developed her idiosyncratic style and subject matter, which were soon recognized, praised, criticized, and copied all over the world. The majority of the photographs will be drawn from The Metropolitan Museum of Art's vast Diane Arbus Archive, acquired in 2007 by gift and promised gift from the artist's estate. More than half of the photographs have not been exhibited or published, offering general visitors and scholars alike an unparalleled opportunity to see the work of this evocative and haunting artist.
#DianeArbus
#MetBreuer

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

Jacqueline de Ribes: The Art of Style
November 19, 2015–February 21, 2016
The Costume Institute’s fall 2015 exhibition will focus on the internationally renowned style icon Countess Jacqueline de Ribes, whose originality and elegance established her as one of the most celebrated fashion personas of the 20th century. The thematic show will feature about 60 ensembles of haute couture and ready-to-wear primarily from de Ribes’s personal archive, dating from 1959 to the present. Also included will be her creations for fancy dress balls, which she often made by cutting up and cannibalizing her haute couture gowns to create nuanced expressions of her aesthetic. These, along with photographs and ephemera, will tell the story of how her interest in fashion developed over decades, from childhood “dress-up” to the epitome of international style. 
Press Preview: Tuesday, November 17, 10:00 a.m.–noon
#JacquelinedeRibes

Artistic Furniture of the Gilded Age
In three parts, all opening December 15, 2015
• Worsham-Rockefeller Dressing Room (permanent installation): December 15, 2015
• George A. Schastey (special exhibition): December 15, 2015–May 1, 2016 
• Herter Brothers and the William H. Vanderbilt House (gallery installation): December 15, 2015–May 1, 2016
The centerpiece of this three-part exhibition is a sumptuous Aesthetic-style dressing room (1881–82) that was part of a larger commission for Arabella Worsham. She then sold her West 54th Street house and its furnishings to John D. Rockefeller, who made few changes. The Worsham-Rockefeller Dressing Room has found new life at the Metropolitan, where it provides fresh insight into the luxurious and artistic interiors found in New York’s wealthiest households in the late 19th century. The exhibition’s second part will focus on the dressing room’s designer, George A. Schastey (1839–1894), who, although little-known today, operated one of the largest and most successful decorating firms of the time. Some 15 to 20 works by or attributed to Schastey will be shown near five examples by rival firms such as Herter Brothers, Pottier & Stymus, and Herts to demonstrate the quality of his work. The unique atmosphere created by New York’s esteemed Gilded Age decorating firms will be demonstrated in a new gallery installation on Herter Brothers’ most important commission, the William H. Vanderbilt House, highlighting several new discoveries. Completed in 1882, the Vanderbilt commission dates to precisely the same moment as the Worsham-Rockefeller Dressing Room.
Artistic Furniture of the Gilded Age: George A. Schastey is made possible by the Enterprise Holdings Endowment and The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation.
Additional support is provided by Karen H. Bechtel.
Accompanied by a Bulletin. 
The publication is made possible by the William Cullen Bryant Fellows. 
The Metropolitan’s quarterly Bulletin program is supported in part by the Lila Acheson Wallace Fund for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, established by the cofounder of Reader’s Digest.
Press Preview: Monday, December 14, 10:00 a.m.–noon
#GildedAgeFurniture

Wordplay: Matthias Buchinger’s Inventive Drawings from the Collection of Ricky Jay
January 5–April 11, 2016
This exhibition will present approximately 22 drawings by the 18th-century German artist Matthias Buchinger (1674–ca. 1736), who was born without hands or feet. Despite his disabilities, he was celebrated in his own time as a draftsman and calligrapher as well as a magician and musician. He performed for three successive German emperors and, in England and Ireland, entertained royalty and was a frequent guest at noble houses. The Met’s two drawings by Buchinger will be displayed alongside some 20 works from the collection of Ricky Jay, the celebrated illusionist, actor, and author. Framing Buchinger’s stupendous works, which were composed largely through micrography (employing minuscule script to create abstract shapes or figurative designs) and calligraphy, will be works from the Met collection—from late Medieval manuscripts and Renaissance typographical prints, to 17th-century writing books and contemporary works on paper—all of which demonstrate words in play. 
#MatthiasBuchinger

The World in Play: Luxury Cards, 1430–1540
January 20–April 17, 2016
Location: The Cloisters
Only three decks of European hand-painted playing cards are known to have survived from the late Middle Ages. These include The Cloisters Playing Cards, which will form the core of this small exhibition highlighting several intriguing works of secular art from the Cloisters collection. Examples of cards from the earliest hand-painted woodblock deck, 15th-century German engraved cards, and north Italian tarot cards of the same period will complete the display. Collectively, the figures and scenes depicted on these cards reflect changing worldviews during a period of tumultuous social, economic, and religious change, charting the transition from late medieval to early modern Europe.
Accompanied by a publication.
The publication is made possible by the Michel David-Weill Fund.
Press Preview: Tuesday, January 19, 10:00 a.m.–noon
#MetLuxuryCards

The Power of Prints: The Legacy of William M. Ivins and A. Hyatt Mayor
January 26–May 22, 2016
To commemorate the centennial of the Museum’s Department of Drawings and Prints in 2016, this exhibition will celebrate two transformational figures: William Ivins, the inaugural curator of the department, and his protégé, A. Hyatt Mayor. These social historians and “amateur print specialists,” as they referred to themselves, transformed how Americans understand and collect prints. The Power of Prints will demonstrate how the Met’s print collection was constructed to contain the most beautiful, rare, and exceptional prints alongside the equally important popular and ephemeral works that were collected in the first 50 years of the department’s history. The exhibition will show how the print collection was meant to be like a library—conceived from the beginning as a corpus of works that described, in the most comprehensive way, man’s spiritual aspirations. On view will be works by Andrea Mantegna, Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt, Jacques Callot, Goya, James McNeill Whistler, Mary Cassatt, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, as well as works by lesser-known artists.
The exhibition is made possible by The Schiff Foundation.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
The catalogue is made possible by the Drue E. Heinz Fund.
Press Preview: Monday, January 25, 10:00 a.m.–noon
#PowerofPrints

Crime Stories: Photography and Foul Play
March 7–July 31, 2016
Since the earliest days of the medium, photographic images have been used for criminal investigation and evidence gathering, to record crime scenes, to identify suspects and abet their capture, and to disseminate crime-related images to the public. This exhibition explores the multifaceted intersections between photography and crime, from 19th-century “rogues’ galleries” to work by contemporary artists inspired by criminal transgression. Drawn entirely from the Met collection, the installation will feature approximately 40 works, ranging from the 1850s to the present. 

Turner’s Whaling Pictures
May 10–August 7, 2016
This small exhibition will be the first to explore connections between the late seascapes of J. M. W. Turner and Herman Melville’s epic 1851 novel Moby Dick. Turner’s four canvases devoted to the subject of whaling, now in the Metropolitan Museum and Tate Britain, will be shown together for the first time, with several watercolors and books. The installation will offer an opportunity to engage with the work of two great 19th-century artists, and to assess whether Turner’s pictures inspired one of the crowning achievements of American literature.
The exhibition is made possible by the Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust.
Accompanied by a Bulletin.
The publication is made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The Metropolitan’s quarterly Bulletin program is supported in part by the Lila Acheson Wallace Fund for
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, established by the cofounder of Reader’s Digest.
Press Preview: Monday, May 9, 10:00 a.m.–noon
#MetTurner

UPCOMING INSTALLATIONS

Annual Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche 
November 24, 2015–January 6, 2016 
The Museum will continue a long-standing holiday tradition with the presentation of its Christmas tree, a favorite of New Yorkers and visitors from around the world. A vivid 18th-century Neapolitan Nativity scene—embellished with a profuse array of diminutive, lifelike attendant figures and silk-robed angels hovering above—will adorn the candlelit spruce. Recorded music and lighting ceremonies will add to the enjoyment of the holiday display.
The exhibit of the crèche is made possible by gifts to The Christmas Tree Fund and the Loretta Hines Howard Fund.
#MetChristmasTree

Encountering Vishnu: The Lion Avatar in Indian Temple Drama 
December 19, 2015–June 5, 2016
Dramas presented during religious festivals in southern India are an important aspect of popular Hindu celebration. This exhibition will highlight five rare wooden sculptural masks that represent a largely unrecorded category of late medieval Indian devotional art. The masks depict the characters in the story of the deadly battle between Vishnu in his man-lion avatar, Narasimha, and an evil king whose destruction was essential for the restoration of order in the universe.
The exhibition is made possible by The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Foundation Fund. 
#AsianArt100
#VishnuAvatars

Monkey Business: Celebrating the Year of the Monkey
January 8–July 24, 2016
The installation features depictions of monkeys in various media, including painting, ceramics, metalwork, and jade carving.  Of particular interest are a 12th-century painting of three monkeys raiding an egret’s nest and a blue-and-white porcelain plate of monkeys and deer under a tree, both of which, as visual puns, express the wish for academic and political successes. 
#AsianArt100

A New Look at a Van Eyck Masterpiece
January 25–April 24, 2016
One of the most intriguing observations about a newly discovered mid-15th-century Crucifixion drawing from the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam is its relationship to the Metropolitan Museum’s Crucifixion and Last Judgment paintings, which today are known as two halves of a diptych, by Jan van Eyck and his Workshop. Exactly what this relationship is, however, is a matter of discussion that impacts many other issues, such as the attribution, date, and function of the drawing, as well as the date and original form and function of the paintings. Recently, the Met’s paintings, along with their frames, underwent technical investigations in the Museum’s Department of Paintings Conservation in an effort to solve long-standing mysteries about them. This exhibition will feature the Rotterdam drawing and the Met’s Crucifixion and Last Judgment paintings in a presentation that focuses on the new discoveries that have been made. Additional objects, drawn mostly from the Met collection, including paintings, prints, drawings, a rosary bead, manuscript illumination, enamelwork, and portrait medals, will provide a context for the Crucifixion and Last Judgment themes.
#MetvanEyck

The Secret Life of Textiles: Plant Fibers
Late February–June/July 2016
Fibers are the most important components of a textile. Everything related to the production of a textile—yarns, dyes, weaving, and patterns—begins with and is determined by the type and quality of the fibers. At the Met, the Museum’s comprehensive textile collection, the conservators’ expertise, and state-of-the-art analytical instrumentation come together to make possible a detailed examination of fiber characteristics and technology through a series of four installations that will be focused on plant fibers, animal fibers, silk, and synthetic fibers. This first installation in the series will reveal the technological transformation and beauty of the most important plant fibers—linen, hemp, ramie, and cotton—used by various cultures around the world in North Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas, from the Dynastic period of Egypt to the present day.

Trading Up: The Early 20th-Century Discovery and Appreciation of Seljuq Art 
February 10–July 17, 2016
In the early 20th century, the arts of medieval Iran and Syria attracted unprecedented interest from the West. These objects were loosely termed “Seljuq,” after the primary rulers of Iran and Iraq and their successors in the 11th to the 13th century. Demand by museums, collectors, and dealers—especially for figural and highly decorated Seljuq works—led to the custom of repairing, filling in, and enhancing fragmentary and deteriorated examples. The exhibition will consider the legacy of such practices 100 years later, as it compares archaeological artifacts with those that were refurbished or forged.

Global by Design: Chinese Ceramics from the R. Albuquerque Collection
April 25–Aug 7, 2016
This exhibition, which focuses on the late 16th to the 18th century—the period when Chinese porcelain became a global luxury—will feature 60 exquisite and unusual pieces in a presentation that challenges the traditional, and overly rigid, cataloguing of Chinese ceramics as domestic or trade items. In addition to exploring the trade in Chinese ceramics within Asia, the exhibition will focus on the development of shapes and designs that reflect longstanding exchanges between China and the Islamic world as well as on the subsequent introduction and incorporation of works reflecting both these traditions into Europe and the Americas in the late 16th century. It will also explore the ways in which 18th-century artists, when faced with the global idioms that had developed at that time, made artistic choices that allowed them to create an endless range of spectacular and visually imaginative works. 
#GlobalbyDesign

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