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Masterpieces of early French photography and groundbreaking modern photographs created since 1960 – both the earliest and most recent chapters in the history of the 160-year-old medium – will be on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in an exhibition celebrating the first decade of collecting by the Museum's Department of Photographs. Photographs: A Decade of Collecting will open on June 5, 2001.
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The first New York exhibition to focus on photography and the Bauhaus experience will be on view in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Howard Gilman Gallery from June 5 through August 26, 2001. Dancing on the Roof: Photography and the Bauhaus (1923-1929) will explore the period of freewheeling innovation –- which began when master instructor László Moholy-Nagy arrived at the progressive German art school and ended when photography became an official part of the school's curriculum – through some 60 photographs by a dozen artists. Many of the prints are unique and have never been exhibited; most are from New York area collections.
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Candace Wheeler (1827-1923)—the national expert in her time on decorative textiles and interiors, one of the first women to work in the male-dominated design world of the 19th century, and a woman who devoted her life to educating young women and encouraging their careers in the field of applied arts—will be the focus of an exhibition opening October 10 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Candace Wheeler: The Art and Enterprise of American Design, 1875-1900, the first major retrospective to address the accomplishments of this remarkable woman, will feature some 105 works including textiles, wallpapers, drawings, paintings, photographs of interiors, and furniture. Much of the exhibition will demonstrate the uniquely American style of design created by Wheeler and her associates. Candace Wheeler will be on view through January 6, 2002.
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On October 2, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present the landmark exhibition Glass of the Sultans, the first-ever museum survey of rare Islamic glass and the first scholarly reassessment of this material anywhere in more than 70 years. Some 160 spectacular and precious examples from the world's preeminent collections will be shown, including Islamic glass found in archaeological sites, seventh-century works influenced by Imperial Roman glassmaking traditions, Iranian relief-cut glass (sometimes in the cameo technique), ornately gilded and enameled works from the 13th and 14th centuries, and brilliant 19th-century Persian and Indian glass. Among the diverse works on display will be tiny medallions, delicate four-inch-tall cosmetic flasks, and ornate blown-glass vessels measuring some 15 inches in height and 12 inches in diameter. Also on view will be examples of 13th- to 20th-century European glass directly inspired by Islamic glass or made for the Oriental market. The exhibition will feature more than a dozen works from the Metropolitan's prestigious collection.
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Fifty-three paintings, watercolors, and drawings by 18 of the greatest artists who worked in France in the 19th and early 20th centuries comprise the Annenberg collection, which returns to The Metropolitan Museum of Art for six months beginning May 24, 2001. This annual event, now in its eighth year, provides an exceptional opportunity for visitors to view this renowned collection, which is installed in three central rooms within the Museum's Nineteenth-Century European Paintings and Sculpture Galleries.
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A unique exhibition Beyond the Easel: Decorative Painting by Bonnard, Vuillard, Denis and Roussel, 1890-1930, will provide American audiences a rare opportunity to experience the decorative projects carried out in France between 1890 and 1930 by Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis, and Ker Xavier Roussel. On view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from June 26 through September 9, 2001, the exhibition consists of approximately 80 paintings and folding screens on loan from international public and private collections.
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In celebration of the exhibition William Blake, The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Concerts & Lectures series will present three programs in June featuring, respectively, the distinguished poets Stanley Kunitz, Galway Kinnell, and Nancy Willard; poet, songwriter, and rock singer Patti Smith accompanied by guitarist Oliver Ray; and New York University professor of fine arts Robert Rosenblum.
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The Christmas tree and Neapolitan Baroque crèche at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a long-established yuletide tradition in New York, will be on view for the holiday season beginning late November. The brightly lit, 20-foot blue spruce – with a collection of 18th-century Neapolitan angels and cherubs among its boughs and groups of realistic crèche figures flanking the Nativity scene at its base – will once again delight holiday visitors in the Museum's Medieval Sculpture Hall. Set in front of the 18th-century Spanish choir screen from the Cathedral of Valladolid, with recorded Christmas music in the background, the installation reflects the spirit of the holiday season. There will be a spectacular lighting ceremony every Friday and Saturday evening at 7:00 p.m.
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The geographic expanse and cultural diversity covered by the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas will be highlighted this summer when a selection of works acquired by The Metropolitan Museum of Art over the past five years goes on view at the Museum, beginning May 22. The exhibition African, Oceanic, and Ancient American Art: Recent Acquisitions will include some 70 works from such widely diverse places as the Republic of Vanuatu in the South Pacific, the country of Ethiopia in northeastern Africa, and the central highlands of Mexico and will demonstrate the breadth of department's collecting interests. Equally varied are the functions to which the works were put, the materials from which they are made, and the eras in which they were produced. They range in date from the end of the second millennium B.C. to 1998.
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Five sculptures by renowned American artist Joel Shapiro (born 1941) are currently on view in the 2001 installation of The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden. Drawn from public and private collections, Joel Shapiro on the Roof includes three large cast bronze and two painted cast aluminum sculptures, dating from 1989 to the present. Three have not been exhibited previously in New York, and two have been newly created. The works are exhibited in the 10,000-square-foot open-air space that offers spectacular views of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline. The installation marks the fourth consecutive single-artist installation on the Roof Garden.