For tickets, call the Concerts & Lectures Department at 212-570-3949 or visit
www.metmuseum.org/tickets, where updated schedules and programs (including
additional lectures that are free with Museum admission) are available.
Tickets are also available at the Great Hall Box Office, which is open
Tuesday–Saturday 10–5:00, and Sunday noon–5:00.
Thursday, March 1, at 6 p.m. – All-Important Paris Years of Five American Masters, presented by David McCullough, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, and Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, Curator, American Wing. Reflecting on his most recent book, The Greater Journey-Americans in Paris, David McCullough will discuss the impact of the City of Lights on the lives and works of Samuel F.B. Morse, George P. A. Healy, Mary Cassatt, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and John Singer Sargent. Curator Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser will join him in conversation about American paintings from the Museum’s collection. This program in honor of Marvin Schwartz has been made possible by the Jerome Levy Foundation. This event is presented in conjunction with the opening of the New American Wing Galleries for Paintings, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts.
Tickets: $25
Wednesday, March 7, at 6 p.m. – Italian Portraits: Pictures That Tell a Story. This lecture, presented by Andrea Bayer, Curator, Department of European Paintings, will focus on two beloved works from the Museum’s collection that tell powerful stories about the roles of portraiture in the lives of the Italians of the period: the portrait of Federigo Gonzaga painted for his mother, Isabella d’Este, marquess of Mantua by Francesco Francia in 1510, and the intimate double portraits of Alvise Contarini and an unknown woman by Jacometto Veneziano. This program is presented in conjunction with The Renaissance Portrait from Donatello to Bellini, on view through March 18. The exhibition is made possible by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, the Diane W. and James E. Burke Fund, the Gail and Parker Gilbert Fund, and The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation. The exhibition was organized by Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. It is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
Tickets: $27
Wednesday, March 21, at 6 p.m. – The Dawn of Photography, presented by Malcolm Daniel, Curator in Charge, Department of Photographs. Two rival inventions were announced in 1839: Frenchman Louis Daguerre’s process, the “daguerreotype,” was nearly perfect from the start but fell out of use by 1860, while the Englishman Henry Talbot’s still primitive negative-positive process held the seed of almost all subsequent photography—ultimately leading to today’s media-saturated world.
Tickets: $27
Wednesday, March 28, at 11 a.m. – The Great Collectors. In this lecture Milton Esterow, editor and publisher of ARTnews, will examine the qualities of a great collector and the reasons why billionaires—including Nelson Rockefeller, Norton Simon, Charles Saatchi, Kenneth Clark, Stavros Niarchos, Emily Tremaine, and other, less affluent people—collect everything from contemporary art and old masters to Oceanic art and antiquities.
Tickets: $25
Wednesday, March 28, at 6 p.m. – Chinese Art in an Age of Revolution: Fu Baoshi (1904-1965), presented by Maxwell K. Hearn, Douglas Dillon Curator in Charge of Asian Art. Fu Baoshi, the greatest figure painter and landscapist of China’s modern world, lived through the Second World War and the Communist Revolution, one of the most devastating periods in Chinese history, yet he managed to create indelible images that celebrate his homeland’s cultural heritage and became one of the favorite artists of Mao Zedong. This event is presented in conjunction with Chinese Art in an Age of Revolution: Fu Baoshi (1904-1965), on view through April 15. The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art with the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Nanjing Museum.
Tickets: $25
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Wednesday, April 11, at 6 p.m. – Globalization in the Middle East, Then and Now, presented by Thomas L. Friedman, author, reporter, and columnist, and Helen Evans, Mary and Michael Jaharis Curator of Byzantine Art. Thomas L. Friedman will discuss his experience and perspective on the history of transformation, conflict, influence, and power in the Islamic world and will be joined by exhibition curator Helen Evans in a conversation exploring the region’s past and present, art and politics, religions and cultures, and how the continuous transformation continues to influence current events. This program is presented in conjunction with Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition, on view through July 8. This program is made possible by Martha Fling. Major support for the exhibition has been provided by Mary and Michael Jaharis, The Stavros Niarchos Foundation, and The Hagop Kevorkian Fund. Additional support has been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
Tickets: $25
Tuesday, April 17, at 6 p.m. – Philip Glass and Chuck Close in Conversation, presented in commemoration of Philip Glass’s 75th birthday. Friends and allies for decades, Philip Glass and Chuck Close will come together to talk about artistic intimacy, collaboration, notions of an artistic community, geographic proximity, and the fluidity of creative energy. This event is supported by the Mrs. Joseph H. King Fund.
Tickets: $25
Wednesday, April 18, at 11 a.m. – The opening lecture of Rembrandt, a two-part series focusing on the development and main characteristics of Dutch art during the Golden Age (ca. 1600-1675), presented by Walter Liedtke, Curator of European Paintings. In this lecture, The Age of Rembrandt and Hals, special attention is given to the relationship between style and observation in the work of artists such as Frans Hals and Rembrandt, and the importance of local schools such as Hals’s Haarlem and Rembrandt’s native Leiden. The series will conclude on April 25. This series is supported by the Mrs. Donald Oenslager Fund.
Series tickets (2 Wednesdays): $40
Single tickets: $25
Tuesday, April 24, at 6 p.m. – Small Town Seduction: An Entrepreneur of the Young Republic, presented by Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, Curator, American Wing. In Ralph Earl’s life-sized portrait of a Connecticut shopkeeper, the handsome Elijah Boardman gazes directly at his audience as he seems to step out of the painting, directly into their space. This lecture will reveal how Earl (1751-1801) devised an innovative and seemingly modern style in the post-Revolutionary era that was suited for the new citizens of the young Republic. This program is made possible by the Clara Lloyd-Smith Weber Fund. This event is presented in conjunction with the opening of the New American Wing Galleries for Paintings, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts.
Tickets: $27
Wednesday, April 25, at 11 a.m. – The concluding lecture of Rembrandt, a two-part series focusing on the development and main characteristics of Dutch art during the Golden Age (ca. 1600-1675), presented by Walter Liedtke, Curator of European Paintings. In this lecture, Rembrandt and the Great Age of Amsterdam, special attention is given to the relationship between style and observation in the work of artists such as Frans Hals and Rembrandt, and the importance of local schools such as Hals’s Haarlem and Rembrandt’s native Leiden. This series is supported by the Mrs. Donald Oenslager Fund.
Series tickets (2 Wednesdays): $40
Single tickets: $25
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Wednesday, May 23, at 11 a.m. – John Singer Sargent’s Endlessly Fascinating Madame X, presented by H. Barbara Weinberg, Alice Pratt Brown Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture. Sargent’s Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau) is an icon of style and sophistication. Learn how this extraordinary painting has intrigued and challenged viewers ever since its debut in the 1884 Paris Salon. This program is made possible by the Clara Lloyd-Smith Weber Fund.
Tickets: $25
Note: All ticketed lectures include entrance to the Metropolitan Museum’s galleries, including The Cloisters museum and gardens, on the day of the event.
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February 2012
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