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New Installation of Central Asian Art at Metropolitan Highlights Remarkable Treasure Traveling for First Time Outside Russia
Wednesday, October 2, 2002, 4:00 a.m.
A new installation focusing on the art of Central Asia is on view on the Great Hall Balcony of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrating the vibrancy and diversity found in objects created in the vast realm that stretched between Iran and China in ancient times. The 37 works of art in Glimpses of the Silk Road: Central Asia in the First Millennium are drawn primarily from the Metropolitan's collections of Asian and Ancient Near Eastern art, and include important loans as well as recent Museum acquisitions.
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Richard Avedon: Portraits, Opening at Metropolitan Museum on September 26, Captures Creative Genius of a Generation
Wednesday, September 18, 2002, 4:00 a.m.
One hundred eighty portraits by acclaimed photographer Richard Avedon—a vast collective portrait of America in the second half of the 20th century—will go on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 26. Richard Avedon: Portraits will feature his most classic and penetrating images, documenting as never before this artist's dazzling reinvention of the genre of photographic portraiture. The exhibition, which will remain on view through January 5, 2003, will span Avedon's entire career, from his earliest portraits made in the late 1940s through his most recent work.
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Cultivated Landscapes: Reflections of Nature in Chinese Painting with Selections from the Collection of Marie-Hélène and Guy Weill
Monday, September 9, 2002, 4:00 a.m.
A major exhibition tracing the evolution of Chinese landscape painting over the last 1,000 years will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 10. Featuring more than 75 works drawn largely from the Museum's permanent collection, Cultivated Landscapes: Reflections of Nature in Chinese Painting with Selections from the Collection of Marie-Hélène and Guy Weill will explore the manifold uses of natural imagery in Chinese painting as reflections of human beliefs and emotions. Encompassing landscapes and garden scenes dating from the Five Dynasties period (907-960) to the late 20th century, the exhibition will present examples in all pictorial formats: hanging scrolls, handscrolls, album leaves, and fans. A dozen important works by leading masters of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties from the Weill Collection – given or promised to the Museum – will be highlighted in the Frances Young Tang Gallery.
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Recent Acquisitions of Arms and Armor Displayed at Metropolitan Museum
Tuesday, July 30, 2002, 4:00 a.m.
Some 60 of the most important examples of armor, weapons, firearms, and martial accoutrements acquired by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in the last decade will be shown this fall. Opening to the public on September 4, Arms and Armor: Notable Acquisitions 1991-2002 will be the inaugural exhibition in the newly named Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Gallery.
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Théodore Chassériau (1819--1856): The Unknown Romantic
Sunday, July 28, 2002, 4:00 a.m.
The first retrospective exhibition in the United States of works by the lyrical 19th-century French painter Théodore Chassériau will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from October 22, 2002, through January 5, 2003. Théodore Chassériau (1819--1856): The Unknown Romantic will feature 54 paintings and 82 works on paper – many never before exhibited in the United States – culled from international collections. Although he ranks among the most important and influential artists of the first half of the 19th century, Chassériau has remained one of the least known to modern audiences.
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A Very Private Collection: Janice H. Levin's Impressionist Pictures
Sunday, July 28, 2002, 4:00 a.m.
The collection of some 35 Impressionist pictures that graced the walls of Janice H. Levin's Fifth Avenue apartment will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from November 19, 2002, through February 9, 2003. The intimately scaled exhibition, A Very Private Collection: Janice H. Levin's Impressionist Pictures will include exceptional works by many of the great masters of 19th-century French painting – Bonnard, Degas, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, and Vuillard, among others.
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The Written Image: Japanese Calligraphy and Painting from the Sylvan Barnet and William Burto Collection
Thursday, July 18, 2002, 4:00 a.m.
A remarkable collection of Japanese calligraphy and painting assembled by two American collectors over the past 40 years is the subject of the special exhibition The Written Image: Japanese Calligraphy and Painting from the Sylvan Barnet and William Burto Collection, opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on October 1. Featuring 60 works, the exhibition traces the evolution of Japanese calligraphy from the Nara (710-784) through the Edo (1615-1868) period, including examples of both Chinese script (kanji) and Japanese kana script. These expressive calligraphic masterworks, including Buddhist holy texts, Zen aphorisms, secular poems, and intimate personal letters, embody diverse expressive goals as well as convey something of the writers' cultivation and character. The works from the Barnet and Burto Collection—among which are notable gifts and promised gifts to the Metropolitan Museum—will be complemented by a selection of Japanese paintings and calligraphy from the museum's holdings.
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Cultivated Landscapes: Reflections of Nature in Chinese Painting with Selections from the Collection of Marie-Hél ène and Guy Weill
Wednesday, July 10, 2002, 4:00 a.m.
A major exhibition tracing the evolution of Chinese landscape painting over the last 1,000 years will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 10. Featuring more than 75 works drawn largely from the Museum's permanent collection, Cultivated Landscapes: Reflections of Nature in Chinese Painting with Selections from the Collection of Marie-Hélène and Guy Weill will explore the manifold uses of natural imagery in Chinese painting as reflections of human beliefs and emotions. Encompassing landscapes and garden scenes dating from the Five Dynasties period (907-960) to the late 20th century, the exhibition will present examples in all pictorial formats: hanging scrolls, handscrolls, album leaves, and fans. A dozen important works by leading masters of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties from the Weill Collection – given or promised to the Museum – will be highlighted in the Frances Young Tang Gallery.
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American Drawings and Watercolors in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Highlights from the Collection, 1710-1890
Wednesday, June 5, 2002, 4:00 a.m.
More than 100 works in pencil, pen and ink, chalk, pastel, and watercolor by some of this country's most renowned early artists will be featured in American Drawings and Watercolors in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Highlights from the Collection, 1710-1890, opening to the public on September 3, 2002. On view will be examples of portraiture by academic and folk artists, figure drawing, historical and literary narrative, landscape – including several early views of New York City – and scientific illustration. Drawn entirely from the Museum's exceptional holdings of this material, the exhibition celebrates the publication of Volume I of American Drawings and Watercolors in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which includes works by artists born before 1835.
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Gauguin in New York Collections: The Lure of the Exotic to Open at Metropolitan Museum of Art June 18
Sunday, June 2, 2002, 4:00 a.m.
For the first time in more than 40 years, 19th–century French artist Paul Gauguin is the subject of a major monographic show in New York City. On view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from June 18 through October 20, 2002, Gauguin in New York Collections: The Lure of the Exotic features approximately 120 works drawn from museums and private collections in New York City and State, many of which are rarely exhibited publicly. The exhibition also marks the first time that the Metropolitan will display its own extensive holdings of the artist's work, numbering some 60 objects.
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African-American Artists, 1929-1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Sunday, June 2, 2002, 4:00 a.m.
More than 80 works—drawn extensively from 200 prints donated to the Museum in 1999 by Reba and Dave Williams—will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from January 14 through May 4, 2003. African-American Artists, 1929-1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art will feature a variety of print media including intaglio, lithography, woodcut and wood engraving, and serigraph (screen printing), as well as a selection of paintings and watercolors. The exhibition focuses on aspects of daily life for African Americans during the latter period of the Harlem Renaissance, the Depression, and World War II.
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Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche
Sunday, June 2, 2002, 4:00 a.m.
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 in 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 Age of Impressionism: European Painting from the Ordrupgaard Collection, Copenhagen
Sunday, June 2, 2002, 4:00 a.m.
Eighty–four paintings — including landmark works of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, as well as masterpieces from the Golden Age of Danish painting — all from the Ordrupgaard Collection in Copenhagen, Denmark, are featured in this exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. On view June 18 through September 8, 2002,
The Age of Impressionism: European Painting from the Ordrupgaard Collection, Copenhagen offers a dazzling survey of this remarkable collection, including works by Cézanne, Corot, Courbet, Degas, Delacroix, Eckersberg, Gauguin, Købke, Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, and Sisley, among others. Assembled by the Danish insurance magnate Wilhelm Hansen (1868-1936), both the collection and the country house from which it derives its name were bequeathed to the Danish State upon the death of Hansen's wife, Henny, in 1951.
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Nomadic Art from the Eastern Eurasian Steppes: The Eugene V. Thaw and Other New York Collections
Sunday, June 2, 2002, 4:00 a.m.
An exhibition focusing on the extraordinary art of the Eastern Eurasian steppes from the first millennium BC will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on October 1. Featuring more than 200 objects, Nomadic Art from the Eastern Eurasian Steppes: The Eugene V. Thaw and Other New York Collections will explore the dynamic art of the nomads who left an indelible impression on the arts of all nomadic societies in Eurasia through subsequent periods and inspired the art of the sedentary cultures that came in contact with them.
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Portraits
Sunday, June 2, 2002, 4:00 a.m.
Forty masterworks of photographic portraiture will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from September 10, 2002, through January 12, 2003. Drawn from the collections of the Metropolitan and the Gilman Paper Company, the installation will accompany the landmark exhibition Richard Avedon: Portraits and will highlight classic images of artists and writers, actors and composers by Nadar, Edward Steichen, and Berenice Abbott, among others.
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Significant Objects: Selections from the Modern Design and Architecture Collection
Sunday, June 2, 2002, 4:00 a.m.
A rotating selection of important designs in all media, dating from the late 19th to the early 21st century will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from fall 2002 through April 2004. Significant Objects: Selections from the Modern Design and Architecture Collection will feature furniture, metalwork, ceramics, glass, textiles and jewelry, all drawn from the Metropolitan's holdings. The exhibition will highlight the diversity and depth of the Metropolitan's modern design collection, demonstrating the aesthetic value of the works on view within the Museum's collection and within the larger context of art history.
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Blithe Spirit: The Windsor Set
Sunday, June 2, 2002, 4:00 a.m.
The rapturous elegance of café society in the years immediately preceding World War II will be captured in a new exhibition opening at the Metropolitan Museum on November 1, Blithe Spirit: The Windsor Set. Dating from 1935 to 1940, this extraordinary collection of French couture—featuring works by Chanel, Lanvin, Vionnet, and Schiaparelli—was donated to the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute in 1946. The gowns were originally part of the exhibition Paris Openings: 1932-1940, which was organized by Lady Mendl and chaired by the Duchess of Windsor to benefit French War Charities in 1940. Drawn mainly from the collection of The Costume Institute, with loans from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the exhibition celebrates a period in fashion history that is unsurpassed in terms of beauty, elegance, and craftsmanship.
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The New Violin Family: Augmenting the String Section
Tuesday, May 14, 2002, 4:00 a.m.
The mysteries behind making a violin sound like a violin is explored in The New Violin Family: Augmenting the String Section, now on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art through March 30, 2003. Featuring 13 instruments, including a famous Hutchins Violin Octet, the exhibition chronicles the work of Dr. Carleen Maley Hutchins (b. Springfield, Massachusetts, 1911), a luthier and acoustical scientist who pioneered modern techniques of violin making. In order to demonstrate the scientific approach she employed to create ideal acoustics, a model depicting her process of plate tuning is on display.
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Arts of South and Southeast Asia Will Be Focus of May 22 Evening Event at Metropolitan Museum
Monday, May 13, 2002, 4:00 a.m.
A viewing of the Florence and Herbert Irving Galleries for the Arts of South and Southeast Asia at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, followed by a reception in the Museum's celebrated Temple of Dendur in The Sackler Wing, will take place on Wednesday, May 22, 2002, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. A highlight of the evening's festivities will be a program of traditional dances and costume of India beginning at 7:30 p.m.
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SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS MAY—AUGUST, 2002
Thursday, April 25, 2002, 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.