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  • Magnificent Manuscript and Sculptures Commissioned by Two Early 15th-Century Dukes of France on View in Pair of Metropolitan Museum Exhibitions

    Thursday, February 4, 2010, 5:00 a.m.

    A unique window into the lavish French courts of the Valois dukes of Burgundy and Berry will be offered at The Metropolitan Museum of Art this spring with the simultaneous opening, on March 2, of two landmark exhibitions: The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, duc de Berry and The Mourners: Medieval Tomb Sculpture from the Court of Burgundy. The former features the exquisitely illustrated pages of a luxurious prayer book that belonged to Jean de Berry (1340–1416); the latter shows expressive alabaster figures from the tomb of his nephew, John the Fearless (Jean sans Peur, 1371–1419).

  • Photocollages Reveal Wit and Whimsy of the Victorian Era in Metropolitan Museum Exhibition Opening February 2

    Wednesday, January 27, 2010, 5:00 a.m.

    In the 1860s and 1870s, long before the embrace of collage techniques by avant-garde artists of the early 20th century, aristocratic Victorian women were experimenting with photocollage. Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art February 2 – May 9, 2010, is the first exhibition to comprehensively examine this little-known phenomenon. Whimsical and fantastical Victorian photocollages, created using a combination of watercolor drawings and cut-and-pasted photographs, reveal the educated minds as well as accomplished hands of their makers. With subjects as varied as new theories of evolution, the changing role of photography, and the strict conventions of aristocratic society, the photocollages frequently debunked stuffy Victorian clichés with surreal, subversive, and funny images. Featuring 48 works from public and private collections—including many that have rarely or never been exhibited before—Playing with Pictures will provide a fascinating window into the creative possibilities of photography in the 19th century.

  • SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS
    SEPTEMBER 2009– AUGUST 2010

    Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 5:00 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.

  • Statement by The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Accident Involving Picasso's The Actor

    Saturday, January 23, 2010, 5:00 a.m.

    (New York, January 24, 2010)— An important painting by Pablo Picasso was accidentally damaged in the galleries of The Metropolitan Museum of Art Friday afternoon, January 22. A visitor attending a class lost her balance, falling onto Picasso's The Actor, a large, Rose-period painting that was painted in winter 1904-1905. The accident resulted in an irregular vertical tear of about six inches in length in the lower right-hand corner.

  • First Exhibition Ever Devoted to Bronzino at Metropolitan Museum

    Thursday, January 21, 2010, 5:00 a.m.

    The Drawings of Bronzino, the first exhibition ever dedicated to Agnolo Bronzino (1503-1572), brings together nearly all of the 61 known drawings by, or attributed to, the great Florentine court artist of the Medici. On view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from January 20 through April 18, 2010, the exhibition features drawings of extraordinary beauty and rarity which are seldom on public view, and draws loans from major museums and private collections within Europe and North America, including the Galleria degli Uffizi, Musée du Louvre, British Museum, Royal Library of Windsor Castle, Ashmolean Museum, Kupferstich-Kabinett Dresden, and Staatliche Museen Berlin.

  • Romare Bearden's The Block and Related Drawings On View at Metropolitan Museum Beginning January 15

    Thursday, January 14, 2010, 5:00 a.m.

    Romare Bearden's vibrant mural-size tableau The Block (1971) and related sketches and photographs will be featured at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning January 15, 2010, in a small installation of works from the collection. The Block, an ambitious 18-foot-long collage, celebrates the Harlem neighborhood in New York City that nurtured and inspired so much of the artist's life and work. Romare Bearden (1911–1988) is best known for the colorful cut-paper collages that he began making in the 1960s. Elaborate works such as The Block (1971) elevated this genre to a major art form through its unusual materials, expressionist color, abstracted forms, flattened shapes and spaces, and shifts in perspective and scale—all the while maintaining focus on the human narrative being told within a single city block.

  • METROPOLITAN MUSEUM CONCERTS
    FEBRUARY 2010

    Thursday, January 7, 2010, 5:00 a.m.

    PianoForte Continues with Peter Orth, Rafal Blechacz, and Till Fellner's Beethoven Sonata Cycle; Perlman Music Program Presents New Work by D. Edward Davis; Steve Ross and the Pacifica Quartet Return

  • Meissen Snuffbox Returned to Heirs of Munich-based Art Gallery

    Tuesday, January 5, 2010, 5:00 a.m.

  • Installation of Contemporary Aboriginal Painting Opens at Metropolitan Museum

    Sunday, January 3, 2010, 5:00 a.m.

    An installation of 14 bold and colorful paintings created by contemporary Aboriginal Australian artists will go on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on December 15. Drawn from a U. S. private collection, Contemporary Aboriginal Painting from Australia will provide an introduction to Aboriginal painting, which has become Australia's most celebrated contemporary art movement and has attained prominence within the international art world. The installation will present works created primarily over the past decade by artists from the central desert, where the contemporary painting movement began, and from adjoining regions, to which the movement spread. The works on view—all of which have never before been on public display—will feature paintings by prominent artists, including some of the founders of the contemporary movement, as well as emerging figures. This is the first presentation of contemporary Australian Aboriginal painting to be held at the Metropolitan Museum.

  • Metropolitan Museum Celebrates 35th Anniversary of Packard Collection Acquisition

    Sunday, January 3, 2010, 5:00 a.m.

    In 1975, The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired, by gift and purchase, more than 400 works of Japanese art from collector Harry G. C. Packard (1914-1991). This daring acquisition instantly transformed the Museum into an institution with one of the finest collections of its kind in the West, comprised of encyclopedic holdings from the Neolithic period through the 19th century.

  • Exhibition Featuring Musical Instruments of Pacific Islands Goes on View at Metropolitan Museum

    Sunday, January 3, 2010, 5:00 a.m.

    Sounding the Pacific: Musical Instruments of Oceania, the first exhibition devoted to the subject ever mounted by an art museum, will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on November 17. Featuring more than 50 outstanding works—including percussion, wind, and string instruments and forms unique to the Pacific—the exhibition will explore not only the diverse forms of Oceanic musical instruments but also the many different roles they play, or played, in Pacific cultures, from announcing the onset of war, to embodying the voices of supernatural beings or softly enticing a lover. Drawn primarily from the Museum's collection, the exhibition will showcase the objects that were created and used from the early 19th to the late 20th century in all five regions of Oceania: Melanesia, Polynesia, Micronesia, Australia, and Island Southeast Asia. The works on view include instruments ranging from small flutes and ocarinas used for private entertainment or courtship, to massive slit gongs played in performances for entire communities, in which the thundering beats can carry for miles.

  • Rare North Italian Renaissance Drawings Featured in New Installation at Metropolitan Museum

    Sunday, January 3, 2010, 5:00 a.m.

    North Italian Drawings, 1410–1550: Selections from the Robert Lehman Collection and the Department of Drawings and Prints, on view from November 3, 2009–January 31, 2010, features 31 exceedingly rare drawings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Robert Lehman Collection, with an additional nine chosen from the Department of Drawings and Prints. The installation showcases a period in Italian art that saw the emergence of drawing as an essential tool for artists and includes a selection of works that illustrate the versatility of the medium over more than a century. Drawings from the later 15th century show how artists used the medium to work out elaborate, multi-figured compositions, and several works from the 16th century reveal the close relationship between drawing and painting.

  • Surface Tension at Metropolitan Museum Features Contemporary Photographs from the Collection

    Sunday, January 3, 2010, 5:00 a.m.

    Photographs are often perceived as transparent windows onto a three-dimensional world. Yet photographs also have their own material presence as physical objects. Contemporary artists who exploit this apparent contradiction between photograph as window and photograph as object are featured in Surface Tension: Contemporary Photographs from the Collection, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from September 15, 2009, through May 16, 2010. The exhibition presents 30 works that play with the inherent tension between the flatness of the photograph and the often lifelike illusion of depth.

  • Mythical Architectural Drawings by Contemporary Artist Pablo Bronstein Featured in Fall Exhibition at Metropolitan Museum

    Sunday, January 3, 2010, 5:00 a.m.

    Pablo Bronstein at the Met is a presentation of new work by the London-based artist, addressing the history and future of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and will be shown at the Museum from October 6, 2009, through February 21, 2010. Several large ink drawings by the artist will suggest a mythical history of the Metropolitan Museum, imagining the building under construction. A series of computer drawings will focus on hypothetical futures of the Museum. This will be the artist's first solo exhibition in New York.

  • Marble Sculpture Attributed to Michelangelo on Loan to Metropolitan Museum from French Republic

    Sunday, January 3, 2010, 5:00 a.m.

    The marble sculpture Young Archer, attributed to Michelangelo Buonarroti (Caprese 1475- Rome 1564), is now on view in the Vélez Blanco Patio in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The fragmentary marble figure of a nude youth, which is missing arms and lower legs, was retained previously in the Fifth Avenue mansion that has housed the Cultural Services office of the French Embassy for decades. The sculpture is on special loan to the Metropolitan Museum for ten years from the French Republic, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs.

  • Metropolitan Museum Exhibition Features 100 Iconic American Paintings That Tell Stories of Everyday Life

    Sunday, January 3, 2010, 5:00 a.m.

    From the decade before the Revolution to the eve of World War I, many of America's most acclaimed painters captured in their finest works the temperament of their respective eras. They recorded and defined the emerging character of Americans as individuals, citizens, and members of ever-widening communities. Opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art this fall, American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765–1915 will bring together for the first time more than 100 of these iconic pictures that tell compelling stories of life's tasks and pleasures. The first overview of the subject in more than 35 years, the exhibition includes loans from leading museums and private lenders—and many paintings from the Metropolitan's own distinguished collection. American Stories features masterpieces by John Singleton Copley, Charles Willson Peale, William Sidney Mount, George Caleb Bingham, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, William Merritt Chase, John Sloan, and George Bellows, and notable works by some of their key colleagues.

  • Landmark Exhibition Devoted to Art of Samurai Opens at Metropolitan Museum October 21

    Sunday, January 3, 2010, 5:00 a.m.

    "What Japan was, she owed to the samurai. They were not only the flower of the nation but its root as well." From Bushido: The Soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobe (1907)

  • Exhibition of Rare Du Paquier Porcelain at Metropolitan Museum

    Sunday, January 3, 2010, 5:00 a.m.

    The Du Paquier ceramic manufactory, founded by Claudius Innocentius du Paquier in Vienna in 1718, was only the second factory in Europe able to make true porcelain in the manner of the Chinese. This small porcelain enterprise developed a highly distinctive style that remained Baroque in inspiration throughout the history of the factory, which was taken over by the State in 1744. Imperial Privilege: Vienna Porcelain of Du Paquier, 1718–44, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art through March 21, 2010, charts the history of the development of the Du Paquier factory, setting its production within the historic and cultural context of Vienna in the first half of the 18th century. The exhibition features more than 100 works, half drawn from the Metropolitan Museum's superb collection, and half from the premier private collection of this material.

  • First Comprehensive Exhibition Featuring China's 18th-Century Master Painter Luo Ping Goes on View at Metropolitan Museum October 6

    Sunday, January 3, 2010, 5:00 a.m.

    The first comprehensive exhibition of Luo Ping's paintings ever presented in America, Eccentric Visions: The Worlds of Luo Ping (1733-1799) will bring together nearly 60 works, including many Chinese "National Treasures," by one of the most celebrated painters in 18th-century China. Complemented by 27 pieces from American collections, this momentous international-loan exhibition will reveal the range and brilliance of the artist's vision as well as his place among his peers. Highlights of the exhibition will include the sensational handscroll Ghost Amusements (ca. 1766)—one of the best known paintings in the late imperial China—depicting the world of ghosts that, he claimed, he had seen with his own eyes. The youngest of the so-called "Eight Eccentrics," a group of highly individualistic artists active in the prosperous metropolis of Yanzhou, Luo Ping was an extraordinary artist, whose works influenced the course of later Chinese painting.

  • Recently Rediscovered Velázquez Painting Featured in New Exhibition at Metropolitan Museum

    Sunday, January 3, 2010, 5:00 a.m.

    Velázquez Rediscovered, a special exhibition on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art until February 7, 2010, features a newly identified painting by Velázquez, Portrait of a Man, formerly ascribed by the Museum to the workshop of Velázquez and recently reattributed to the master himself following its cleaning and restoration. It will be shown alongside other works from the Museum's superior collection of works by the great Spanish painter.

  • Magnificent Selection of Chinese Red Lacquerware On View at Metropolitan Museum This Summer

    Sunday, January 3, 2010, 5:00 a.m.

    Although lacquer is used in many Asian cultures, the art of carving lacquer is unique to China. Showcasing some 50 wondrously wrought examples, Cinnabar: The Chinese Art of Carved Lacquer, opening on August 6, will explore the development of this important artistic tradition from the 13th to the 18th century. Drawn from The Metropolitan Museum of Art's holdings as well as the collection of Florence and Herbert Irving, the installation will feature a number of masterworks, including newly acquired, rare 13th-century lacquer boxes for holding incense or cosmetics, and a recently restored eight-panel screen depicting a birthday celebration in an elaborate private compound. Dated 1773, this screen has never before been exhibited in public.

  • Nan Rosenthal Retires and Marla Prather Joins Modern Art Department at Metropolitan Museum

    Wednesday, December 16, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    New York, July 10, 2008)—After 15 years as Senior Consultant for modern and contemporary art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nan Rosenthal will retire on July 1, it was announced today by Gary Tinterow, Engelhard Curator in Charge of the Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art at the Metropolitan.

  • Metropolitan Museum Observes World AIDS Day on December 1

    Sunday, November 29, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art will observe World AIDS Day for the 21st consecutive year on Tuesday, December 1, 2009. In recognition of the devastating losses suffered by the cultural community as a result of AIDS, the Metropolitan will shroud or remove from view 15 works of art around the Museum. Stanchions in the Great Hall will acquaint visitors with the Museum's observance, and 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-staff to symbolize the losses due to AIDS-related deaths in the art community.

  • Spring 2010 Asian Art Installations

    Sunday, November 22, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    Arts of Korea Gallery

  • Judaica from Byzantium and Medieval Europe On View at Metropolitan Museum

    Sunday, November 22, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    Nearly a dozen examples of early Jewish art—dating from the first through the seventh century C.E.—are on view in the south gallery of the Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries for Byzantine art and the Medieval Europe Gallery. Works on loan from the Jewish Theological Seminary, The American Numismatic Society, and the Judy and Michael Steinhardt Collection, New York, are shown alongside objects from the holdings of the Metropolitan.

  • Gallery of Late Gothic Art Reopens at The Cloisters

    Sunday, November 22, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    Monumental Tapestry is Highlight of Multi-Year Project at Met's Northern Manhattan Branch

  • Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche on Display for Holiday Season at Metropolitan Museum

    Sunday, November 22, 2009, 5:00 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 from November 24, 2009, through January 6, 2010. 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 and daily lighting ceremonies, the installation reflects the spirit of the holiday season.

  • Metropolitan Museum Exhibitions Create $593 Million Economic Impact for New York

    Sunday, November 22, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    (New York, November 23, 2009)—The Metropolitan Museum's summer 2009 opening of its New American Wing, along with the concurrent presentation of three highly acclaimed and widely attended special exhibitions—Roxy Paine on the Roof: Maelstrom; Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective; and The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion—generated $593 million in spending by regional, national, and foreign tourists to New York, according to a visitor survey the Museum released today. Using the industry standard for calculating tax revenue impact, the study found that the direct tax benefit to the City and State from out-of-town visitors to the Museum totaled some $59.3 million. (Study findings are attached.)

  • Gallery of Late Gothic Art Reopens at The Cloisters

    Sunday, November 22, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    Monumental Tapestry is Highlight of Multi-Year Project at Met's Northern Manhattan Branch

  • Metropolitan Museum Celebrates the Holidays by Opening on "Holiday Monday" December 28

    Sunday, November 22, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art will be open to the public on Monday, December 28 (the Monday between Christmas and New Year's Day), as part of the Museum's popular "Holiday Mondays" program. The Museum will open the doors of its main building this winter and spring on three additional major Monday holidays: January 18 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day), February 15 (Presidents' Day), and May 31 (Memorial Day).

  • Last Chance!
    Vermeer's Masterpiece "The Milkmaid"
    Watteau, Music, and Theater
    Roxy Paine on the Roof: "Maelstrom"
    Close at Metropolitan Museum on Sunday, November 29

    Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    Vermeer's Masterpiece "The Milkmaid"
    On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's historic voyage from the Netherlands to New York, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has sent The Milkmaid, perhaps the most admired painting by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675), to the Metropolitan Museum. The exhibition marks the first time that The Milkmaid has traveled to the U.S. since 1939, and also features all five paintings by Vermeer from the Metropolitan's collection and works by other Dutch masters.

  • METROPOLITAN MUSEUM CONCERTS
    NOVEMBER 2009

    Monday, November 9, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    Haydn Trio Eisenstadt Performs Haydn and Two U.S. Premieres, Steve Ross and Lesley Gore Make Return Appearances at the Museum, Paula Robison Performs Music from the Time of Watteau, and Chanticleer Begins Its Run of Christmas Concerts

  • DENIS P. KELLEHER ELECTED A TRUSTEE AT METROPOLITAN MUSEUM

    Monday, November 9, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    (New York, November 10, 2009)—Denis P. Kelleher has been elected to the Board of Trustees of The Metropolitan Museum of Art representing the Borough of Staten Island, it was announced today by James R. Houghton, the Museum's Chairman. The election took place at the November 10 meeting of the Board.

  • METROPOLITAN MUSEUM CONCERTS
    DECEMBER 2009

    Monday, November 9, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    The New York Philharmonic CONTACT Series Begins, MMArtists in Concert Performs, and Christmas Concerts Feature Chanticleer, Lionheart, Burning River Brass, Quartetto Gelato, and Inspirational Voices of the Abyssinian Baptist Church

  • Istanbul-Based Vehbi Koç Foundation Funds New Galleries for Ottoman Art at Metropolitan Museum

    Thursday, November 5, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    (New York—November 6, 2009) In recognition of a generous gift of $10 million from the Istanbul-based Vehbi Koç Foundation, The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today the designation of two new galleries for Ottoman Art as the Koç Family Galleries. To be part of the Museum's galleries for the art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and later South Asia, scheduled to open in 2011, the two galleries will display works created within the borders of the Ottoman Empire between the early 14th and early 20th centuries.

  • Metropolitan Museum of Art Returns a Granite Fragment to Egypt

    Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    Fragment had been on loan and was recently identified as belonging to a larger work in Karnak

  • 侍芸術の最高峰を集めた大特別展、ニューヨークのメトロポリタン美術

    Thursday, October 15, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    メトロポリタン美術館では10月21日より>侍の芸術:日本の武器、武具、1156-1868 展を開催します。この展覧会は日本全国60以上のパブリック、プライベート・コレクションから選りすぐった名品が一堂に会する一大イベントで、日本の刀剣・甲冑を中心に侍の芸術を総括的、且つ詳細に紹介します。展示作品は国宝34点、重要文化財64点、重要美術品6点、名物9点を含む、甲冑、刀剣、日本刀の鍔・拵え(こしらえ)、弓矢、馬具、旗、陣羽織、大名の装飾品、また侍を描いた屏風、絵巻物等合計214点で、この中には日本国外で初公開となる作品も多数含まれており、武家文化の真髄を刀剣・甲冑戦具等芸術を通して見せるユニークな展覧会となります。刀剣・甲冑を中心に侍芸術を総括的にみせる展覧会はこれが世界最初で最大規模のもので、展示作品には日本刀の最高傑作として知られる名刀、大包平(12世紀)や、三日月の前立て付き兜が圧倒的な存在感を放つ伊達政宗の鎧(16-17世紀)他、信長、秀吉、家康等日本を代表する武将ゆかりの品々がメトロポリタンの特別展ギャラリーに並びます。期間中12月の第1週に約60作品の展示替えが行われる予定です。

  • "Watteau and Words: A Reading of French Poetry" by Philippe de Montebello at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

    Monday, October 12, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    Philippe de Montebello, Director Emeritus of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and currently the Fiske Kimball Professor in the History of Culture and Museums, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, returns to the Museum for his first public appearance there since last fall, to offer "Watteau and Words: A Reading of French Poetry" on Thursday, November 19, 2009, at 6:00 p.m. The event will take place in the Museum's Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium in conjunction with Watteau, Music, and Theater, an exhibition presented in honor of Mr. de Montebello, who stepped down from his 31-year directorship of the Museum on December 31, 2008.

  • American Stories Exhibition to Open on Columbus Day "Met Holiday Monday"

    Monday, October 5, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    The public's first opportunity to visit the landmark exhibition American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life 1765-1915 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art will be October 12 (Columbus Day), the next "Met Holiday Monday." Met Holiday Mondays are extra public viewing days that take place on the Mondays of major holiday weekends, when historically the Museum has been closed.

  • Robert Frank's Groundbreaking Photographs Featured in Major Exhibition Marking 50th Anniversary of His Book The Americans

    Wednesday, September 30, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    The 50th anniversary of the publication of The Americans, Robert Frank's ground-breaking book of black-and-white photographs, will be celebrated with the major exhibition Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art September 22, 2009–January 3, 2010. Robert Frank is one of the great living masters of photography, and his seminal book The Americans captured a culture on the brink of social upheaval. The exhibition traces the artist's process of creating this once-controversial suite of photographs, which grew out of several cross-country road trips in 1955 and 1956. Born in Switzerland in 1924, Frank was an outsider encountering much of America for the first time; he discovered its power, its vastness, and—at times—its troubling emptiness. Although Frank's depiction of American life was criticized when the book was released in the U.S. in 1959, The Americans soon became recognized as a masterpiece of 20th-century art. Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans features all 83 photographs from his original book. Remarkably, the exhibition at the Metropolitan will be the first time that this body of work is presented in its entirety to a New York audience.

  • "The Enchantress of Florence: A Conversation With Salman Rushdie" on Visual Imagary in his Recent Novel at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Tuesday, October 6, 2009, at 6:00 p.m.

    Wednesday, September 23, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    Salman Rushdie's latest novel, The Enchantress of Florence, brings together Florentine Italy and Mughal India, and the cultures that lie between them, in a tale that has been described as a "sumptuous mixture of history and fable." On Tuesday, October 6, 2009, at 6:00 p.m., the Metropolitan Museum of Art Concerts & Lectures series will present a conversation with the author and three art historians – Carmen Bambach, Curator of Drawings and Prints, and Navina Haidar Haykel, Associate Curator of Islamic Art, both of the Museum; and David Roxburgh, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor of Islamic Art History at Harvard University – to explore major themes and visual imagery in his novel.

  • New Exhibition at Metropolitan Museum Explores Influence of Music and Theater on the Work of Watteau and His Contemporaries

    Sunday, September 20, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    Watteau, Music, and Theater, the first exhibition of paintings by the great early 18th–century French painter and draftsman Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684–1721) in the United States in 25 years, is currently on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art through November 29. The exhibition explores the place of music and theater in the work of the artist, comparing the imagery of power associated with the court of the Sun King, Louis XIV, with a more optimistic and mildly subversive imagery of pleasure developed in contemporary opera-ballet and theater. Showing that the painter's utopian vision was influenced directly by these sister arts, it sheds light on a number of Watteau's pictures.

  • Painting in Metropolitan Museum's Collection Reattributed to Spanish Master Velázquez

    Tuesday, September 8, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    (New York, September 9, 2009)—Thomas P. Campbell, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, announced today that a technical examination and cleaning of one of its paintings, formerly ascribed to the workshop of Velázquez, has revealed an autograph work by the great 17th-century Spanish master himself. Velázquez is among the most admired Old Master painters, and his work rarely enters the market. The rehabilitation of this picture thus represents a major "new" acquisition for the Museum, which possesses the finest collection of works by the master in America.

  • Keith Christiansen to Chair European Paintings Department at Metropolitan Museum

    Monday, September 7, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    (New York, September 8, 2009)—Keith Christiansen, the Jayne Wrightsman Curator of European Paintings at The Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1989 and a member of the Museum's curatorial staff since 1977, has been elected John Pope-Hennessy Chairman of European Paintings, it was announced today by the Metropolitan Museum's Director, Thomas P. Campbell. He will replace Everett Fahy, who retired in June, effective immediately. The election took place at the September 8 meeting of the Board of Trustees.

  • Director Thomas P. Campbell Announces New Senior Staff Appointments at Metropolitan Museum

    Monday, September 7, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    (New York, September 8, 2009)—Thomas P. Campbell, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, today announced four major senior staff appointments:

  • Carrie Rebora Barratt Named Associate Director for Collections and Administration at Metropolitan Museum

    Monday, September 7, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    (New York, September 1, 2009)—Thomas P. Campbell, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, announced today that he has named Carrie Rebora Barratt to the position of Associate Director for Collections and Administration, effective immediately. She was formally elected by the Board of Trustees at their September 8 meeting. Most recently, she has been a Curator in the Metropolitan Museum's Department of American Paintings and Sculpture, and Manager of The Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art.

  • Peggy Fogelman Elected to Lead Metropolitan Museum's Educational Programs and Initiatives

    Monday, September 7, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    (New York, September 8, 2009)—Thomas P. Campbell, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, announced today that Peggy Fogelman will join the Museum as the Frederick P. and Sandra P. Rose Chairman of Education on October 26, 2009. Ms. Fogelman is currently Director of Education and Interpretation at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. She will succeed Kent Lydecker, who retired from the Museum in December. Ms. Fogelman was elected at the September 8 meeting of the Board of Trustees.

  • Sheila R. Canby Elected to Head Metropolitan Museum's Department of Islamic Art

    Monday, September 7, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    New York, September 8, 2009)—Thomas P. Campbell, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, announced today that Sheila R. Canby will become the Patti Cadby Birch Curator in Charge of the Museum's Department of Islamic Art, effective October 26, 2009. Her election took place at the September 8 meeting of the Board of Trustees.

  • Alejandro Santo Domingo Elected a Trustee at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

    Monday, September 7, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    (New York, September 8, 2009)—Alejandro Santo Domingo 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. Mr. Santo Domingo's election took place at the September 8 meeting of the Board.

  • Musical Heritage of China Celebrated in Metropolitan Museum Exhibition Opening September 5

    Thursday, September 3, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present an exhibition celebrating the musical heritage of China – one of the oldest continuously documented traditions with roots reaching back more than 8,000 years – beginning September 5. Featuring some 60 objects and illustrations – drawn largely from the Museum's collections of Asian art and musical instruments – Silk and Bamboo: Music and Art of China will reveal the dynamic interplay of cultures, the continuity of musical practice, and the diversity of China's musical traditions from the fifth century B.C. to the present.

  • Metropolitan Museum of Art Announces Recipients of 2009-2010 Fellowships for Research, Travel, and Study

    Monday, July 20, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art will host a group of 51 fellows, which consists of graduate students and scholars from the United States and around the world. The fellows will undertake study and research projects, either at the Museum or abroad, for periods ranging from three months to one year, most of them beginning in September 2009.

  • SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS
    MAY 2009–APRIL 2010

    Tuesday, July 14, 2009, 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.

  • Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Fund New Gallery for Persian Art at Metropolitan Museum

    Sunday, July 12, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    (New York, June 11, 2009)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today that a new gallery dedicated to Safavid and Later Persian Art (1500-1924) has been designated the Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Gallery. It is one of a suite of exhibition spaces—the Galleries for the Arts of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia—that are overseen by the Museum's Department of Islamic Art and are scheduled to open in 2011. In addition to funding the gallery naming, Mr. and Mrs. Mossavar-Rahmani's significant grant will fund the publication of a catalogue on the entire collection of the Department of Islamic Art and an endowment to support educational programming on Iranian art – all part of the overall project of $50 million including capital and endowment.

  • Metropolitan Museum Exhibition Features Work of Renowned 19th-Century American Sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens

    Tuesday, July 7, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907) was a French-Irish immigrant who became the greatest American sculptor of his day. From humble roots, through his prodigious talent, he rose in society, eventually counting some of America's most influential people in art and literature, diplomacy and economics, technology, and social policy among his friends and clients. The collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art contains nearly four dozen works by the accomplished artist, representing the entire range of his oeuvre, from early cameos to innovative bas-reliefs to character-penetrating portrait busts and statuettes derived from his public monuments. These unparalleled holdings will be supplemented with loans from private collections and public institutions in the exhibition Augustus Saint-Gaudens in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The presentation will address the artist's groundbreaking position in the history of late-19th-century American sculpture, his role in advancing American art on the international stage, and the long history of presenting and collecting his work at the Metropolitan Museum.

  • Japanese Mandalas on View at Metropolitan Museum through November 29

    Sunday, June 28, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    An impressive group of Japanese mandalas—graphic depictions of the Buddhist universe and its myriad realms and deities—are featured in an exhibition on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art through November 29. Showcasing more than 60 magnificent works—painting, sculpture, drawing, metalwork, stoneware, textile, and lacquer—drawn from major museums and collections in the United States, Japanese Mandalas: Emanations and Avatars illustrates the exceptional and complex world of Esoteric Buddhist art in Japan. Highlights of the exhibition include a set of monumental 13th-century mandalas on loan from the Brooklyn Museum—this pair was selected by the Japanese government to be conserved in Japan. Displayed in tandem with iconographic drawings that explain the character and placement of the deities, the mandalas introduce viewers to the supreme Buddha Dainichi Nyorai, the principal buddha of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism, and his innumerable emanations and avatars across the Buddhist cosmos.

  • New American Wing Galleries

    Wednesday, June 24, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    When The Charles Engelhard Court—the grand, light-filled pavilion that has long served as the formal entrance to The Metropolitan Museum of Art's American Wing—reopens this spring after two years of construction and renovation, the Museum's unparalleled collections of American ceramics, sculpture, stained glass, architectural elements, silver, pewter, glass, and jewelry will finally be seen in all their glory. So, too, will its early American rooms—12 of the Met's historic interiors, mostly from the colonial period, located on three floors of the wing's historic core—that have been reordered, renovated, and reinterpreted. The popular American Wing Café will also reopen in its previous location on the park side of the court. The opening of the galleries marks the completion of the second part (begun in May 2007) of a project to reconfigure, renovate, or upgrade nearly every section of The American Wing by 2011.

  • Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute Explores Role of Fashion Models as Muses of Recent Eras

    Monday, June 22, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion, the spring 2009 exhibition organized by The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, explores the reciprocal relationship between high fashion and evolving ideals of beauty, focusing on iconic fashion models in the latter half of the 20th century and their roles in projecting, and sometimes inspiring, the fashion of their respective eras. The exhibition is on view at the Metropolitan from May 6 through August 9, 2009.

  • Rarely Seen Medieval Drawings on View in New Exhibition at Metropolitan Museum

    Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    With strokes of genius, artists in the Middle Ages explored the medium of drawing, creating a rich panoply of works ranging from spontaneous sketches to powerful evocations of spirituality and intriguing images of science and the natural world. Opening June 2 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle Ages is the first museum exhibition to examine in depth the achievements of the medieval draftsman. Through some 50 examples created in settings as diverse as a ninth-century monastery and the 14th-century French court, the presentation considers the aesthetics, uses, and techniques of medieval drawings, mastered by artists working centuries before the dawn of the Renaissance. Works from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum are displayed along with important loans from American and European museums, and the great national, university, and monastic libraries of Europe. Many of these manuscripts are so highly prized that they have never before been lent outside of their home countries.

  • Michelangelo's First Painting

    Thursday, June 11, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    Michelangelo's First Painting, a special exhibition beginning June 16 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, presents The Torment of Saint Anthony, the first known painting by Michelangelo Buonarroti (Florence 1475- Rome 1564), believed to have been created when he was 12 or 13 years old. Recently acquired by the Kimbell Art Museum, the painting has undergone conservation and technical examination at the Metropolitan Museum. Michelangelo's First Painting will run through September 7, after which the panel will return to the Kimbell Art Museum for display as part of its permanent collection.

  • Photography Exhibition at Metropolitan Museum Captures the Dramatic Transformation of Paris during the Rise and Fall of Napoleon III

    Thursday, June 4, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    During the reign of Emperor Napoleon III, the narrow streets and medieval buildings of Paris gave way to the broad boulevards and grand public works that still define the urban landscape of the French capital. Napoleon III and Paris, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from June 9 through September 7, 2009, portrays the quickly changing cityscape of Second Empire Paris through a presentation of 40 photographs and 13 works in other media, all drawn from the permanent collection. Spanning the period from 1851 to 1871, the installation begins with a photographic introduction to Napoleon III and his family, then traces the radical transformation of the city under the emperor and his master urban planner Baron Haussmann, and concludes with depictions of the ruins of Paris in the aftermath of the Commune. Many of the works in the installation are by the preeminent photographers of the period, including Gustave Le Gray, Charles Marville, Edouard Baldus, Louis-Émile Durandelle, Alphonse Liébert, and Pierre-Ambrose Richebourg.

  • New American Wing Galleries

    Monday, May 25, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    When The Charles Engelhard Court—the grand, light-filled pavilion that has long served as the formal entrance to The Metropolitan Museum of Art's American Wing—reopens this spring after two years of construction and renovation, the Museum's unparalleled collections of American ceramics, sculpture, stained glass, architectural elements, silver, pewter, glass, and jewelry will finally be seen in all their glory. So, too, will its early American rooms—12 of the Met's historic interiors, mostly from the colonial period, located on three floors of the wing's historic core—that have been reordered, renovated, and reinterpreted. The popular American Wing Café will also reopen in its previous location on the park side of the court. The opening of the galleries marks the completion of the second part (begun in May 2007) of a project to reconfigure, renovate, or upgrade nearly every section of The American Wing by 2011.

  • Roxy Paine Creates Monumental Sculpture for 2009 Installation of Metropolitan Museum's Roof Garden

    Monday, May 25, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    Conceptual artist Roxy Paine (American, b. 1966) has created a site-specific installation for the 2009 season of The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, the most dramatic outdoor space for sculpture in New York City. Roxy Paine on the Roof: Maelstrom features a 130-foot-long by 45-foot-wide stainless-steel sculpture, Maelstrom (2009), that encompasses the nearly 8,000-square-foot Roof Garden, and is the largest sculpture to have been installed on the roof of the Metropolitan. Set against, and in dialogue with, the greensward of Central Park and its architectural backdrop, this swirling entanglement of stainless- steel pipe showcases the work of an artist keenly interested in the interplay between the natural world and the built environment, as well as the human desire for order amid nature's inherently chaotic processes.

  • Afghanistan's Dazzling National Treasures—Hidden for 25 Years—Presented at Metropolitan Museum

    Monday, May 18, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    Ancient Afghanistan—located at the crossroads of major trade routes, where it attracted invading armies and nomadic migrations—was home to some of the most complex, rich, and original civilizations on the continent of Asia. Opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art this summer, the traveling exhibition Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul, celebrates the country's unique role, as both the recipient of diverse cultural elements and the creator of distinctive styles of art from the Bronze Age into the Kushan period. The presentation also commemorates the heroic rescue of Afghanistan's national treasures long thought to have been destroyed. The exhibition features a rich selection of artworks from four archaeological sites. All works belong to the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul. Highlights include gold vessels from the Bronze Age Tepe Fullol hoard; superb works and architectural elements from the Hellenistic city of Aï Khanum; sculptural masterpieces in ivory, plaster medallions, bronzes, and Roman glass from Begram; and extraordinary turquoise-encrusted gold jewelry and ornaments from the nomadic tombs at Tillya Tepe.

  • Spectacular French Bronzes on View at Metropolitan Museum in Exhibition Spanning Renaissance and Age of Enlightenment

    Thursday, April 30, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    Beginning in the 16th century, a tradition of bronze sculpture developed in France that was influenced by achievements of the Italian Renaissance, while manifesting its own distinct refinement and force. Even though French bronzes were among the glories of royal châteaux, including Versailles, and were collected eagerly by connoisseurs, they have received relatively little scrutiny from scholars. Cast in Bronze: French Sculpture from Renaissance to Revolution, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, brings together a large number of spectacular bronzes and is the first exhibition to address this subject in 40 years.

  • Contemporary Artist Liza Lou's Continuous Mile on Display at Metropolitan Museum for Two Years

    Tuesday, April 28, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    Liza Lou's recent work Continuous Mile, an ambitious and engaging large-scale sculpture made of gleaming white beads, went on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on January 23, 2009. The work is a two-year loan from the artist and is on display on the second floor of the Museum's Lila Acheson Wallace Wing for modern and contemporary art.

  • Message from James R. Houghton, Chairman, Board of Trustees, The Metropolitan Museum of Art - February 2009

    Monday, April 27, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    (February 2009)—A special message from Board of Trustees Chairman James R. Houghton regarding the Museum's continued commitment to its mission during the ongoing global fiscal crisis: Message from James R. Houghton (PDF)

  • Francis Bacon's Provocative Works Featured in Major Retrospective Opens May 20 at Metropolitan Museum

    Sunday, April 26, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    The first major New York exhibition in 20 years devoted to Francis Bacon (British, 1909–1992)—one of the most important painters of the 20th century—will be presented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from May 20 through August 16, 2009. Marking the 100th anniversary of the artist's birth, Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective will bring together the most significant works from each period of the artist's remarkable career. Drawn from public and private collections around the world, this landmark exhibition will consist of some 65 paintings, complemented by never-before-seen works and archival material from the Francis Bacon Estate, which will shed new light on the artist's career and working practices. The Metropolitan Museum is the sole U.S. venue of the exhibition tour.

  • Esteemed Photographer Helen Levitt Honored with Endowment Fund and Promised Gift of Photographs to Metropolitan Museum

    Thursday, April 23, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    (New York—April 23, 2009) The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today a new endowment fund and promised gift of artwork in memory of the great American street photographer Helen Levitt, who died on March 29, 2009, at the age of 95. The Helen Levitt Memorial Fund has been established through a generous planned gift of the artist's sister-in-law, Mrs. Robert O. Levitt, and will support the Museum's acquisition of photographs by Helen Levitt and other mid-20th-century American photographers working in her tradition. Mrs. Robert O. Levitt has also made a promised gift to the Metropolitan Museum of 12 of the artist's photographs.

  • Esteemed Photographer Helen Levitt Honored with Endowment Fund and Promised Gift of Photographs to Metropolitan Museum

    Thursday, April 23, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    (New York—April 23, 2009) The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today a new endowment fund and promised gift of artwork in memory of the great American street photographer Helen Levitt, who died on March 29, 2009, at the age of 95. The Helen Levitt Memorial Fund has been established through a generous planned gift of the artist's sister-in-law, Mrs. Robert O. Levitt, and will support the Museum's acquisition of photographs by Helen Levitt and other mid-20th-century American photographers working in her tradition. Mrs. Robert O. Levitt has also made a promised gift to the Metropolitan Museum of 12 of the artist's photographs.

  • "Pictures Generation" of New York Contemporary Artists Featured in Spring Metropolitan Museum Exhibition

    Sunday, April 19, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    The first major museum exhibition to focus on the highly influential group of New York artists known as the "Pictures Generation" will be presented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from April 21 through August 2, 2009. The Pictures Generation, 1974–1984 will trace the development of one of the most important art movements of the last quarter of the 20th century, which included some of the key figures in contemporary art: Robert Longo, Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince, Sherrie Levine, David Salle, Matt Mullican, Jack Goldstein, James Welling, and Troy Brauntuch. The "Pictures Generation" worked in all mediums—photography chief among them—to explore how images shape our perceptions of ourselves and the world. Drawing from the Museum's collection as well as from public and private collections, the exhibition will feature more than 160 works by 30 artists, including photographic works by Barbara Kruger, Laurie Simmons, James Casebere, Allan McCollum, Sarah Charlesworth, and Louise Lawler, and film and video by Ericka Beckman, Michael Smith, and Dara Birnbaum. The exhibition will also examine the pivotal roles played by lesser-known artists such as Paul McMahon and Michael Zwack.

  • Performance, Video, Music, and Audio Features by Contemporary New York Artists Included in Metropolitan Museum's "Pictures Generation" Exhibition this Spring

    Monday, April 13, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    The Pictures Generation, 1974–1984, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from April 21 through August 2, 2009, will include performances, videos, and music by several contemporary New York artists, as well as related film screenings and audio features. This is the first major museum exhibition to focus exclusively on the highly influential group of artists known as the "Pictures Generation." Working most often in photography, but also in painting, sculpture, performance, film, video, and audio, this tightly knit group of artists explored how images shape our perceptions of ourselves and the world. Featured are 160 works by 30 artists, including Jack Goldstein, Robert Longo, Troy Brauntuch, Sherrie Levine, Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince, David Salle, Matt Mullican, Louise Lawler, and Dara Birnbaum, among others. As part of the exhibition, three large-scale drawings by Robert Longo will also be presented in the Great Hall.

  • Masterpieces of African and Oceanic Art from Barbier-Mueller Museum on View This Summer at Metropolitan Museum

    Tuesday, March 31, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    An exhibition featuring exceptional works of African and Oceanic sculpture selected from the extensive holdings of the Barbier-Mueller Museum in Geneva, one of Europe's preeminent private collections of non-Western art, will go on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on June 2. Presenting more than 35 works—most never before seen in the United States—African and Oceanic Art from The Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva: A Legacy of Collecting will explore the wide spectrum of artistic creativity from two distinct regional traditions that have profoundly influenced world art.

  • Credential Application Guidelines for Red Carpet Arrivals at the 2009 Costume Institute Gala

    Tuesday, March 31, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

    Applications must be received by Friday, April 24, from all media outlets wishing to be considered for accreditation to cover red-carpet arrivals at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala Benefit, which will be held on the evening of Monday, May 4, 2009, to inaugurate the exhibition The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion.

  • International Loan Exhibition of Korean Art Opens at Metropolitan Museum on March 17

    Wednesday, February 25, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    The early Joseon period, a time of extraordinary artistic achievements in Korea, will be explored in a loan exhibition opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in March 2009. Showcasing approximately 47 spectacular works—painting, ceramics, metalwork, and lacquer—Art of the Korean Renaissance, 1400-1600 will illustrate the lively and nuanced story of the formidable cultural renaissance that flourished during these two centuries. Drawn from major museums and collections in Korea, Japan, Germany, and the United States—including the National Museum of Korea; Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art; Kyushu National Museum of Japan; Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka; Museums of East Asian Art, Cologne; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Cleveland Museum of Art; Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation; and the Florence and Herbert Irving Collection—the exhibition will also include the Metropolitan's recently acquired mid-16th-century hanging scroll, Gathering of Government-officials. The presentation will launch a series of focused exhibitions on important periods in Korean art history, to be held at the Museum over the next 10 to 15 years.

  • Metropolitan Museum Lectures in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

    Wednesday, February 18, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    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–Thursday 10–5:00, Friday and Saturday 10–7:00, and Sunday noon–5:00. Student discount tickets are available for some events; call 212-570-3949.

  • Metropolitan Museum's 2009 Series of "Met Holiday Mondays" to Continue with Presidents' Day, Feb. 16

    Sunday, February 8, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art continues its popular "Met Holiday Mondays" program by opening the doors of its main building to the public on Presidents' Day, February 16. (The next Met Holiday Monday will be Memorial Day, May 25.) Before the Met Holiday Mondays were initiated in 2003, the Museum was closed to the public every Monday for 30 years.

  • Brilliant Chinese Paintings and Calligraphies of Ming Dynasty in New Exhibition at Metropolitan Museum

    Wednesday, January 21, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    Drawn entirely from the extensive resources of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Arts of the Ming Dynasty: China's Age of Brilliance will present a grand array of artworks created during one of the most celebrated dynasties in Chinese history. Featuring 70 paintings and calligraphies, including masterpieces by Wang Fu (1362-1416), Xia Chang (1388-1470), Wen Zhengming (1470–1559), Dong Qichang (1555–1636), and Chen Hongshou (1599–1652), the exhibition will examine various artistic trends as well as the distinctive personal expressions of many of the leading artists of the time. The works will be complemented by more than 30 ceramics, textiles, lacquers, cloisonnés, jades, and bamboo carvings that will showcase the material prosperity experienced during the period.

  • Promised Gift of American Ceramics Transforms Metropolitan Museum's Art Pottery Collection

    Wednesday, January 21, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    (New York—January 13, 2009) The Metropolitan Museum of Art has accepted the promised gift of 250 exceptional examples of American art pottery from the collector Robert A. Ellison Jr., it was announced at a meeting of the Museum's Board of Trustees today. The collection—which spans the years 1876 through 1956 and represents all regions of the nation—ranks among the foremost of its kind, and will be unveiled on the mezzanine level of the Museum's Charles Engelhard Court when the second phase of the newly renovated American Wing opens on May 19, 2009.

  • Metropolitan Museum's Summer Exhibitions J. M. W. Turner, Jeff Koons on the Roof, and Superheroes Generated $610 Million Economic Impact on New York

    Wednesday, January 21, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    (New York, November 24, 2008) – The Metropolitan Museum's presentation of three acclaimed and widely attended exhibitions in the summer 2008 season—J. M. W. Turner, Jeff Koons on the Roof, and Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy—generated $610 million in spending by regional, national, and foreign tourists to New York, according to a visitor survey released today by the Museum. Using the industry standard for calculating tax revenue impact, the study found that the direct tax benefit to the City and State from out-of-town visitors to the Museum totaled some $61 million.

  • Promised Gift of American Ceramics Transforms Metropolitan Museum's Art Pottery Collection

    Wednesday, January 21, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    (New York—January 13, 2009) The Metropolitan Museum of Art has accepted the promised gift of 250 exceptional examples of American art pottery from the collector Robert A. Ellison Jr., it was announced at a meeting of the Museum's Board of Trustees today. The collection—which spans the years 1876 through 1956 and represents all regions of the nation—ranks among the foremost of its kind, and will be unveiled on the mezzanine level of the Museum's Charles Engelhard Court when the second phase of the newly renovated American Wing opens on May 19, 2009.

  • Pierre Bonnard's Luminous Late Interiors Featured in Metropolitan Museum Exhibition Opening January 27

    Tuesday, January 20, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    The first exhibition to focus entirely on the radiant late interiors and still-life paintings of Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947) will open January 27, 2009, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Pierre Bonnard: The Late Interiors features 80 paintings, drawings, and watercolors that date from 1923 to 1947, when Bonnard centered his painting activity in Le Cannet, a hill town in the south of France. Working in his modest house overlooking the Mediterranean, Bonnard's paintings transformed the rooms and objects that surrounded him into dazzling images infused with intense light. It is these luminous late interiors that define Bonnard's modernism and prompt a reappraisal of his reputation in the history of 20th-century art. Among the 45 paintings, 16 watercolors and gouaches, and 19 drawings and sketches in the exhibition are numerous rarely seen works from private collections, as well as loans from prominent museums in Europe and the U.S. The exhibition will also reunite several pictures that once hung side-by-side on Bonnard's studio wall in Le Cannet.

  • Master Drawings from Collection of Jean Bonna On View at Metropolitan Museum

    Monday, January 19, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    Raphael to Renoir: Drawings from the Collection of Jean Bonna is the first comprehensive exhibition dedicated to the European Old Master and 19th-century drawings from this distinguished Swiss collection. On view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning January 21, 2009, Raphael to Renoir provides a rare opportunity to see 120 master drawings, ranging across 500 years of the history of art, from the Renaissance to 1900. Representing a range of artistic schools, the selection includes works by famous artists—such as Carpaccio, Raphael, Andrea del Sarto, Parmigianino, Canaletto, Rembrandt, Claude Lorrain, Watteau, Chardin, Boucher, Fragonard, Goya, Ingres, Gericault, Delacroix, Manet, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Degas, Cézanne, Redon, Renoir, Gauguin, Van Gogh, and Seurat—as well as superb and poignant drawings by lesser-known artists.

  • Walker Evans's Eclectic Picture Postcard Collection Featured in Metropolitan Museum Exhibition Opening February 3

    Monday, January 19, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    Nine thousand picture postcards amassed by American photographer Walker Evans (1903–1975) are among the fascinating works in The Walker Evans Archive, acquired by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1994. Walker Evans and the Picture Postcard, to be presented at the Museum from February 3 through May 25, 2009, will be a dynamic installation of hundreds of these postcards from Evans's collection, which he built and refined over the course of 60 years. The direct influence of the postcard on his pictorial style will be demonstrated with the inclusion of a small group of Evans's own photographs, also from the Museum's collection.

  • Contemporary Artist Raqib Shaw's Fantastical Tableaux On View at Metropolitan Museum November 4

    Thursday, January 15, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    Never-before-seen paintings and works on paper by London-based artist Raqib Shaw (Indian, born 1974) will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from November 4, 2008, through March 8, 2009.

  • Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Elected a Trustee at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

    Tuesday, January 13, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    (New York, January 13, 2009)—Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani 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. Mr. Mossavar-Rahmani's election took place at the January 13 meeting of the board.

  • Metropolitan Museum's Collection Management Policy (Revised November 2008)

    Monday, January 5, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    In June 2008 the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of The Metropolitan Museum of Art accepted the Association of Art Museum Directors's June 4, 2008 Guidelines on the Acquisition of Archaeological Materials and Ancient Art, and on November 12, 2008, the Board of Trustees adopted a revised Collections Management Policy incorporating those guidelines.

  • Vermeer's The Milkmaid on View in the United States for First Time in 70 Years in New Exhibition at Metropolitan Museum

    Saturday, January 3, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

    On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's historic voyage from the Netherlands to New York, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has sent The Milkmaid, perhaps the most admired painting by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer (1632—1675), to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. To celebrate this extraordinary loan, the Metropolitan Museum presents Vermeer's Masterpiece The Milkmaid, a special exhibition beginning September 10, which also includes all five paintings by Vermeer from its collection, as well as a select group of works by other Dutch artists, placing Vermeer's superb picture in its historical context. The exhibition marks the first time that the painting has traveled to the United States since it was exhibited at the 1939 World's Fair.

  • Metropolitan Museum Celebrates the Holidays by Opening on "Holiday Monday" December 29

    Monday, December 22, 2008, 5:00 a.m.

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art will be open to the public on Monday, December 29 (the Monday between Christmas and New Year's Day), as part of the Museum's popular "Holiday Mondays" program. The Museum will open the doors of its main building this winter and spring on three additional major Monday holidays: January 19 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day), February 16 (Presidents' Day), and May 25 (Memorial Day).

  • METROPOLITAN MUSEUM LECTURES IN THE GRACE RAINEY ROGERS AUDITORIUM

    Tuesday, December 16, 2008, 5:00 a.m.

    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–Thursday 10–5:00, Friday and Saturday 10–7:00, and Sunday noon–5:00. Student discount tickets are available for some events; call 212-570-3949.

  • Art of Second Millennium B.C. Explored in Landmark Exhibition at Metropolitan Museum

    Monday, December 15, 2008, 5:00 a.m.

    Beginning around four thousand years ago in the lands of western Asia and the eastern Mediterranean, one of the first international ages in human history emerged. Intense exchange fostered a burst of creativity in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, the Levant, and the Aegean in the second millennium B.C.—the time of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. The quest for raw materials such as metals, semiprecious stones, and other exotic luxury goods led to contacts with the Iranian plateau and Central Asia. Within this lively sphere of interaction, societies that otherwise differed strongly in culture and language were linked by the exchange of objects and ideas. In response, new international styles and imagery arose, reflected in the art, trade and diplomacy that connected the Mesopotamian heartland with the regions "Beyond Babylon."

  • Brooklyn Museum Announces Landmark Costume Collection Partnership with Metropolitan Museum

    Monday, December 15, 2008, 5:00 a.m.

    (New York, December 16, 2008)—The Brooklyn Museum announced today a landmark collection-sharing partnership with The Metropolitan Museum of Art. http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/press/ (PDF)

  • 뉴욕 메트로폴리탄 박물관과 문화체육관광부 MOU 체결 통해 장기 협력 체계 구축 -메트로폴리탄 한국 미술 연구를 위한 지원-

    Wednesday, December 10, 2008, 7:12 p.m.

  • Rich Legacy of African Textiles on View in Metropolitan Museum Exhibition

    Thursday, December 4, 2008, 5:00 a.m.

    Africa's extraordinary legacy of textile arts, with its explosive color and complex graphic statements, will be presented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning September 30. Bringing together more than 40 works dating from the early 19th century to the present – including a spectacular silk and cotton kente prestige cloth woven in Ghana during the 19th century and a 30-foot-long installation work by contemporary artist Yinka Shonibare – The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End will highlight the enduring significance of textiles as a major form of aesthetic expression across the continent. While examining some of the finest and earliest preserved examples of different regional textile traditions, the exhibition will relate these to works by eight contemporary artists, who draw inspiration from textiles in their explorations of other media ranging from sculpture, painting, and photography to video and installation art. Works selected for the exhibition are drawn primarily from the collections of the Metropolitan and the British Museum as well as several private collections in the U.S. and Europe.

  • Calder's Inventive Jewelry Featured in Metropolitan Museum Exhibition Opening December 9

    Thursday, December 4, 2008, 5:00 a.m.

    American-born artist Alexander Calder (1898–1976) is celebrated for his mobiles, stabiles, paintings, and objets d'art. The landmark exhibition Calder Jewelry—to be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from December 9, 2008, through March 1, 2009—is the first museum presentation dedicated solely to his extensive output of inventive jewelry. During his lifetime, Calder produced approximately 1,800 unique pieces of brass, silver, and gold body ornaments, often embellished with found objects such as beach glass, ceramic shards, and wood. Calder Jewelry will feature approximately 90 works—necklaces, bracelets, earrings, brooches, and tiaras—many of which were made as personal gifts for the artist's family and friends.

  • 伟大之旅:亚洲将在大都会博物馆亚洲艺术展区揭幕

    Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 10:43 p.m.

  • Sumptuous Italian Renaissance Works Celebrating Art and Love in New Exhibition at Metropolitan Museum

    Tuesday, November 18, 2008, 5:00 a.m.

    "It is unbelievable how much is spent on these new weddings…."

  • Modern Master Giorgio Morandi Featured in Retrospective Exhibition at Metropolitan Museum

    Tuesday, November 18, 2008, 5:00 a.m.

    "Nothing is more abstract than reality."
    -Giorgio Morandi, 1955

  • Jewel-like Paintings from Medieval Italian Choir Books on View at Metropolitan Museum of Art

    Monday, November 17, 2008, 5:00 a.m.

    "We mingle our praises with those of God's angels, whom we cannot hear."
    Cassiodorus (sixth-century Roman scholar and monk)

  • SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS SEPTEMBER 2008 - AUGUST 2009

    Wednesday, November 12, 2008, 5:00 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.

  • Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche on Display for Holiday Season at Metropolitan Museum

    Wednesday, November 12, 2008, 5:00 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 from November 25, 2008 through January 6, 2009. 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 and daily lighting ceremonies, the installation reflects the spirit of the holiday season.