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European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Wednesday, September 21, 2005, 4:00 a.m.
The Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts has evolved from one that was established as a repository of decorative art in 1907, during the presidency of J. Pierpont Morgan. Today it is responsible for a comprehensive and important historical collection, one of the Metropolitan Museum's largest, reflecting the development of art in the major Western European countries.
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Modern Art
Lila Acheson Wallace Wing
Wednesday, September 21, 2005, 4:00 a.m.
Since its founding in 1870 the Metropolitan Museum has been concerned with the art of its own time as well as that of the past. In 1906 and 1911 funds established by George A. Hearn particularly encouraged acquisitions of works by contemporary American painters. During the first decades of the 20th century fewer examples by European artists were acquired, but certain purchases are notable. Among these were Renoir's Mme Georges Charpentier and Her Children (1879) acquired in 1907 and Cézanne's View of the Domain Saint Joseph (1889) acquired from the Armory Show in 1913. Monet died in 1926. In the same year the Museum received its first gift of one of his paintings, and in 1929 the extraordinary bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer included an additional eight.
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A Brief History of the Museum
Wednesday, September 21, 2005, 4:00 a.m.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 by a group of American citizens – businessmen and financiers as well as leading arists and thinkers of the day – who wanted to create a museum to bring art and art education to the American people.
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Drawings and Prints
Wednesday, September 21, 2005, 4:00 a.m.
In 1880 Cornelius Vanderbilt presented to the Metropolitan Museum 670 drawings by or attributed to European Old Masters. In its early decades, the collection of drawings grew slowly through purchase, gift, and bequest. Among notable acquisitions of this period were major drawings by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Rembrandt. In 1935, the Museum purchased an album of 50 sheets by Goya, while more than 100 works, mostly by Venetian artists of the 18th century, were acquired from the marquis de Biron in 1937. It was not until 1960 that the Department of Drawings was established as a separate curatorial area of the Museum with Jacob Bean as its first curator. During the next 30 years, the department's holdings nearly doubled in size; the collection is known particularly for its works by Italian and French artists of the 15th through the 19th century.
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I giardini del museo The Met Cloisters
Tuesday, August 23, 2005, 2:18 p.m.
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Robert Rauschenberg: Combines
Thursday, August 4, 2005, 4:00 a.m.
Some of the most daring and influential works by one of America's great modern artists – Robert Rauschenberg – will go on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on December 20. Robert Rauschenberg: Combines takes a rare and comprehensive look at the three-dimensional works that Robert Rauschenberg (b. 1925) terms combines. The exhibition, which will include approximately 65 objects created between 1954 and 1964, is the first to focus exclusively on this significant body of work. Robert Rauschenberg: Combines remains on view through April 2, 2006, before continuing on an international tour through 2007.
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SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS SEPTEMBER–DECEMBER 2005
Wednesday, August 3, 2005, 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.
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Metropolitan Museum Continues Popular "Holiday Monday" Program
Wednesday, August 3, 2005, 4:00 a.m.
(New York, August 2, 2005) – The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today that its Met Holiday Mondays program, which began in fall 2003, will be extended for an additional three years. Met Holiday Mondays are extra public viewing days that take place on the Mondays of major holiday weekends. Continuation of the program is sponsored by Bloomberg LP.
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Metropolitan Museum Names Michael Gallagher the Sherman Fairchild Conservator in Charge of Paintings Conservation
Wednesday, August 3, 2005, 4:00 a.m.
(New York, June 21, 2005)—Michael Gallagher, who has been Keeper of Conservation at the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh since 1999, will be the new Sherman Fairchild Conservator in Charge of the Department of Painting Conservation at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was announced by Philippe de Montebello, Director of the Metropolitan. The election, which was formally approved by the Museum's Board of Trustees, is effective July 1, 2005. Mr. Gallagher will assume the post in October.
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Major Retrospective of Vincent van Gogh's Drawings to Open at Metropolitan Museum in October 2005
Wednesday, July 20, 2005, 4:00 a.m.
The first major exhibition in the United States ever to focus on Vincent van Gogh's extraordinary drawings will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on October 18. Vincent van Gogh: The Drawings — comprising 113 works selected from public and private collections worldwide, including an exceptional number of loans from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam — will reveal the range and brilliance of the artist's draftsmanship as it evolved over the course of his decade-long career. Generally over-shadowed by the fame and familiarity of his paintings, Van Gogh's more than 1,100 drawings remain comparatively unknown although they are among his most ingenious and striking creations. Van Gogh engaged drawing and painting in a rich dialogue, which enabled him to fully realize the creative potential of both means of expression. A group of paintings will be exhibited alongside the related drawings. The exhibition will remain on view through December 31.