-
SUBJECTS AND SYMBOLS IN AMERICAN SCULPTURE: SELECTIONS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION
Wednesday, November 17, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
Nineteenth-century American artists regarded "ideal themes" — those inspired by mythology, history, and literature — as the most challenging and venerable in the hierarchy of genres. Such subjects provided an opportunity for sculptors to demonstrate their familiarity with allegorical, historical, and literary topics, their skill at incorporating identifying attributes into their compositions, and frequently also their expertise in rendering the nude.
-
ART AND ORACLE: SPIRIT VOICES OF AFRICA
Tuesday, November 16, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
A figure sculpted in central Africa's rainforest to determine guilt or innocence, a maternity image made by an Igbo potter to enable a woman to conceive children, and a set of dice carved to decide the destiny of a Shona chief will be among the works featured in Art and Oracle: Spirit Voices of Africa, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from April 26 through July 30, 2000. Throughout history and around the world, peoples have sought the intervention of divine powers to understand their fate, and this exhibition will demonstrate the dynamic relationship between ritual practice and creative expression through some 200 artifacts from more than 50 African cultures.
-
DAVID SMITH ON THE ROOF
Monday, November 15, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
A selection of works in burnished stainless steel by David Smith (1906-1965) — considered one of the most original and influential American sculptors of his generation — will be on view beginning May 15, on the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. David Smith on the Roof will mark the third consecutive single-artist installation on the Roof Garden, a 10,000 square-foot open-air space that offers a panoramic view of the Manhattan skyline and Central Park.
-
AMERICAN MODERN: 1925-1940 — DESIGN FOR A NEW AGE
Sunday, November 14, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
American Modern: 1925-1940 — Design for a New Age, an exhibition tracing the rise of a distinctively American modern design aesthetic through the efforts of 40 of its creative pioneers, will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from May 16, 2000 through January 9, 2001. More than 100 objects, including furniture, clocks, appliances, lamps, textiles, posters, and more, from the Museum's collection and from the John C. Waddell Collection — a major promised gift to the Metropolitan — will reveal the aesthetic, cultural, and economic forces that ultimately shaped the modern design movement in America.
-
ANNENBERG COLLECTION OF IMPRESSIONIST AND POST-IMPRESSIONIST MASTERWORKS
Saturday, November 13, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
Fifty-three paintings, watercolors, and drawings by 18 of the greatest artists who worked in France in the 19th and early 20th century comprise the Annenberg collection, which will return to The Metropolitan Museum of Art for six months beginning in May 2000. This annual event, now in its sixth year, provides an exceptional opportunity for visitors to experience this renowned private collection. The works are shown in the Museum's Nineteenth-Century European Paintings and Sculpture Galleries, hung together in three central rooms, surrounded by the Met's own collection of 19th-century European paintings.
-
FIREWORKS
Thursday, November 11, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
No form of entertainment involves so much ingenuity at so great a cost for such a dazzling — but woefully ephemeral — effect as fireworks. Many attempts have been made over the centuries to create for posterity a visual record of fireworks displays, especially those mounted in connection with official occasions, such as a noble marriage, the entry of a ruler into a city, military victories, and coronations. Before photography became prevalent, these records were most often made as prints — woodcuts, engravings, etchings, and lithographs — since these could be made in multiple impressions and could thus be distributed to a wide audience as a document or souvenir of the occasion. In celebration of the new millennium, the exhibition Fireworks will feature more than 100 prints and drawings depicting firework displays from the 16th to the early 20th century.
-
CHARDIN
Wednesday, November 10, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
Chardin — a major loan exhibition of more than 65 works that will survey the great 18th-century artist's distinguished career as a still-life and genre painter — will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from June 27 through September 3, 2000.
-
ART AND THE EMPIRE CITY: NEW YORK, 1825-1861
Tuesday, November 9, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
In America in the second quarter of the 19th century — between 1825, when the Erie Canal was built, and 1861, when the Civil War began — the visual arts proliferated. On September 19, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present a landmark exhibition, Art and the Empire City: New York, 1825-1861, which will explore in unprecedented depth the history of American art of this period, as epitomized in New York City.
-
CHRISTMAS TREE AND NEAPOLITAN BAROQUE CRÈCHE
Tuesday, November 9, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
Christmas Concerts at the Met
Christmas at The Cloisters
-
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM ANNOUNCES REOPENING OF GALLERIES FOR ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN ART
Sunday, October 17, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
October 19 marks the culmination of an 18-month-long renovation and reinstallation project at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, as nearly 1,500 works from the permanent collection of the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art return to public view. The newly reorganized galleries feature the monumental sculpture, distinctive metalwork, delicately carved ivories and seals, exquisite jewelry, and other works of art made in the ancient Near East over nearly nine millennia. A highlight is the dramatic renovation of the Assyrian relief gallery, evocative of an audience hall in the palace of Ashurnasirpal II.
-
CARLETON WATKINS: THE ART OF PERCEPTION EXPLORES WORK OF VISIONARY 19th-CENTURY PHOTOGRAPHER
Sunday, September 26, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
An exhibition of 98 images by Carleton Watkins (1829-1916), America's greatest landscape photographer, will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Carleton Watkins: The Art of Perception. The first large-scale examination of an often under-recognized artist, the exhibition includes more than 85 mammoth prints, including work from his famous series of the pristine and then virtually unknown Yosemite Valley, as well as many other lyrical views of the American West.
-
WILLIAM RUDIN AND ANDREW SAUL ELECTED TRUSTEES, DIANE BURKE ELECTED HONORARY TRUSTEE OF
Thursday, September 23, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
(September 24, 1999) – William C. Rudin and Andrew M. Saul have been elected Trustees of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Diane W. Burke an Honorary Trustee of the Museum, it was announced recently by James R. Houghton, Chairman of the Board of the Metropolitan. The elections took place at the September 14 meeting of the Board of Trustees.
-
PORTRAITS BY INGRES: IMAGE OF AN EPOCH OPENS AT METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OCTOBER 5
Wednesday, September 15, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
Widely regarded as the greatest portrait painter of the 19th century and one of the most brilliant draftsmen of all time, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) dominated French painting for more than half a century and left an enduring legacy, inspiring artists such as Cézanne, Degas, Matisse, and Picasso. On view October 5, 1999, through January 2, 2000, Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch brings together 40 paintings and 92 drawings from every period of the artist's prodigious career, providing visitors with a unique opportunity to appreciate the refinement, originality, and beauty of Ingres's portraiture. Spanning six decades, from the last years of the Revolution to the Second Empire, the portraits in the exhibition constitute a "Who's Who" of the ruling elite in France the aristocracy of birth, beauty, politics, wealth, and intellect.
-
ROCK 'N' ROLL TO BE THEME OF METROPOLITAN MUSEUM'S DECEMBER COSTUME INSTITUTE EXHIBITION
Monday, September 13, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
The exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum will be organized in five sections that will address the synergy between rock music and fashion: Poets and Dreamers; Icons; Brilliant Disguise; Rebels; High Style.
The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland will spotlight classic rock-'n'-roll performers and their pervasive influence on style in the exhibition titled Rock Style, to be launched at the Metropolitan Museum from December 9, 1999, through March 19, 2000. A selection of more than 40 major rock artists who have influenced style from the 1950s to the present will be represented by fashions from the collections of The Costume Institute and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, as well as by loans from the private collections of several of the rock stars themselves. Artists represented will include Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, Tina Turner, Elton John, Mama Cass, Stevie Nicks, Bruce Springsteen, Bono, David Byrne, Grace Jones, Madonna, and Björk.
-
COSTUME AND CHARACTER IN THE AGE OF INGRES
Thursday, August 5, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
For the first time in its history, The Costume Institute will present an exhibition ancillary to one of The Metropolitan Museum of Art's major loan exhibitions of paintings. Costume and Character in the Age of Ingres will be on view in The Costume Institute from September 9 through November 21, 1999 coinciding with the exhibition Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch in the second-floor Special Exhibitions Galleries.
-
THE ARTIST AS COLLECTOR: MASTERPIECES FROM THE C. C. WANG FAMILY COLLECTION
Thursday, August 5, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
Nearly 100 works of Chinese painting collected by the renowned artist/collector C. C. Wang — who has amassed one of the two most important private collections of Chinese old master paintings of the 20th century — will be on view in The Artist as Collector: Masterpieces of Chinese Painting from the C. C. Wang Family Collection. The exhibition features the recent promised gift by the Oscar Tang family of 12 major works acquired from the C. C. Wang Family in 1997, along with some 50 additional paintings and calligraphies acquired from Mr. Wang by the Museum over the last 26 years. These works are augmented by important loans from The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Art Museum, Princeton University, The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the British Museum, and The C. C. Wang Family.
-
PUBLICATION MARKS METROPOLITAN MUSEUM'S COMMITMENT TO TEACHERS IN NEW YORK CITY AND THROUGHOUT AMERICA
Monday, July 26, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
In a significant effort to enrich teachers' skills and to develop classroom resources, The Metropolitan Museum of Art has published 20th-Century Art: A Resource for Educators. The large boxed set of comprehensive written, visual, and high-tech materials provides essential tools for educators, featuring a 173-page publication — fully illustrated in color — with essays, strategies for classroom lessons, and background information that includes artists' writings and extensive bibliographic material. Also included in the packet are a set of forty slides, a full-sized, three-part poster set, a video, and a CD-ROM version of the book.
-
LANDMARK EXHIBITION OF EGYPTIAN ART OPENS AT METROPOLITAN MUSEUM ON SEPTEMBER 16
Sunday, July 18, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
"Egyptians were probably the first to be aware of the nobility inherent in the human form and to express it in art." — Heinrich Schafer, Principles of Egyptian Art (1919)
-
CONTEMPORARY EGYPTIAN ART AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
Sunday, July 18, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
Sculptures by Adam Henein and paintings by Farouk Hosny both prominent artists working in contemporary Egypt are the featured works in Farouk Hosny/Adam Henein: Contemporary Egyptian Artists and Heirs to an Ancient Tradition, an exhibition opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 14, 1999. The exhibition, which features more than 50 sculptures by Henein (of which 44 constitute a single installation) and approximately 34 paintings by Hosny, will remain on view in the Museum's first-floor galleries of Egyptian Art through January 23, 2000.
-
DAIDO MORIYAMA: HUNTER
Wednesday, July 7, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
Daido Moriyama: Hunter, a series of 40 vintage prints of postwar Japan by one of its foremost photographers, Daido Moriyama (b.1938), is on view in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's North Mezzanine Gallery, in the Lila Acheson Wallace Wing.
-
EMILY RAFFERTY, SHARON COTT, AND JEFFREY RUSSIAN NAMED TO NEW POSTS
Tuesday, June 29, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
(June 30,1999) — The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced a number of senior administrative promotions, all to become effective with the start of its new fiscal year on July 1.
-
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM ANNOUNCES CURATORIAL PROMOTIONS AND NEW APPOINTMENTS
Tuesday, June 29, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
(June 30, 1999)—Philippe de Montebello, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, announced today four promotions and two new appointments to the Museum's curatorial staff, all effective July 1 with the start of the next fiscal year.
-
FRAGMENT OF GIOTTO FRESCO FROM BASILICA OF SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI ARRIVES AT METROPOLITAN MUSEUM
Monday, June 21, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
Of the many damages suffered by the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi in the disastrous earthquake of September 26, 1997, certainly the most devastating was the collapse of two sections of the vaulting in the Upper Church, decorated with frescoes by the two greatest Italian artists of their day, Cimabue (1240-1302) and Giotto (1267-1337). In an instant, more than 2000 square feet of fresco from the dawn of Italian painting were transformed into colored dust and more than 50,000 fragments.
-
BARBARA CHASE-RIBOUD: THE MONUMENT DRAWINGS
Monday, June 14, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
Barbara Chase-Riboud: The Monument Drawings, a series of 23 original works by the American artist, novelist, and poet, will be on view in the North Mezzanine Gallery of The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Lila Acheson Wallace Wing.
-
"THE APOLLO CIRCLE," YOUNG FRIENDS OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM, WILL HOST ANNUAL SUMMER CELEBRATION ON THE IRIS AND B. GERALD CANTOR ROOF GARDEN
Monday, June 7, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
A new membership group designed specifically for individuals ages 21-39 has been formed by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Apollo Circle, Young Friends of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a successor to the Museum's Junior Committee, will offer its members a variety of education and social activities and exclusive insights into the Museum's collections. Named after the Greek god of youth, the arts, culture, and music, the group is chaired by Nicholas A. Polsky, Eve Yohalem, and Jill Swid.
-
MARY JAHARIS ELECTED HONORARY TRUSTEE OF METROPOLITAN MUSEUM
Wednesday, May 26, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
(May 27, 1999) — Mary Jaharis has been elected an Honorary Trustee of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was recently announced by James R. Houghton, Chairman of the Board of the Museum. The election took place at the May 11 meeting of the Board of Trustees.
-
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM INTRODUCES KEY TO THE MET AUDIO GUIDE FOR SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS AND PERMANENT COLLECTION
Sunday, May 23, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
(New York City, May 24, 1999)—In a major initiative to promote tourism through technology — and enhance the museum experience for local visitors, both English- and foreign-language-speaking — an all-new state-of-the-art audio guide becomes available this spring for visitors to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Key to the Met Audio Guide provides random-access commentary on both special exhibitions and the permanent collection — all on one CD player. For the first time, a "Director's Selections" tour of the permanent collection by Metropolitan Museum Director Philippe de Montebello will be offered in six languages, five of them narrated by Mr. de Montebello himself.
-
GUSTAVE MOREAU: BETWEEN EPIC AND DREAM
Wednesday, May 19, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of French artist Gustave Moreau (1826-1898), The Metropolitan Museum of Art is presenting a major exhibition — the largest retrospective of Moreau's work ever shown in the United States — featuring masterpieces from every phase of his distinguished career. Gustave Moreau: Between Epic and Dream includes nearly 175 works — some 40 paintings and 60 watercolors in addition to drawings and preparatory studies, lent primarily from the Musée Gustave Moreau in Paris, with other works drawn from public and private collections in Europe and America.
-
CéZANNE TO VAN GOGH: THE COLLECTION OF DOCTOR GACHET OPENS AT METROPOLITAN MUSEUM MAY 25
Tuesday, May 11, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
Some 50 Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings and drawings that have never before been lent from the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, are the centerpiece of an exhibition devoted to the extraordinary art collection formed by Dr. Paul-Ferdinand Gachet (1828-1909), the physician who cared for Vincent van Gogh in the months prior to his suicide in 1890, and who was immortalized in several renowned portraits by the artist. The exhibition, which features more than 130 works in all, includes an additional 40 paintings and works on paper from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and other collections in Europe and America that also once belonged to the legendary Dr. Gachet, who was both friend and patron to the artists Monet, Pissarro, Guillaumin, Renoir, Sisley, and above all, Cézanne and Van Gogh whose works he collected.
-
ART MUSEUMS, INTERNET, AND NEW TECHNOLOGY TO BE SUBJECT OF MAY 10 PANEL DISCUSSION AT METROPOLITAN MUSEUM
Thursday, April 22, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
A panel of four of the world's most distinguished museum directors will discuss and debate the challenges and opportunities facing museums as computers, the Internet, and other new technologies enter the arts arena. The program will take place on Monday, May 10, at 6:00 p.m. in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium.
-
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OPENS NEWLY RENOVATED GREEK GALLERIES
Sunday, April 11, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
For more information on the individual galleries, go to:
Greek Art of the Sixth through Fourth Centuries B.C.: Mary and Michael Jaharis Gallery;
Greek Art of the Sixth Century B.C.: Judy and Michael H. Steinhardt Gallery;
Greek Art of the Sixth Century B.C.: The Bothmer Gallery I;
Greek Art of the Fifth Century B.C.: The Bothmer Gallery II;
Greek Art of the Fifth Century B.C.: The Wiener Gallery;
Greek Art of the Fifth and Early Fourth Centuries B.C.: Stavros and Danaë Costopoulos Gallery;
Greek Art of the Fourth Century B.C.: Spyros and Eurydice Costopoulos Gallery
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's extensive collection of ancient Greek art — preeminent in the Western Hemisphere and among the finest in the world — returns to view on April 20, 1999, in a dramatic new presentation in seven large galleries refurbished to their original neoclassical grandeur.
-
JOE DIMAGGIO BASEBALL CARDS TO GO ON DISPLAY AT METROPOLITAN IN TIME FOR OPENING OF NEW YORK BASEBALL SEASON IN APRIL
Sunday, April 4, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
Seven rare baseball cards spanning the career of the late New York Yankees icon Joe DiMaggio the earliest dating to his fabled rookie year of 1936 will go on display in The American Wing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art on April 20, concurrently with the opening of the 1999 baseball season and the celebration of Joe DiMaggio Day at Yankee Stadium (April 25). The DiMaggio cards will be on view remain on view through the World Series October 31, 1999.
-
FRANK E. RICHARDSON ELECTED TRUSTEE
Monday, March 22, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
(March 23, 1999) — Frank E. Richardson has been elected a Trustee of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was announced today by James R. Houghton, Chairman of the Board of the Museum. The election took place at the March 9 meeting of the Board of Trustees.
-
INSTALLATIONS IN THE HOWARD GILMAN GALLERY SPRING AND SUMMER 1999
Sunday, March 7, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
MASTERPIECES FROM THE GILMAN PAPER COMPANY COLLECTION February 26 - May 23, 1999
-
TWO WORKS BY VINCENT VAN GOGH BEQUEATHED
Sunday, January 31, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
Two important works on paper by Vincent van Gogh entered the permanant collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art on October 8, 1998, under the terms of an unusual bequest of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. Left to the Metropolitan by Ms. Rockefeller upon her death in 1948, her bequest allowed that the Museum of Modern Art, of which she was a founder, was able to borrow the works for a period of up to 50 years. When the 50 years elapsed, the drawings were transferred to the Metropolitan.
-
ANNA WINTOUR ELECTED HONORARY TRUSTEE
Monday, January 11, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
(New York, January 12, 1999) — Anna Wintour has been elected an Honorary Trustee of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was announced today by James R. Houghton, Chairman of the Board of the Museum. The election took place at today's meeting of the Board of Trustees.
-
THE NATURE OF ISLAMIC ORNAMENT, PART IV: FIGURAL REPRESENTATION
Sunday, January 10, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
One of the most misunderstood aspects of Islamic art is its supposed ban on figural representation. In fact and surprising to many people figural imagery is relatively common during many periods in various Islamic cultures. A special exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in the fall of 1999 will examine these traditions and the variety of figural forms found in Islamic art, as well as the religious issues involved and the resultant tendency toward greater abstraction in ornamentation.
-
RODIN'S MONUMENT TO VICTOR HUGO
Sunday, January 10, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
This loan exhibition will comprise approximately 20 sculptures by Auguste Rodin, ranging from a small terracotta sketch to a life-size portrait in marble, as well as bronze figures, all relating to Rodin's monument to Victor Hugo that was originally commissioned for the Panthéon in Paris. Although a plaster model for the work was a popular success in the Paris Salon of 1897, the completion of this version of the monument and its installation in the Panthéon never took place. A modified version of it in marble was erected in the gardens of the Palais Royal in Paris, where it stood until 1933.
-
ABAKANOWICZ ON THE ROOF
Sunday, January 10, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art will open an outdoor installation of sculptures by Magdalena Abakanowicz, one of the most startlingly innovative artists of our time, on May 1, 1999. Abakanowicz on the Roof will feature a selection of figural works, including signature pieces as well as objects created during the past year that have never before been exhibited. They will be installed in the 10,000-square-foot open-air space of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, located atop the Lila Acheson Wallace Wing. The Cantor Roof Garden offers a spectacular view of Central Park and the New York City.
-
DEVOTIONS AND DIVERSIONS: PRINTS AND BOOKS FROM THE LATE MIDDLE AGES IN NORTHERN EUROPE
Sunday, January 10, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
Some of the earliest extant northern European prints and books — all from The Metropolitan Museum of Art's exceptional collection of this material — will be presented in Devotions and Diversions: Prints and Books from the Late Middle Ages in Northern Europe , from May 11 through August 29, 1999, in the Museum's Karen B. Cohen Gallery and Charles Z. Offin Gallery. Forty-one German, Netherlandish, and French woodcuts and metalcuts (many of them unique impressions), several Netherlandish woodcut blockbook pages, and about twenty illustrated books, including a number of printed French Books of Hours, will be on view.
-
PICASSO: PAINTER AND SCULPTOR IN CLAY
Sunday, January 10, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
More than 170 rarely exhibited unique ceramic works by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), created by the artist in the South of France primarily from 1947 to 1962, will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Picasso: Painter and Sculptor in Clay, from March 3 through June 6, 1999. Although Picasso is acknowledged as one of the most revolutionary artists of this century, with an unquestioned reputation as a painter, sculptor, draftsman, and printmaker, this exhibition is the first large-scale examination of his ceramic oeuvre, which he commenced at the age of 66. Intimately related in theme and subject matter to Picasso's art in other media, the subjects of these works range from still lifes to bullfights and include a lively cast of characters: a mistress and a wife, lovers and clowns, dancers and musicians, centaurs and fauns, as well as birds and fish. These join many sculpted and painted ceramics that celebrate the female form — nude and clothed, standing and seated.
-
MIRROR OF THE MEDIEVAL WORLD
Sunday, January 10, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
Nearly 300 outstanding examples of medieval art all drawn from the superb holdings of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and all acquired during the last two decades will be moved from their customary settings this spring for Mirror of the Medieval World, an important new exhibition of the art of the Middle Ages. Organized thematically, the exhibition will feature several unexpected groupings of works of art created between the fourth and the 16th century, inviting visitors to reassess familiar works and to draw stylistic comparisons among objects created for purposes as diverse as personal adornment, the activities of daily life, and liturgical rites.
-
THE NATURE OF ISLAMIC ORNAMENT PART III: GEOMETRIC PATTERNS
Sunday, January 10, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
The third in a four-part series on Islamic ornament dating from the 9th to the 18th century, The Nature of Islamic Ornament, Part III: Geometric Patterns will open on March 17, 1999. Some 25 objects that feature predominantly geometric decoration, drawn from the Metropolitan Museum's own collection including illuminated manuscripts, rugs, carved and inlaid woodwork, and pottery reflect the variety of production of Islamic art and the wide range of application of geometric patterns.
-
HANS HOFMANN AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
Sunday, January 10, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
The work of the noted abstract artist and influential teacher Hans Hofmann (1880-1966) will be the subject of an exhibition, Hans Hofmann at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, on view from April 13 through October 17, 1999. The focus of the exhibition will be the nine paintings of "The Renate Series" and several other paintings by Hofmann in the Museum's collection.
-
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FRENCH DRAWINGS IN NEW YORK COLLECTIONS
Sunday, January 10, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
Throughout the 18th century, France was an artistic center whose influence reached far beyond its borders. In a culture that placed a high value on artistic inspiration and individuality, the appreciation of drawings one of the most immediate and intimate of art forms saw a vast expansion. Though drawings continued to play a utilitarian role in the artist's creative process, they were increasingly made as independent objects, with an eye toward display and delectation. On view February 2 through April 25, 1999, Eighteenth-Century French Drawings in New York Collections surveys the many achievements of this widely-admired period of French art, when artists such as Watteau, Boucher, Fragonard, Robert, David, and Greuze, among others, created images of surpassing beauty and virtuosity.
-
AMERICAN FOLK ART IN THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
Sunday, January 10, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
Paintings, watercolors, drawings, and portrait miniatures by the greatest names in American folk art — Rufus Hathaway, Edward Hicks, Joshua Johnson, Ammi Phillips, and other artists working within naive and provincial traditions in the United States during the 18th and 19th centuries — will be featured in American Folk Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, on view in The American Wing.
-
THE TREASURY OF SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI
Sunday, January 10, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
In an unprecedented collaboration, the Ministry of Culture in Rome, the Apostolic Library at the Vatican, and the Basilica and Convent of San Francesco at Assisi have organized this once-in-a-lifetime exhibition to heighten awareness of the effects of the earthquakes that devastated Assisi, Italy, in September 1997. Nearly 70 masterpieces of medieval and Renaissance panel painting, sculpture, goldsmiths' work, textiles, and manuscript illumination have been lent from the collections of the Basilica of San Francesco. These will be joined at The Metropolitan Museum of Art by an additional 30 works of art from museums and private collections throughout Europe and America in The Treasury of Saint Francis of Assisi. Among the works featured will be some of the key monuments in the development of early Renaissance art, leading up to that epoch's first flowering in the work of Cimabue and Giotto in Assisi approximately 700 years ago.
-
GUARDIANS OF THE LONGHOUSE: ART IN BORNEO
Sunday, January 10, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
The first American exhibition devoted exclusively to the Kenyah-Kayan art of central Borneo will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on April 13, 1999. With loans from museums and private collectors nationwide, Guardians of the Longhouse: Art in Borneo will feature more than 60 works exploring the theme of the supernatural and physical defense of the longhouse community in Kenyah-Kayan art. Dating from the classic period of Borneo art, from the late 19th to the early 20th century, works in the exhibition many of which have never been displayed before range from robust wooden figures and architectural sculpture to delicately carved items of personal adornment.
-
DOSSO DOSSI, COURT PAINTER IN RENAISSANCE FERRARA
Sunday, January 3, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
The first monographic survey of Dosso Dossi's work, opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art January 14, will include some 60 paintings carefully chosen to reflect the richness and quality of the artist's achievement. On view January 14 through March 28, 1999, Dosso Dossi, Court Painter in Renaissance Ferrara features rarely lent masterpieces from collections in America and Europe above all, the Borghese Gallery in Rome and offers a unique opportunity to experience the full scope of Dosso's work, not seen since the dispersal of Ferrara's artistic treasures following the end of Este rule in the late 16th century.
-
CUBISM AND FASHION
Sunday, November 1, 1998, 5:00 a.m.
Cubism and Fashion — an exhibition demonstrating how the fundamental traits of Cubism in art have been translated into fashion — will open in The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art on December 10, 1998. The examples on display will range from the beginnings of Cubism in 1908 to the present day. This landmark exhibition will be launched on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of The Costume Institute Gala, known as the "Party of the Year."