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679 results for bresson

Essay

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004)

October 1, 2004

By Department of Photographs

To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which gave that event its proper expression.

Press Release

The Met Appoints David Breslin as Curator in Charge of the Museum’s Modern and Contemporary Art Department

Publication

Delirious: Art at the Limits of Reason 1950–1980

Can postwar art be understood as an exercise in calculated insanity? Taking this provocative question as its basis, this book explores the art and history of delirium from 1950 to 1980, an era shaped by the brutality of World War II and the rapid expansion of industrial capitalism. Skepticism of science and technology—along with fear of its capability to promote mass destruction—developed into a distrust of rationalism, which profoundly influenced the art of the times. Delirious features work by more than sixty artists from Europe, Latin America, and the United States, including Dara Birnbaum, León Ferrari, Gego, Bruce Nauman, Howardena Pindell, Peter Saul, and Nancy Spero. Experimenting with irrational subject matter and techniques, these artists forged new strategies that directly responded to such unbalanced times. Disturbing and challenging, the works in this book—in multiple media and often, counterintuitively, incorporating highly ordered and systematic structures—upend traditional notions of aesthetic harmony. Three wide-ranging essays and a richly illustrated plates section investigate the degree to which delirious times demand delirious art, inviting readers to “think crazy."

Press Release

Delirious: Art at the Limits of Reason, 1950-1980

Press Release

Sam Waterston, Brian Murray, Star June 20 and 27 at the Metropolitan Museum in Staged Readings of Brenson-Duveen Drama, The Old Masters

video

How To Look Like a 17th-century Woodcut Print

October 15, 2021

By Cecilia Zhou

Transform yourself into a seventeenth-century Italian work of art with a step-by-step makeup tutorial and art history lesson on chiaroscuro woodcuts.

Publication

The Roof Garden Commission: Petrit Halilaj: Abetare

Explores Halilaj’s installation which reflects the artist’s experience as a refugee of war and the universal hopes and fears captured in children’s drawing.

Essay

Architecture in Renaissance Italy

October 1, 2002

By Department of European Paintings

Architects trained as humanists helped raise the status of their profession from skilled laborer to artist. They hoped to create structures that would appeal to both emotion and reason.

Publication

Guide to The Metropolitan Museum of Art

When the Metropolitan Museum came into being in 1870, the founders stressed its role in giving popular instruction. Ever since then its public has expressed interest in obtaining a general guidebook to all the multiple facets of its encyclopedic collections. But a museum is a living, constantly changing institution, and the preparation of such a guide presents many problems. The scope and depth of the Museum's holdings are described with flexibility in mind, so that alterations to the building and changes in the collections can be readily accommodated in future editions of this Guide. The number of pages allocated to each department is restricted to multiples of eight pages; this will permit revisions in future editions. A guidebook, however, should not be a straitjacket. It is impossible to locate accurately all works at all times because paintings and objects are constantly being cleaned, restored, loaned to other museums, or rehung within the Metropolitan. In designing a guide that is easily portable and of interest to a large public, severe restrictions have had to be imposed. The text serves an introductory function and is not intended to give the kind of detailed information found in a catalogue or scholarly publication. Many other books published by the Museum are available to anyone wishing to follow his own special interests: a series of popular handbooks and comprehensive catalogues of various aspects of the collections are available in the Museum's bookshops; the Bulletin of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a general interest magazine covering all phases of Museum activity, appears regularly throughout the year; and the Journal of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a collection of scholarly monographs, is issued annually. An independent guide covers the collection at The Cloisters, our branch museum of medieval art at Fort Tryon Park.

video

How To Do Your Makeup Like an 18th-Century French Aristocrat

May 21, 2021

By Cecilia Zhou

Ever wanted to master the look of an eighteenth-century French aristocrat? Join Cecilia Zhou, Senior Guide at the Harvard Art Museums, for a step-by-step makeup tutorial and art history lesson on Jean Marc Nattier's Portrait of a Woman (1753) from The Met collection.