New Exhibitions
Upcoming Exhibitions
Continuing Exhibitions
New and Recently Opened Installations
Traveling Exhibitions
Visitor Information
OF SPECIAL NOTE
Opening March 8, Vermeer and the Delft School presents 85 major paintings by 30 artists, along with related works in other media, to reveal Delft's artistic stature in the 17th century (see page 4).
William Blake, opening March 29, is the first major exhibition held in New York to address all aspects of the work of this British printmaker, painter, and poet (see page 4).
Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years—Selections from the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum celebrates one of history's great style icons with a display of 80 original costumes and accessories that she wore on the campaign trail, during inaugural festivities, at the White House, and on state visits around the world. Also included are documents and objects associated with Mrs. Kennedy's interests and projects as First Lady. The Costume Institute Benefit will be held on April 23, with the exhibition opening to the public on May 1 (see page 4).
NEW EXHIBITIONS
Correggio and Parmigianino: Master Draftsmen of the Renaissance
February 6–May 6, 2001
Correggio and Parmigianino were two of the greatest masters of the Emilian school of early 16th-century Italy. This exhibition of more than 130 drawings from English and North American public and private collections marks the first time that a major selection of their drawings has been shown together. In his day Correggio became famous for creating magical effects of light and shadow in his paintings and drawings. Emerging from Correggio's powerful legacy, Parmigianino came into his own as a master of elegant figure drawing and as a leading Mannerist artist. The exhibition presents a wide variety of drawing types by the two artists—rapid sketches, careful life studies, and spirited composition drafts, as well as monumental finished drawings—to illustrate the range of their creative powers. Many of the works included were preparatory for oil paintings and frescoes that are now considered milestones in the history of Italian art.
The exhibition is made possible in part by Parmalat.
Additional support has been provided by The Schiff Foundation.
The exhibition has been organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The British Museum.
An indemnity has been granted by the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
Sultan cAli of Mashhad, Master of Nastacliq
January 19–April 22, 2001
This exhibition examines the elegant calligraphy of the acknowledged master of nastacliq—the writing style likened to flying geese that was favored in 15th- and 16th-century Iran for poetical texts—and two of his famous pupils. Some 20 examples of manuscripts and specimen pages, many enlivened with brilliant illumination, are drawn from the Museum's holdings, supplemented by a few works from outside collections.
The exhibition is made possible by The Hagop Kevorkian Fund.
Photography: Processes, Preservation, and ConservationB January 30–May 6, 2001
Celebrating the opening of the new Sherman Fairchild Center for Works on Paper and Photographs Conservation, this exhibition explains various photographic processes and explores issues of connoisseurship, condition, preservation, and treatment. The selection of photographic prints and negatives displayed—from throughout the medium's history and running the gamut from superbly preserved to significantly time-worn—is accompanied by revealing examples of before- and after-treatment documentation, microscopic views, and explanatory texts.
The exhibition is made possible by the Henry Nias Foundation, Inc.
Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Chinese Paintings from the Robert H. Ellsworth Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
January 30–August 19, 2001
This selection from the Ellsworth Collection at the Metropolitan Museum focuses on Chinese painting created during the period of clashing social visions and dramatic political change that marked China's entry into the modern world. In the arts, it was a time when the tensions between tradition and innovation, native and foreign styles reached an unprecedented level of intensity. The Ellsworth Collection encompasses nearly all of the traditional masters working during this period, including major examples by the Shanghai School masters Wu Changshi (1844–1927) and Wang Zhen (1867–1938), the Western-influenced reformer Xu Beihong (1895–1953), and the advocates of a new traditionalism: Fu Baoshi (1904–1965) and Zhang Daqian (Chang Dai-chien, 1899–1983). Of particular note is the large concentration of works by Qi Baishi (1864–1957), one of the best-known Chinese painters of all time.
The exhibition and its accompanying publications are made possible by The Dillon Fund.
William Trost Richards in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
February 13–May 13, 2001
The American artist William Trost Richards (1833–1905) was associated with both the Hudson River School and the American Pre-Raphaelite movement. Landscapes in oil, watercolor, graphite, and ink from the Museum's collection of his works are shown with selections from a private collection of Richards's charming postcard-size watercolors of landscape and marine subjects in Pennsylvania, New England, and the British Isles.
The Treasury of Basel Cathedral
February 28–May 27, 2001
The medieval treasury of the Basel Minster miraculously survived an earthquake, wars, iconoclasm, and reformation, only to be dispersed as a result of political division in the early 19th century. Based on inventories and other documents, all of the objects belonging to the treasury have been identified and, today, over half are in the Historisches Museum Basel while the remaining ones are in museum collections in Amsterdam, Berlin, London, New York, Saint Petersburg, Paris, Vienna, and Zurich. This exhibition unites more than 75 of these splendid ecclesiastical and secular objects, the vast majority of which have never before traveled to the United States. The works date from the early 11th through the early 16th century, spanning the Ottonian period to the Reformation. Most are of gold and silver—many encrusted with precious stones, rock crystal, antique gems, or translucent enamels—but there are also textiles and objects of bronze, gilded copper, and wood on display, including one of the original storage cupboards. The exhibition is made possible in part by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation. Additional support has been provided by Pro Helvetia, Arts Council of Switzerland. The exhibition has been organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Historisches Museum Basel, Switzerland.
An indemnity has been granted by the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
The accompanying publication is made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Vermeer and the Delft School
March 8–May 27, 2001
The Delft School is best known for its quiet images of domestic life by Johannes Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch. These and other Delft artists painted views of the households, courtyards, church interiors, streets, and squares of Delft during the 1650s and 1660s. However, Delft masters also produced history pictures in an international style, highly refined flower paintings, princely portraits, and superb examples of the decorative arts. About 85 paintings by some 30 artists, 35 drawings, and smaller selections of tapestries, gilded silver, and Delftware faience cast the familiar "Delft School" in a new light—one that emphasizes the roles of the neighboring court at The Hague, and of sophisticated patrons in Delft.
The exhibition has been organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in collaboration with The National Gallery, London.
An indemnity has been granted by the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
The accompanying publication is made possible in part by The Christian Humann Foundation.
Additional support has been provided by the Doris Duke Fund for Publications.
William Blake
March 29–June 24, 2001
The first major exhibition ever to be held in New York to address all aspects of the work of this important British Romantic painter, printmaker, and poet, William Blake presents more than 175 works drawn from public and private collections in Britain, the United States, and Australia. The exhibition represents the broad range of Blake's artistic and poetic vision, with special attention to his innovative printmaking techniques, his visionary imagination, and the implications of his radical politics for his art. The exhibition has been organized by Tate Britain, London.
The exhibition is supported by The Isaacson-Draper Foundation.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years
Selections from the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum
May 1–July 29, 2001
To mark the 40th anniversary of her emergence as America's First Lady and explore her enduring global influence on style, the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute will celebrate Jacqueline Kennedy with an unprecedented special exhibition of her iconic fashions. Some 80 original costumes and accessories from the collection of the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston will be on view, featuring clothing worn by Jacqueline Kennedy on the campaign trail, during the inaugural festivities, at the White House itself, and on state visits around the world. Highlights will include the fawn coat and celebrated pillbox hat worn for the inaugural ceremonies on the steps of the Capitol; the regal ivory satin gown worn to the pre-Inaugural gala; the red dress worn for the televised tour of the White House; and a large group of formal evening clothes worn at the White House for state dinners, political entertaining, and cultural events. Documents and objects associated with Mrs. Kennedy's work on White House restoration, historic preservation, and the arts will be exhibited along with the clothes she wore at corresponding events.
The exhibition is made possible by L'Oréal.
Additional support has been provided by Condé Nast.
The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum.
Joel Shapiro on the Roof
May 1–late fall 2001 (weather permitting)
A selection of five large cast bronze and painted cast aluminum sculptures by the American artist Joel Shapiro (born 1941) will be installed in the Museum's 10,000- square-foot open-air Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden. The sculptures date from 1989 to the present, and three of the five have not previously been exhibited in New York. Two are new works. Shapiro works in the Constructivist tradition, yet some of the sculpture included in this selection is residually figurative. The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden offers a spectacular panoramic view of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline. Beverage and sandwich service will be available from 10:00 a.m. until closing, including Friday and Saturday evenings.
The exhibition is made possible by the Lita Annenberg Hazen Charitable Trust.
Accompanied by a brochure and related educational programs.
African, Oceanic, and Ancient American Art: Recent Acquisitions
May 22–October 28, 2001
Works added to the collection of the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas during the past five years include objects from all of the three large geographic areas. Varied in date, place, material, and function, the selection illustrates the Department's breadth of collecting interests. The exhibition will range from a group of Christian crosses made of brass by the Kongo peoples of Angola/Democratic Republic of Congo from the 16th to the 19th century, when Catholicism and the introduction of Christian icons led to a local transformation of the western prototype; to personal ornaments of gold, shell, and seeds from Island South East Asia; to works of ceramic made by the Maya peoples of the tropical lowlands of Mexico/Guatemala more than a thousand years ago.
Summer Selections: American Drawings and Watercolors in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
May 29–September 2, 2001
Beginning in 2001 and in succeeding summers, a selection of drawings, watercolors, and pastels from the Museum's rich collection will be mounted in The Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art. Among the artists represented will be John Singleton Copley, John Trumbull, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, Mary Cassatt, and John Singer Sargent.
The Annenberg Collection of Impressionist and Postimpressionist Masterpieces
June–early November 2001
In an annual event, the 53 paintings, drawings, and watercolors that compose the Annenberg Collection of Impressionist and Postimpressionist masterworks will once again be on view in the Museum's Nineteenth-Century European Paintings and Sculpture Galleries. The collection, acknowledged as one of the most distinguished in private hands, includes the work of 18 of the greatest artists of the 19th and early 20th centuries, among them Manet, Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Picasso. Assembled by the Honorable Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg, the collection is loaned generously by them to the Metropolitan for six months of every year.
Photographs: A Decade of Collecting
June 5–September 2, 2001
This celebration of the Metropolitan Museum's acquisitions during the ten years since the establishment of an independent Department of Photographs will focus on two areas of special interest: French photographs of the 1850s and 1860s, and American photographs since 1960.
Terry Winters: Printed Works
June 12–September 30, 2001
Born in 1949, the American artist Terry Winters is primarily known for his paintings and drawings. He is also, however, one of the most distinguished printmakers working today. This exhibition of works, all from the Museum's collection, will focus on his mastery of a wide range of media—lithographs, intaglios, woodcuts, screen prints, and linoleum cuts—including works made at the Aldo Crommelynck studio in Paris and at Universal Limited Art Editions in West Islip, Long Island.
Beyond the Easel: Decorative Painting by Bonnard, Vuillard, Denis, and Roussel, 1890–1930
June 26–September 9, 2001
At the turn of the last century a group of artists that included Bonnard, Denis, Roussel, Vuillard, and their circle—known as the Nabis, from the Hebrew word for prophet—took up the call to move beyond conventional easel paintings. These artists played a crucial role in the promotion of "décorations," bold, beautiful, large-scale compositions conceived singly and in groups for specific interiors. While descended from the illustrious tradition of the 18th-century French compositions of Watteau and Boucher, their pictures are strikingly avant-garde in conception. The artists initially considered small wall paintings elitist and bourgeois, whereas they intended their "décorations" to serve as a link between art and daily life. This exhibition will consist of more than 80 large-scale paintings from public and private collections in Europe and the United States. It will offer a rare opportunity for American audiences to see the decorative projects carried out by these artists between 1890 and 1930, including many panels that have never been shown outside France. Furthermore, great effort has been made to reunite panels that were created for specific rooms, so that the ensembles can be seen together for the first time since they were dismantled from their original interiors. The exhibition is made possible in part by Janice H. Levin.
The exhibition is organized by The Art Institute of Chicago in collaboration with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
A Century of Design, Part IV: 1975–2000
June 26, 2001–January 6, 2002
A confluence of styles, materials, techniques, and trends characterizes this exhibition, the last in a series surveying 20th-century design around the world through the presentation of significant objects in all media drawn from the Museum's collection. Ranging from the postmodernist avant-garde to a more symbolic approach marked by spontaneity and bold experimentation, the presentation will feature important objects by celebrated designers such as Tadao Ando, Sir Norman Foster, Frank Gehry, Michael Graves, Shiro Kuramata, Ettore Sottsass, Philippe Starck, Robert Venturi, and others. Also on view will be works by younger designers practicing at the vanguard of a field now marked by more innovation, novelty, and variance than ever before.
Along the Nile: Photographs of Egypt 1850–1870
September 11–December 30, 2001
This installation of approximately 45 19th-century photographs of Egypt will include some of the earliest camera images of Egypt's dramatic landscapes, exotic inhabitants, and imposing monuments. The pyramids of Giza, the temples of Karnak, Luxor, and Abu Simbel, the mosques of Cairo, and the cataracts of the Nile are depicted in exceptionally fine prints by the first generation of photographers working in Egypt, including Maxime Du Camp, Félix Teynard, John Beasley Greene, Ernest Benecke, Gustave Le Gray, Francis Frith, Felice Beato, and W. Hammerschmidt. The works are drawn from the Gilman Paper Company Collection and the collection of the Metropolitan Museum.
The Pharaoh's Photographer: Harry Burton, Tutankhamun, and the Metropolitan's Egyptian Expedition
September 11–December 30, 2001
Chosen from the archives of the Department of Egyptian Art, some 60 photographs taken between 1906 and 1936 by members of the Metropolitan Museum's Egyptian Expedition will be shown. A collaboration between the Department of Egyptian Art and the Department of Photographs, the exhibition will present these images both in their context as important documents of the Museum's excavations and as works of artistic merit that deserve a place in the history of photography. The majority of the photographs are by Harry Burton (1879–1940), the outstanding archaeological photographer of his day. Trained as an art photographer in Florence, Italy, he was hired by the Metropolitan to make a photographic record of ancient Egyptian monuments at Thebes (including architecture, reliefs, and wall paintings). He also became the photographer for the Museum's excavation team and, after the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, his services were shared with Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon. All phases of Burton's work in Egypt will be represented, including selections from his Tutankhamun portfolio and film footage dating to the early 1920s.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Drawings and Prints
September 25–December 2, 2001
Among the most innovative and influential artists of his age, the beloved 16th-century Netherlandish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ca. 1527–1569) was also a remarkable draftsman and designer of prints. This exhibition will include 54 of the 68 extant drawings by the artist, in addition to some 60 prints designed by him, as well as a selection of drawings by his contemporaries. Culled from European and North American public and private collections, this exhibition will present the largest selection of Bruegel's drawings ever assembled and will reflect recent advances in scholarship and attribution, providing an opportunity to reassess his importance and impact as a graphic artist. The exhibition is co-organized with the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
Paul Signac
October 2–December 30, 2001
Approximately 110 paintings, watercolors, and drawings constitute the first major retrospective in almost 40 years to be devoted to the Neo-Impressionist artist Paul Signac (1863–1935). This long-overdue tribute to Signac's power of expression will trace the artist's development from the luminous plein-air paintings he made in the early 1880s under the influence of Monet's Impressionism; to his close association with Georges Seurat, from 1884 until 1891, which became the starting point for his exploration of color harmony, contrasts, and Neo-Impressionist (or "pointillist") technique; to the scintillating works of his maturity, where the rigors of pointillist style give way to richly patterned, mosaic-like surfaces of color.
The exhibition is made possible by The Florence Gould Foundation.
The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Réunion des musées nationaux/musée d'Orsay in Paris, and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
The accompanying catalogue is made possible in part by Janice H. Levin.
Neo-Impressionism
October 2–December 30, 2001
Organized to complement Paul Signac, this exhibition will bring together approximately 80 paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints from the Metropolitan's collection. In addition to Signac, the exhibition will feature works by Georges Seurat, Maximilien Luce, Henri-Edmond Cross, and Charles Angrand and will underscore the richness of the Museum's holdings of works by this circle of Neo-Impressionist artists.
The exhibition is made possible by Robert Lehman Foundation, Inc.
Glass of the Sultans
October 2, 2001–January 13, 2002
On display will be a selection of approximately 150 of the most spectacular glass objects from the Islamic period, ranging from products inspired by the late antique tradition in the seventh century to 19th-century Persian and Indian glass. Also included will be European glass made for the Oriental market or directly inspired by Islamic glass, dating from the 13th to the 20th century, as well as a selection of high-quality glass found in archaeological sites. The exhibition is a collaboration between the Metropolitan Museum and The Corning Glass Museum.
The exhibition is made possible by The Hagop Kevorkian Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The exhibition has been organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Corning Glass Museum.
The accompanying catalogue is made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Jewelled Arts of India in the Age of the Mughals
October 16, 2001–January 13, 2002
The Mughal rulers of India (r. 1526–1857) maintained a court that was renowned for its wealth, high culture, and love of precious objects—all of which were epitomized in the jeweled arts of the period. Drawn from the extensive holdings of the al-Sabah Collection in Kuwait, this dazzling display will present more than 300 Mughal works, including jeweled ornaments for personal adornment, weapons with jeweled elements, carved jade and crystal bowls set with precious stones, spinels (many inscribed with the titles of their imperial owners), and historical pieces from several imperial reigns. The exhibition is being organized by the Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, Kuwait.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
Candace Wheeler
October 16, 2001–January 6, 2002
Candace Wheeler (1827–1924) was America's first important woman textile and interior designer. Through approximately 125 textiles, wallpapers, paintings, photographs, and objects, this exhibition will survey Wheeler's long life and the highlights of her career. The main focus of the exhibition will be the years between 1877, when Wheeler founded the Society of Decorative Art in New York, and 1893, when she served as the interior decorator of the Woman's Building at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Her textile designs, many based upon American plants and flowers drawn in sinuously flowing patterns, will be central to the exhibition. In addition to Wheeler's own designs, the show will feature examples of paintings and graphics by the younger women who worked with Wheeler at her firm of "Associated Artists" (1883–1907).
The accompanying publication is made possible by the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation Inc.
Annual Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche
Late November 2001–early January 2002
Please see below for a description.
CONTINUING EXHIBITIONS
Annual Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche
Late November 2001–early January 2002
Through January 7, 2001
The Museum continues a long-standing holiday tradition with the annual presentation of its Christmas tree, a favorite of New Yorkers and visitors from around the world. A vivid 18th-century Neapolitan crèche scene—embellished with a profuse array of diminutive, lifelike attendant figures and silk-robed angels hovering above—adorns the candlelit spruce. Recorded music adds to the enjoyment of the holiday display. Lighting ceremony Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:00.
The installation is made possible by The Loretta Hines Howard Trust.
Art and the Empire City: New York, 1825–1861
Through January 7, 2001
In America during the second quarter of the 19th century—between 1825, when the Erie Canal was completed, and 1861, when the Civil War began—the visual arts proliferated. This landmark exhibition explores in exceptional depth the history of American art of this period through a selection of works created in and for New York City, which at that time blossomed into the largest city in the Western Hemisphere and became the center of manufacturing, culture, and the arts. More than 300 objects—paintings, sculpture, architectural drawings, photography, lithography, and the full gamut of decorative arts, including furniture, silver, ceramics, glass, and costumes—are shown, assembled from 84 lenders in the United States and Europe and including approximately 100 works in all media from the Metropolitan's own collection.
The exhibition is made possible by Fleet.
The accompanying catalogue is made possible through the support of the William Cullen Bryant Fellows.
City Life: Around the Eight
Through January 7, 2001
This selection of about 25 drawings and paintings from the Museum's collection—including works by American artists William Glackens, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Everett Shinn, and John Sloan (all members of the Eight), and their contemporaries—candidly records the face of the city as well as the recreational and work activities that occupied city dwellers of different classes during the first quarter of the 20th century.
The Embodied Image: Chinese Calligraphy from the John B. Elliott Collection
Through January 7, 2001
The Elliott Collection is perhaps the finest collection of Chinese calligraphy outside Asia, spanning the period from the inception of writing as a fine art in the fourth century to the modern era. More than 60 calligraphic works from the Elliott Collection—hanging scrolls, handscrolls, album leaves, and letters—are featured in this exhibition. In its New York showing, they are accompanied by a nearly equal number of pieces from the Metropolitan Museum's renowned John M. Crawford Jr. Collection and select private collections. The presentation of these approximately 120 works together constitutes the most important display of calligraphy ever assembled in the West.
The exhibition was organized by The Art Museum, Princeton University.
The exhibition was made possible by the Publications Committee of the Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Henry Luce Foundation, Inc., The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Martha Sutherland Cheng, the Joint Committee on Chinese Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Social Sciences Research Council; and anonymous donors.
The exhibition in New York is made possible by The Dillon Fund.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
Max Beckmann Prints
Through January 7, 2001
A selection of recent acquisitions of early drypoints created between 1914 and 1922 by this German master. Included are images from the artist's portfolios Faces of 1914–18 and The Fair of 1922. The rawness of emotions and compressed spaces of these kaleidoscopic images—ranging from operating rooms to merry-go-rounds—contain the seeds of Beckmann's later oeuvre. All of the prints on view were acquired though a gift of Reba and Dave Williams.
Thomas Sully in the Metropolitan
Through January 7, 2001
This display of the Museum's collection of paintings and drawings by Sully features works given by his grandson, Francis T. S. Darley. The selection includes depictions of prominent social figures of the day, members of the artist's family, and self-portraits.
The Eugénie Prendergast Exhibitions of American Art are made possible by a grant from Jan and Warren Adelson.
Painters in Paris: 1895–1950
Through January 14, 2001
During the first decades of the 20th century, France was host to many foreign artists and Paris was central to the development of modern art. This exhibition, which gathers for the first time more than 100 examples from the Metropolitan's collection of paintings by artists of the School of Paris, begins with the Impressionist tradition, represented by Monet, and chronologically continues through the Fauves, Cubists, and Surrealists. Many of these works—by 36 modern painters including Braque, Chagall, Dubuffet, Matisse, Miró, and Modigliani, as well as 19 paintings by Picasso—were acquired through major gifts and bequests during the past two decades. United in this exhibition, these paintings recall a period and place of great vitality, and they reveal unexpected relationships between the artists who so profoundly shaped the art of their century.
The exhibition is sponsored by Aetna.
Accompanied by a publication.
The Year One: Art of the Ancient World East and West
Through January 14, 2001
As part of its celebration of the new millennium, the Metropolitan Museum is presenting an exhibition of masterpieces from its own collection that were produced some 2,000 years ago in the period just before and after the Year One. Drawn from seven departments in the Museum, the approximately 150 works come from regions as diverse as western Europe, the Mediterranean, Africa, the Middle East, India, China, Southeast Asia, and the Americas. The exhibition not only features magnificent and distinctive works from each of these areas, but also highlights the interconnections that existed between many of these widely separated parts of the world. Some relationships were established through the extension of Roman power under the rule of Augustus, the first Roman emperor (27 B.C.–A.D. 14), others through the overland and maritime trade routes that provided the East and West with tantalizing glimpses of each other and also linked cultures of Asia in an unprecedented fashion. Among the works on view are Roman portraits, marble architectural elements, wall frescoes, and glass, Celtic metalwork, Egyptian sculpture, a Gandharan bodhisattva, Han dynasty terracotta figures, Dongson drums from Vietnam and Indonesia, and hammered gold Calima face masks found in modern-day Colombia. The exhibition gives the public an opportunity to see the richness and variety of cultures that flourished 2,000 years ago and the numerous interconnections that already existed between distant parts of the world.
The accompanying publication is made possible by the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation Inc.
Curios and Treasures
Through January 21, 2001
This installation presents objects from The Costume Institute's holdings that have never or rarely been on view. Included are unusual treasures, such as Elizabethan gauntlets and doublets, along with 17th- and 18th-century costume curiosities. The selections from the 19th and 20th centuries illustrate the development of the Aesthetic Dress movement through the work of Liberty & Co. and designs by Mariano Fortuny.
Egyptian Art at Eton College: Selections from the Myers Museum
Through January 21, 2001
Eton College in England houses one of the world's finest collections of ancient Egyptian decorative arts. Little known outside of Eton, the collection was acquired largely by Major William Joseph Myers (1858–1899), an alumnus of the college. The exhibition highlights a selection of approximately 150 works of art, including a series of stunning chalices and bowls of Egyptian faience, an exceptionally rare pectoral of electrum, and a finely carved, fragmentary wooden statuette of a man.
The exhibition is made possible by Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman.
The exhibition is organized by The Myers Museum, Eton College and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Accompanied by a publication.
Romanticism and the School of Nature: Nineteenth-Century Drawings and Paintings from the Karen B. Cohen Collection
Through January 21, 2001
More than 100 paintings, drawings, and oil sketches are on view in this exhibition of selected works from the holdings of Karen B. Cohen, noted New York collector. Included are landscapes, portraits, figure compositions, and still lifes by great artists of the Romantic period, the School of Barbizon, and their followers, from Prud'hon to Seurat. The Cohen collection represents several artists in depth; thus, the exhibition features a varied range of work by such masters as Couture, Gericault, Daubigny, Rousseau, and especially Delacroix, several of whose drawings and watercolors are promised gifts to the Metropolitan. Among other highlights are a group of oil paintings—both landscapes and portraits—by Courbet and a series of cloud studies by Constable. The accompanying publication is made possible by The Drue E. Heinz Fund.
American Modern, 1925–1940: Design for a New Age
Through February 4, 2001
Between 1925 and 1940, a pioneering group of industrial designers emerged in this country who decisively altered the shape and character of the everyday things with which we live. Employing new technologies and materials available in America, these designers rejected historicist ornament, preferring the clean, uncluttered lines and geometric forms of European functionalism. They created objects that reflected the dynamism of the 20th century, trying their hand at everything from streamlined locomotives and "skyscraper" furniture to cocktail shakers and kitchen appliances. On display are approximately 150 objects—furniture, clocks, appliances, lamps, textiles, posters, and more from the Museum's collection and the John C. Waddell Collection, a major promised gift to the Metropolitan—created by the first generation of American industrial designers, including Norman Bel Geddes, Donald Deskey, Henry Dreyfuss, Paul Frankl, Eliel Saarinen, Walter Dorwin Teague, Walter von Nessen, Russel Wright, and others.
The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Federation of Arts.
Support has been provided by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation and the National Patrons of the AFA.
Accompanied by a publication.
The Golden Deer of Eurasia: Scythian and Sarmatian Treasures from the Russian Steppes
Through February 4, 2001
This exhibition displays spectacular finds of gold and silver recently excavated at Filippovka in southern Russia—works that have never been seen in the United States—along with related Scythian, Sarmatian, and Siberian objects from the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. Created around the fifth to fourth century B.C. by nomadic people who lived in the open steppes in the southern Ural Mountains region, the distinctive works of art from Filippovka include wooden deerlike creatures overlaid with sheets of gold and silver, as well as gold attachments for vessels with representations of animals and gold plaques originally attached to leather or fabric. The subjects commonly represented on the Filippovka gold are similar to the animal repertory of contemporary Scythian art, but the vibrant and decorative curvilinear elaboration of the body surfaces is unique in this area and resembles the style of works of art found much further east in the frozen tombs of the Altai Mountain region of Siberia and in western China.
The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation, and the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography, Center for Ethnological Studies, Ufa Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Bashkortostan, Russian Federation.
An indemnity has been granted by the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
The accompanying catalogue is made possible by the Doris Duke Fund for Publications.
Prints by 20th-century Hispano-American artists from the Museum's collection
Through February 25, 2001
Newly installed in the Robert Wood Johnson Gallery is a selection of 13 monumental prints by 20th-century artists from Latin America and Spain. Included are works by David Alfaro Siqueiros and Diego Rivera, the major figures of the Mexican mural movement; several later masters from countries throughout Latin America; and Pablo Picasso and Eduardo Chillida, representing the Spanish tradition.
The Still Lifes of Evaristo Baschenis: The Music of Silence
Through March 4, 2001
This exhibition is devoted to the paintings of Evaristo Baschenis (Bergamo, 1617–1677), the outstanding still-life painter of 17th-century Italy. Although unfamiliar to American audiences, his hauntingly poetic still lifes of musical instruments combine baroque splendor with a masterful, restrained geometry. Their quality of time arrested has led to comparisons with Chardin and Vermeer. Now 18 paintings from public and private collections throughout northern Italy are on view in the Robert Lehman Wing. Among them is Baschenis's masterpiece, a triptych done for the Agliardi family of Bergamo, which includes portraits of the family and a self-portrait of the artist playing instruments. Also included are books on perspective and examples of period musical instruments from the Museum's collection.
The exhibition is made possible by Banca Popolare di Bergamo-Credito Varesino, in cooperation with Camera di Commercio di Bergamo.
The exhibition is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, with the Accademia Carrara of Bergamo, and the Superintendency of Milan, under the Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic, with the support of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Cultural Heritage, Regione Lombardia, Provincia di Bergamo and Comune di Bergamo.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
Rain of the Moon: Silver in Ancient Peru
Through April 22, 2001
Ancient Peruvian silver—one of three metals extensively worked in Peru from about 500 B.C. onward, and rarer at the time than gold—is the focus of this exhibition, which brings together for the first time about 130 well-preserved silver objects from public and private collections in the United States. Spanning the period from the early part of the first millennium until the 16th century, the works include two rare beakers covered with narrative scenes in fine repoussé work, one of only five surviving backrests of a royal wooden litter decorated with cut-out sheet silver, four large repoussé disks, miniature models of a garden scene and funeral procession, personal ornaments, and an important group of silver vessels in the shape of human and animal figures from the Museum's collection.
The exhibition is made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The accompanying catalogue is made possible in part by the Roswell L. Gilpatric Fund for Publications.
Picturing Media: Modern Photographs from the Collection
Through April 29, 2001
A new installation focusing on the impact of mass media on postwar photographers from Robert Frank and Diane Arbus to Richard Prince and Thomas Ruff.
A Century of Design, Part III: 1950–1975
Through May 27, 2001
This is the third in a four-part series of exhibitions surveying design in the 20th century through the presentation of significant objects in all media by major modernist designers from around the world, drawn from the Museum's collection. The more than 50 works on view display the wide range of idioms and the artistic exploration of new materials, technologies, and aesthetics that characterized design in Europe and America from the postwar years to the postmodern era. The exhibition follows the continuation of organic modernism in America and Scandinavia, the rise of the studio craft movement, the resurgence of Italian modernist design, and the influence of Pop Art and other avant-garde movements on design and decoration. Included are works by such leading designers as Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, Verner Panton, Hans Wegner, Wharton Esherick, Joe Colombo, Piero Fornasetti, Gio Ponti, and Richard Sapper.
European Helmets, 1450–1650
Through late December 2001
Helmets are the earliest known form of body armor and remain today an essential element of protection not only for soldiers but also for sportsmen. In the later Middle Ages and Renaissance, helmet design reached its apogee, the European armorer creating head defenses of ingenious construction and powerful sculptural form. The Metropolitan Museum's holdings of European helmets are among the largest and most diverse in the world. This exhibition offers a representative survey of some 75 helmets drawn entirely from storage, revealing the depth of the collection and a glimpse of objects that are rarely on public display.
The accompanying publication is made possible by the Grancsay Fund.
The Forgotten Friezes from the Castle of Vélez Blanco
Through January 6, 2002
An extraordinary group of six spectacular carved pine friezes have been lent to celebrate the Museum's May 2000 reopening of the renovated Renaissance patio from the Fajardo castle at Vélez Blanco in southern Spain (see page 17). Recently discovered at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, these 16th-century reliefs, each nearly 20 feet in length, were once part of the interior decoration of the rooms adjoining the patio and are boldly carved with classical and mythological scenes.
Sculpture and Decorative Arts of the Spanish Renaissance
Through January 6, 2002
The Museum's small but select collection of Spanish polychrome sculpture—among the most important such holdings in the U.S.—is displayed in the gallery adjacent to the recently reopened Vélez Blanco Patio (see page 17). The sculptures, dating from the early 16th to the mid-17th century, are augmented by groupings of Spanish decorative arts, displayed to reveal the varied strands of influence—Moorish, Flemish, and Italian Renaissance—that enriched the vibrant material culture of Renaissance Spain.
NEW AND RECENTLY OPENED INSTALLATIONS
Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries for Byzantine art
Opened November 14, 2000
This past fall, the new Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries for Byzantine art opened in a dramatically expanded and redesigned space that includes an intimate, cryptlike gallery under the Grand Staircase in the Great Hall—an area never before accessible to the public. Featured in the installation is the Museum's extensive collection of superb secular and religious art produced in the Byzantine Empire from its capital in Constantinople to its southern border in Egypt. Some of the earliest images developed by the Christian church are on display as well as contemporary works from the surviving Greco-Roman tradition and examples of Judaica. Selections from the Museum's rich collection of provincial Roman and barbarian jewelry demonstrate the accomplished artistry of the diverse people beyond the western borders of the Byzantine state who helped shape early Europe. The opening of the Jaharis Galleries constitutes the first phase in the planned reinstallation of the permanent collection of the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters.
Vélez Blanco Patio
Reopened May 12, 2000
The early 16th-century Fajardo castle at Vélez Blanco was an important landmark in the history of the Spanish Renaissance. The delicate ornamental carved marbles that composed the castle's magnificent arcaded patio were acquired early in the 20th century for installation in the Park Avenue home of George Blumenthal, a future president of the Metropolitan Museum, and were bequeathed to the Museum at the time of his death in 1941. The patio, which was reconstructed at the Museum in 1964 and became commonly known as the Blumenthal Patio, has for the past three years undergone conservation and refurbishment with the addition of a new marble floor more in keeping with the original structure. In celebration of the reopening of the patio, Sculpture and Decorative Arts of the Spanish Renaissance and The Forgotten Friezes from the Castle of Vélez Blanco
are also on view (see page 16 for descriptions).
The New Cypriot Galleries
Opened April 5, 2000
With the opening of the Cypriot Galleries, some 600 works from the historic Cesnola Collection—comprising antiquities from Cyprus in all major media and ranging in date from ca. 2500 B.C. to ca. A.D. 300—have returned to public view. The newly designed installation marks the end of Phase II in the renovation of the Greek and Roman Galleries. Acquired by Luigi Palma di Cesnola while he was serving as American consul in Cyprus, these works were purchased by the newly formed Metropolitan Museum between 1874 and 1876 and constituted its first large collection of archaeological materials. In 1879, Cesnola was named the Museum's first director. The new presentation emphasizes the collection's particular strengths in the areas of sculpture, bronze, and precious metals.
Accompanied by a publication.
New Galleries for Ancient Near Eastern Art
Opened October 19, 1999
Newly renovated and reinstalled, with natural light now illuminating the Assyrian reliefs within, the galleries that house the permanent collection of the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art have reopened to the public. The installation displays sculpture, metalwork, seals, and other objects dating from 8000 B.C. to A.D. 700 from ancient Mesopotamia, Iran, and their neighbors, ranging from Anatolia and the Arabian Peninsula to the Indus Valley, and Central Asia to the Mediterranean Sea. Throughout the galleries, these works of art are set in contexts that illuminate their use and significance in antiquity as well as their connections to the art of neighboring cultures. Among the strengths of the collection are objects excavated by Museum-sponsored projects at Nippur, Nimrud, and Hasanlu; superb ivories from Anatolia, Syria, and Mesopotamia; silver and gold objects from Iran; and foreign long-term loans from the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences, Tajikistan, the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, and the British Museum, London. Support for the reinstallation of the Galleries for Ancient Near Eastern Art has been provided by The Hagop Kevorkian Fund.
The New Greek Galleries
Opened April 20, 1999
Seven completely renovated and reinstalled galleries for Archaic and Classical Greek art are now open to the public on the Museum's first floor. This stage in the three-phase expansion of the exhibition space devoted to Greek and Roman art comprises the Mary and Michael Jaharis Gallery—the grand vaulted gallery that was formerly known as the Cypriot corridor, now fully skylit and clad in limestone walls as originally envisioned by McKim, Mead and White in 1917—and the six flanking galleries. Refurbished to their original Neoclassical grandeur, the galleries house a generous selection of the Museum's finest works from the sixth through fourth century B.C. The new galleries constitute the largest and most comprehensive permanent installation of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.
Arts of Korea
Opened June 9, 1998
The opening of the new, permanent gallery for the Arts of Korea represents the final stage in the Museum's master plan for the presentation of Asian art. Currently on view is an exhibition of ceramics dating from the Bronze Age (ca. 10th–ca. 3rd century B.C.) to the Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1910) drawn from the permanent holdings of the Metropolitan and the renowned collection of the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, as well as metalwork, sculpture, and paintings from the Metropolitan Museum's collection.
The establishment of and program for the Arts of Korea Gallery have been made possible by The Korea Foundation and The Kun-Hee Lee Fund for Korean Art.
TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS
PLEASE NOTE: These exhibitions originate at The Metropolitan Museum of Art with works of art from the Museum's collections selected and organized by Museum staff members. Please confirm the opening and closing dates with the local exhibiting museums as they may be subject to change.
American Impressionists Abroad and at Home:
Paintings from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
These 39 works by 27 artists will illuminate the training that the American Impressionists undertook abroad and at home; the complex attractions of Europe and America; the significance of the subjects they depicted; and their various responses to French Impressionism. Tour organized with the American Federation of Arts.
San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA
January 26—April 22, 2001
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
May 11—August 5, 2001
Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville, TN
August 24—November 18, 2001
Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL
December 7, 2001—March 3, 2002
New York State Museum, Albany, NY
March 22—June 16, 2002
Winslow Homer and His Contemporaries:
American Prints from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Popular and fine prints from the Museum's collection by Homer himself and artists active during his career, including Edwin A. Abbey, John G. Brown, Edwin Forbes, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Moran, Stephen Parrish, James Whistler, and J. Alden Weir. Tour organized with the Gallery Association of New York State (GANYS).
Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, PA
March 24—May 20, 2001
New York State Historical Association
Fenimore House Museum, Cooperstown, NY
Summer 2001
American Modern, 1925—1940: Design for a New Age
Furniture, clocks, appliances, lamps, textiles, posters, and more from the Museum's collection and the John C. Waddell Collection — a major promised gift to the Metropolitan — created by the first generation of American industrial designers.
Tour organized with the American Federation of Arts.
Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA
May 25—August 19, 2001
Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI
September 14—December 16, 2001
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
January 11—April 7, 2002
Mint Museum of Craft & Design, Charlotte, NC
May 3—July 28, 2002
Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK
August 23—November 17, 2002
The Landscape in Twentieth-Century Art
A selection of 40 American paintings from the Museum's Department of Modern Art.
New York State Museum, Albany, NY
May 29—October 14, 2001
The Print in the North: The Age of Albrecht Dürer and Lucas van Leyden
Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Based on the Metropolitan Museum's 1997 exhibition, a selection of masterpieces from the Museum's exceptional collection of German and Netherlandish prints from 1440 to 1550 — the age in which printmaking came into its own. Tour organized with the American Federation of Arts.
Venues to be determined
Traveling as of spring 2001
Winslow Homer and His Contemporaries:
American Prints from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Popular and fine prints from the Museum's collection by Homer himself and artists active during his career, including Edwin A. Abbey, John G. Brown, Edwin Forbes, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Moran, Stephen Parrish, James Whistler, and J. Alden Weir. Tour organized with the Gallery Association of New York State (GANYS).
Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, PA
March 24—May 20, 2001
New York State Historical Association
Fenimore House Museum, Cooperstown, NY
Summer 2001
American Modern, 1925—1940: Design for a New Age
Furniture, clocks, appliances, lamps, textiles, posters, and more from the Museum's collection and the John C. Waddell Collection — a major promised gift to the Metropolitan — created by the first generation of American industrial designers.
Tour organized with the American Federation of Arts.
Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA
May 25—August 19, 2001
Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI
September 14—December 16, 2001
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
January 11—April 7, 2002
Mint Museum of Craft & Design, Charlotte, NC
May 3—July 28, 2002
Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK
August 23—November 17, 2002
The Landscape in Twentieth-Century Art
A selection of 40 American paintings from the Museum's Department of Modern Art.
New York State Museum, Albany, NY
May 29—October 14, 2001
The Print in the North: The Age of Albrecht Dürer and Lucas van Leyden
Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Based on the Metropolitan Museum's 1997 exhibition, a selection of masterpieces from the Museum's exceptional collection of German and Netherlandish prints from 1440 to 1550 — the age in which printmaking came into its own. Tour organized with the American Federation of Arts.
Venues to be determined
Traveling as of spring 2001
VISITOR INFORMATION AND MUSEUM HOURS
MAIN BUILDING
Fridays and Saturdays — 9:30 am – 9:00 pm
Sundays, Tuesdays — Thursdays — 9:30 am – 5:30 pm
Mondays — Closed
THE CLOISTERS
(March – October hours)
Tuesdays — Sundays — 9:30 am – 5:30 pm
Mondays — Closed
(November – February hours)
Tuesdays — Sundays — 9:30 am – 4:45 pm
Mondays — Closed
ADMISSION
Suggested admission to the Main Building and The Cloisters
Adults — $10.00
Students, senior citizens — $ 5.00
Members and children under 12 accompanied by adult — Free
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