New Exhibitions
Upcoming Exhibitions
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New and Recently Opened Installations
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OF SPECIAL NOTE
Goddess, opening May 1 in The Costume Institute, will explore the many ways that Greco-Roman dress has impacted art and design. Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus, opening May 8, features 400 rare works in a variety of media, created during the thousand years in which the world's first cities were transformed into states and empires. Manet and the American Civil War: The Battle of U.S.S. Kearsarge and C.S.S. Alabama, on view from June 3 to August 17, is devoted to Manet's depictions of an important American naval battle off the coast of France in June 1864 and the effect of the "Kearsarge" paintings on his circle. Hendrick Goltzius, Dutch Master (1558–1617): Drawings, Prints, and Paintings, opening June 26, is the first major retrospective of the work of this virtuoso Netherlandish mannerist.
NEW EXHIBITIONS
Goddess
May 1–August 3, 2003
From the clothing of ancient Greece to such modern evocations as Madame Grès's emblematic creations and Versace's Neoclassical loincloths, classical dress has profoundly inspired and influenced art and design over the millennia. This exhibition presents clothing, prints, photographs, and decorative works of art from the 18th century onward, revealing the many ways in which classical dress has become a truly timeless style. With more than 200 items on display, including clothing from the Directoire and Empire periods, the exhibition features loans of vintage and contemporary designs from international couture houses and private collectors along with works from the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute. The designers featured include Madeleine Vionnet, Paul Poiret, Madame Grès, Yves Saint Laurent, Fortuny, Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, Gucci, Halston, Issey Miyake, Christian Dior, Roberto Cavalli, and Yohji Yamamoto.
The exhibition and the accompanying catalogue are made possible by GUCCI.
Additional support for the exhibition has been provided by Condé Nast.
Press preview: Monday, April 28, 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
Roy Lichtenstein on the Roof
May 1–November 2, 2003
Six brightly painted or patinated bronze and aluminum sculptures by the American artist Roy Lichtenstein (1923–1997) are installed in the most dramatic outdoor space for sculpture in New York City: The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, which offers a spectacular view of Central Park and the New York City skyline. The installation consists of works conceived in the 1990s, including a group of "brushstroke" figures and a 17-foot-wide house. Beverage and sandwich service is available from 10 a.m. until closing, including Friday and Saturday evenings.
The installation is made possible by the Lita Annenberg Hazen Charitable Trust.
Press preview: Wednesday, April 30, 10:00 a.m.–noon
Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus
May 8–August 17, 2003
The remarkable flowering of the world's first city-states and empires in Mesopotamia some 5,000 years ago is the focus of this landmark international exhibition. Through more than 400 rare and outstanding works, the exhibition surveys the evolution of Mesopotamian art and culture and its impact on the cities of the ancient world, stretching from the eastern Aegean to the Indus Valley and Central Asia. The treasures on view, many brought together for the first time, comprise extraordinary sculpture, jewelry, vessels, weapons, inlays, cylinder seals, and cuneiform tablets. Together they illustrate the splendor of the most famous sites of the ancient world, including the Royal Graves of Ur, the palace and temples of Mari and Ebla, the citadel of Troy, the rich tombs of Alaca Höyük, the temples and tombs of merchants in the Gulf, and the great cities of the Indus Valley civilization.
The exhibition is made possible by Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman.
Additional support has been provided by The Hagop Kevorkian Fund.
The exhibition catalogue is made possible in part by The Hagop Kevorkian Fund and
The Adelaide Milton de Groot Fund, in memory of the de Groot and Hawley families.
An indemnity has been granted by the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
Press preview: Monday, May 5, 10:00 a.m.–noon
Max Beckmann's "Hell"
May 9–August 31, 2003
This installation celebrates the Museum's recent acquisition of Max Beckmann's famous portfolio of 11 lithographs entitled "Hell" (1919). In unusually large and evocative images, the artist narrates his journey through a city unhinged by violence and vice. The portfolio was inspired by Beckmann's visit to Berlin in March 1919, where he witnessed one of the bloodiest and cruelest episodes of the German Revolution following World War I.
Charles Demuth
May 9–August 31, 2003
An exhibition featuring the Museum's collection of masterful watercolors by American modernist Charles Demuth (1883–1935). Ranging in date from 1914 to 1929, the works illustrate the artist's two signature styles applied to his best-known subjects: floral arrangements, delicately drawn and tinted, and architectural sites rendered with hard-edged precisionism. Of particular note is his lively Bermuda series (1917) picturing exotic fish, tropical landscapes, and sailboats.
Central Park: A Sesquicentennial Celebration
May 15–September 28, 2003
In celebration of the 150th anniversary of the legislation (July 21, 1853) that designated
as "a public place" the lands that were to become New York's Central Park, the Museum is mounting an exhibition about the design and construction of the park in which its building has been located since 1880. The principal focus is the original presentation plans and drawings, by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted, for their "Greensward" plan, which won the 1858 competition to design the park. A selection of working drawings and contemporary photographs illustrates the actual construction of the park according to that design. In addition to objects in the Museum's collection, there are numerous loans, most notably from the Municipal Archives, the Department of Parks of the City of New York, and the New-York Historical Society.
The exhibition is made possible by Alamo Rent A Car, Inc.
The exhibition has been organized in conjunction with the Central Park Conservancy.
Manet and the American Civil War: The Battle of U.S.S. Kearsarge and C.S.S. Alabama
June 3–August 17, 2003
During the American Civil War, when United States forces blocked Confederate ports,
the Confederacy countered by waging guerrilla warfare on United States merchant shipping. One of the most skilled Confederate raiders was the sloop-of-war, the Alabama. On June 19, 1864, the U.S.S. Kearsarge and the C.S.S. Alabama fought in international waters off the coast of Cherbourg, France. The Alabama sank less than two hours after the first shot was fired. The battle captivated the attention of the French people, and Manet, who as a teenager had served in the French navy, raced to Boulogne to see the victorious Kearsarge. He painted a depiction of the battle (which he did not witness) as well as a portrait of the Kearsarge, which is now in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In celebration of the Metropolitan's recent acquisition of Manet's The "Kearsarge" at Boulogne (1864), the Museum is presenting a dossier exhibition devoted to Manet's interest in the Civil War battle and the effect of the "Kearsarge" paintings on his circle. On view are five seascapes painted by Manet at Boulogne during the mid-1860s, as well as prints, photographs, and paintings by artists such as Courbet, Monet, and Whistler; a model of the Kearsarge; and a ship's log.
The exhibition is made possible by Prudential Securities.
The exhibition catalogue is made possible in part by the Oceanic Heritage Foundation.
Press preview: Monday, June 2, 10:00 a.m.–noon
The Photography of Charles Sheeler
June 3–August 17, 2003
The first full-scale retrospective of the photographic work of American artist Charles Sheeler (1883–1965), this exhibition comprises 120 rare photographs, many of them unique, from all of the artist's major series: images of his house and barns in Doylestown, Pennsylvania (1915–17); still photographs from Manhatta, his 1920 film collaboration with Paul Strand, and views of skyscrapers in lower Manhattan (1920); the Ford Motor Company Plant at River Rouge (1927); Chartres Cathedral (1929); and several images of American industry made for Fortune magazine in the 1930s. Also included are a number of Sheeler's early nudes and little-known late photographs, which were employed in place of traditional sketches as "notes in shorthand" for his paintings of the 1940s and 1950s.
The exhibition is made possible in part by Kenneth P. Siegel.
It was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Photographs were drawn from The Lane Collection.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
Press preview: Monday, June 2, 10:00 a.m.–noon
Charles Sheeler's Contemporaries
June 3–August 17, 2003
Complementing The Photography of Charles Sheeler, and on view concurrently, this installation presents work by other photographers of the period who also drew inspiration from the American city, the machine, and the radical formal innovations of European modernism. Approximately 40 rare vintage photographs from the Museum's collection and that of the Gilman Paper Company are shown, including work by Alfred Stieglitz, an important early influence, Morton Schamberg—who shared Sheeler's first exhibition at Marius de Zayas's famed Modern Gallery in 1917—Paul Strand, Ralph Steiner, Edward Weston, and others.
Press preview: Monday, June 2, 10:00 a.m.–noon
Celebrating Saint Petersburg
June 11, 2003–January 25, 2004
Celebrating the 300th anniversary of the founding of Saint Petersburg, the exhibition features the Metropolitan Museum's principal holdings of Russian and European art, spanning the period from about 1700 through the early 20th century, that were either made in the imperial Russian capital or formerly in Saint Petersburg collections. The selection of approximately 65 objects includes exquisitely crafted furniture, gold, silver, porcelain, and other luxury items of Russian as well as French, English, and German manufacture. Highlights of the display are the spectacular bust of Alexander Menshikov, the first governor of Saint Petersburg, a recently rediscovered ewer and basin from the "Golden Service" of Catherine I (r. 1725–27), and the newly acquired Imperial Tula steel table from Pavlovsk Palace. The exhibition inaugurates the Metropolitan's new European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Special Exhibitions Gallery.
Hendrick Goltzius, Dutch Master (1558–1617): Drawings, Prints, and Paintings
June 26–September 7, 2003
The first major retrospective devoted to this virtuoso Netherlandish mannerist features spectacular figural displays in prints, remarkable pen paintings on parchment, vivid portraits and nature studies in colored chalk and silverpoint, and paintings of mythological and religious subjects on canvas and copper. Culled from collections throughout Europe and the United States, the selection of some 69 drawings, 80 prints, and 13 paintings spans the artist's entire career and demonstrates his legendary mastery of a wide range of media, subject matter, and styles.
The exhibition is made possible in part by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Additional support has been provided by The Schiff Foundation.
The exhibition has also been supported by the Gail and Parker Gilbert Fund.
The exhibition has been organized by the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam,
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and The Toledo Museum of Art.
An indemnity has been granted by the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
Press preview: Monday, June 23, 10:00 a.m.–noon
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
Small Bronzes
September 5–December 7, 2003
An exhibition of small bronzes accompanied by related drawings chosen from the Museum's collection of modern art. Among the artists represented are Louise Bourgeois, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Henry Moore, Pablo Picasso, and Joel Shapiro.
Klee Abstract
September 5–December 7, 2003
From 1915 on, the visible world ceased to inspire Klee. The artist had written earlier that it "bored" him "to copy nature." Drawing his subjects from the imagination, past experience, and his reaction to the world around him, he devised his own universe of abstracted signs and merry symbols. He also created completely abstract compositions, and a selection of these works, some 30 paintings and watercolors from the Berggruen Klee Collection, will be shown.
The Responsive Eye: Ralph T. Coe and the Collecting of American Indian Art
September 9–December 14, 2003
Formed over the last half century, the Ralph T. Coe Collection of American Indian Art represents all the regions and periods by which American Indian art is known today. Dating from 2000 B.C. to the present, the works are diverse aesthetically and materially. They range from the button blankets of the Pacific Northwest to the archaeological sculpture of the Southeast and include masks, ornamented deerskin shirts, pipe bowls, beaded bags, and baskets, among other works. Two hundred objects will be shown.
The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
All works in the exhibition are courtesy of Ralph T. Coe.
This publication was made possible in part by the International Music and Art Foundation (Vaduz).
Additional support has been provided by the Mary C. and James W. Fosburgh Publications Fund.
Press preview: Monday, September 8, 10:00 a.m.–noon
Dreams of Yellow Mountain:
Landscapes of Survival in Seventeenth-Century China
September 13, 2003–January 25, 2004
This exhibition will focus on landscape paintings created by "leftover subjects" of the Ming dynasty living in and around the former Ming capital of Nanjing during the early years of the Manchu Qing dynasty (1644–1911). For these loyalist artists, images of landscape, often inspired by Yellow Mountain (Mount Huang), symbolized survival,
resistance, and reclusion in response to alien rule. Comprising nearly 60 works, from the Museum's permanent holdings and loans from East Coast collections, this exhibition will be the most comprehensive presentation of such landscapes ever mounted in the United States. The exhibition is timed to coincide with a special loan show of Nanjing School works from the Nanjing Museum at the China Institute Gallery.
The exhibition is made possible by The Eighteen Friends.
Photography: French Daguerreotypes, 1839–1855
September 23, 2003–January 4, 2004
This exhibition of some 175 works from the dawn of the photographic era is the first major survey of French daguerreotypes—magically detailed, one-of-a-kind images on
silver-plated sheets of copper. With extraordinary precision and a boundless ability to
represent the world, daguerreotypes boldly announced a revolution that would forever change the history of visual representation. Drawn from major European and North American museums, as well as from private collections and smaller institutions, the works on view will include hitherto unseen examples of scientific, ethnographic, exploratory, and historical documentary photography of the 1840s and 1850s, as well as portraits, city views, landscapes, nude studies, and genre scenes that are renowned as key early monuments in the history of photographic art.
The exhibition is made possible in part by the Gail and Parker Gilbert Fund.
The accompanying CD-ROM is made possible in part by the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation Inc.
The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Réunion des Musées Nationaux and the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
Educational programs have been made possible by The Georges Lurcy Charitable and Educational Trust.
Press preview: Monday, September 22, 10:00 a.m.–noon
Treasures of a Lost Art: Italian Manuscript Painting of the Middle Ages and Renaissance
September 30, 2003–February 1, 2004
This exhibition will present to the public for the first time the impressive collection of Italian illuminated manuscripts formed by Robert Lehman (1891–1969). Comparable only to the Cini Collection in Venice in its breadth and scope, the collection originally comprised 145 pieces ranging in date from the 13th to the 16th century, and equally divided among the major centers of manuscript production in Italy. The Metropolitan's display will include 101 single leaves and cuttings and two bound volumes, many of which are unknown even to scholars. Among them are works by some of the most famous names in Italian painting, such as Duccio di Buoninsegna, Stefano da Verona, and Cosimo Tura, as well as visually stunning examples by leading figures in the history of Italian manuscript illumination.
The show will be accompanied by a comprehensive, fully illustrated catalogue of all the pieces formerly in the collection.
The exhibition catalogue is made possible in part by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
El Greco
October 7, 2003–January 11, 2004
This major retrospective exhibition will consist of approximately 80 works by the great
16th-century painter Domenikos Theotokopoulos, known to posterity as El Greco. The works span the whole of his career, from his origins as a painter of icons in his native Crete to his work in Venice and Rome and his definitive move to Toledo, Spain. There will be sections devoted to his depiction of saints, a selection of his large-scale altarpieces,
a representation of his work as a sculptor, his rare excursions into mythological themes, and an extraordinary selection of his psychologically intense portraits, so greatly admired by Velázquez. The last American exhibition devoted to El Greco was held more than 20 years ago, in 1982, in Washington, Dallas, and Toledo, Ohio. The guest curator is Professor David Davies of the University of London, an eminent El Greco scholar.
The exhibition is funded by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation in celebration of its 25th Anniversary.
The exhibition has been organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
and The National Gallery, London.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
Press preview: Monday, September 29, 10:00 a.m.–noon
Crossing the Channel: British and French Painting in the Age of Romanticism
October 8, 2003–January 4, 2004
Some 100 paintings and 35 works on paper by such artists as Constable, Bonington, Delacroix, and Géricault will chart the rich cultural exchanges between Britain and France between 1820 and 1840. A selection of major works that created a dialogue between the two national schools will emphasize artistic affinities in terms of subject, technique, and theoretical approaches, showing that British art made a defining contribution to French Romanticism.
The exhibition is made possible by United Technologies Corporation.
The exhibition was organized by Tate Britain, in association with
The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
Press preview: Tuesday, October 7, 10:00 a.m.–noon
Hudson River School Visions: The Landscapes of Sanford R. Gifford
October 8, 2003–February 8, 2004
Only the second retrospective of this Hudson River School master's work since the Metropolitan's memorial exhibition in 1880, this exhibition will include nearly 70 paintings of sites in America, Europe, and the Middle East. Gifford's taste for radiant light and aerial effects distinguishes his landscapes from the work of his contemporaries and manifests a personal and poetic strain anticipating later trends in American art.
Among subjects with which he was especially identified are those of the Catskill
Mountains and Hudson River, dreamily transfigured or poignantly charged by his distinctive vision.
The exhibition is made possible by Alamo Rent A Car, Inc.
The exhibition is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
The exhibition catalogue is made possible in part by the William Cullen Bryant Fellows
of the Metropolitan Museum.
Press preview: Tuesday, October 7, 10:00 a.m.–noon
Turning Point: Oribe and the Arts of Sixteenth-Century Japan
October 21, 2003–January 11, 2004
This exhibition explores the genesis of the dramatic stylistic changes in Japanese art during the brief but brilliant Momoyama period (1573–1615), which witnessed the struggles of ambitious warlords for control of the long-splintered country and Japan's first encounter with the West. The first comprehensive examination of the subject in the West, the exhibition presents nearly 200 objects—paintings, ceramics, lacquerware, and textiles from public and private collections in Japan, the United States, and Canada—that together illustrate the political, economic, and social forces underlying the unprecedented changes in the arts and aesthetics of 16th-century Japan. Chief among these forces was Furita Oribe's (1543–1615) innovative approach to the practice of the tea ceremony, culminating in the unique development of the strikingly bold and colorful ceramics known as Oribe. The new creative energy that marked this period found expression not only in Oribe ceramics but in all the arts, which are especially notable for their shared motifs, designs, and compositions.
Nomura is the proud sponsor of the exhibition.
Additional support has been provided by the Toshiba International Foundation.
The exhibition catalogue is made possible in part by The Japan Foundation.
The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in collaboration with The Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu.
Press preview: Monday, October 20, 10:00 a.m.–noon
A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the
Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University
October 23, 2003–January 25, 2004
Some 70 paintings and twice as many drawings and watercolors by 19th-century French, British, and American artists will be featured in this selection from the legendary collection that Grenville L. Winthrop (1864–1943) bequeathed in 1943 to the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University. Masterpieces by David, Ingres, Géricault, Chassériau, and Moreau will be seen alongside important works by Blake, Rossetti, and Burne-Jones. Also featured will be pictures by the American artists Whistler, Homer, and Sargent. The selection reflects Winthrop's preference for historical subjects, literary themes, and portraits.
The exhibition is made possible in part by the Janice H. Levin Fund.
The exhibition was organized by the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in collaboration with Ville de Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts and Réunion des musées nationaux, the National Gallery, London, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The exhibition catalogue is made possible by the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation Inc. and the Doris Duke Fund for Publications.
Press preview: Monday, October 20, 10:00 a.m.–noon
Philip Guston
October 28, 2003–January 4, 2004
A major retrospective exhibition of the art of Philip Guston (born Montreal, Canada, 1913, died Woodstock, New York, 1980). It will be the most comprehensive survey of
the artist's work to date, comprising 80 paintings and drawings, from Guston's precocious beginnings as a Social Realist in the 1930s, through his renown as a lyrical Abstract Expressionist in the 1950s and early 1960s, to his later figurative works, which had a great impact on American and European art of the 1970s and 1980s. The exhibition is on view at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas from March 30 to June 8, 2003. It will then travel to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (June 28–September 28, 2003), the Metropolitan Museum, and the Royal Academy of Arts, London (January 24–April 12, 2004). The exhibition will be accompanied by a major publication to be produced by Thames & Hudson, with essays by Michael Auping, Doré Ashton, Bill Berkson, Andrew Graham-Dixon, and Joseph Rishel, and excerpts from texts by the artist.
The exhibition was organized by the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas.
Press preview: Monday, October 27, 10:00 a.m.–noon
Bravehearts: Men in Skirts
November 4, 2003–February 8, 2004
Frequently throughout the history of Western dress, women have borrowed elements of men's clothing. Examples of men appropriating women's dress, however, are rare. Today, while women enjoy most of the advantages of a man's wardrobe, men enjoy few of the advantages of a woman's wardrobe. Nowhere is this asymmetry more apparent than in the taboo surrounding men in skirts. Bravehearts locates "men in skirts" in historical and cross-cultural contexts and looks at designers as well as individuals who have appropriated the skirt as a means of injecting novelty into male fashion, transgressing moral and social codes, and redefining ideals of masculinity.
Press preview: Monday, November 3, 10:00 a.m.–noon
Annual Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche
Late November 2003–early January 2004
The Museum will continue 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—will adorn the candlelit spruce. Recorded music adds to the enjoyment of the holiday display. Lighting ceremony Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:00.
The exhibit of the crèche is made possible by gifts to The Christmas Tree Fund
and The Loretta Hines Howard Trust.
Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration
January 13–April 18, 2004
As with Close's large paintings, the subjects of his fine prints are the faces of relatives or fellow artists as well as self-portraits. This retrospective exhibition of prints will present more than 100 images, ranging from Close's first print, Keith, a mezzotint made in 1972, to the 120-color woodblock Ukiyo-e print Emma, completed in 2002. There will also be other intaglios, silk-screen prints, and linoleum cuts. In addition, the exhibition will display a number of progressive proofs and state proofs of certain images, so that Close's working methods are made clear to the viewer. The show will also contain certain print matrixes, such as a woodblock or etching plate.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a book to be published by Princeton University Press, with an essay by Richard Schiff and interviews with Close and the master printers for most of his editions. The interviews are conducted by Terrie Sultan, director of the Blaffer Gallery at the University of Houston, where the exhibition is being organized and where it will be on view from September 13 to November 23, 2003. After the showing at the Metropolitan Museum, the exhibition will travel to other institutions.
Playing with Fire: European Terracotta Models, 1740–1840
January 28–April 25, 2004
Approximately 135 terracottas, from quick preliminary sketches to completely
finished models, will demonstrate the dash and erudition of modelers across Europe during the Neoclassical age. The period saw unprecedented explorations of Greco-Roman antiquity, in which sculptors eagerly took part. Certain geniuses, bearers of such well-known names as Canova, Dannecker, Roland, and Sergel, will be seen in considerable depth. The works will be grouped thematically, emphasizing the typologies that preoccupied sculptors, such as self-portraiture, monuments to famous men, glimpses
of arcadia, and the loves of the gods.
The exhibition catalogue is made possible in part by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Poets, Lovers, and Heroes in Italian Mythological Prints
February 3–May 2, 2004
On view will be more than 100 woodcuts, engravings, and etchings by artists from Mantegna to Tiepolo, all narrating the mythological tales most popular with Italian artists. Among the favored themes are the ancient gods as patrons of music, poetry, and painting and as participants in musical competitions, along with the drunken festivities surrounding Bacchus and his favorite disciple, the obese yet wise Silenus. A large section of the exhibition will celebrate the triumph of love—the power of little cupid's arrows to make fools of even the most august gods. The exhibition will conclude with the heroic exploits of Hercules and the legendary history of Rome, from the apple of discord that initiated the Trojan War to the rape of the Sabine women.
Accompanied by a publication.
Chocolate, Coffee, Tea
February 3–July 11, 2004
The introduction of these three beverages into 17th-century Europe resulted from the sustained contacts of the seagoing nations and direct trade with formerly unreachable parts of the world, such as Mexico, Arabia, and China. A great variety of new utensils were developed to serve the new drinks, first for great households and quickly thereafter for the popular market. The Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts will draw on its large collection to illustrate this theme.
Art of the Lega: Meaning and Metaphor in Central Africa
February 10–September 5, 2004
The men and women in Lega culture, who reside in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, enter the centuries-old society known as Bwami to learn skills for life and to gain wisdom. This wisdom is taught to the initiate through the use of elegantly carved wood or ivory pieces that are passed down through the generations and the many levels of the organization. The proverbs associated with a sculpture are inferred by its use in ritual and ceremony and by drawing on personal experience. As a Lega apprentice moves from one level to the next, he or she is given fewer verbal lessons through which to interpret the art and is expected to develop a deeper, less literal understanding of the sculpture.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261–1557)
March 23–July 4, 2004
This major international loan exhibition will demonstrate the artistic and cultural significance of the last centuries of the state that called itself "the Empire of the Romans." Donor portraits will introduce the peoples of this world, with the importance of the era primarily being demonstrated through the arts created for the Orthodox church and for the churches of other East Christian states that aspired to be the heirs to the empire's power. The impact of its culture on the Islamic world and the Latin-speaking West will also be explored—especially the influence of the Christian East on the development of the Renaissance. The exhibition will begin in 1261, when the capital Constantinople
was restored to imperial rule, and will conclude in 1557, when the empire that had fallen to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 was renamed Byzantium—the name by which it is still known.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Gates, Central Park, New York
April 6–July 25, 2004
The exhibition anticipates the forthcoming urban work of art, conceived by the New York husband-and-wife collaborators Christo and Jeanne-Claude, which will be constructed in Central Park in February 2005. Included will be a variety of works that document the Gates project dating from the late 1970s to the present, including some 45 preparatory drawings and collages by Christo, 40 photographs and 10 maps, and technical diagrams.
Accompanied by an illustrated publication.
CONTINUING EXHIBITIONS
Klee the Voyager
Through May 4, 2003
A selection of works recording the artist's forays into regions exotic, domestic, and imagined. The 25 images, mainly watercolors and some paintings spanning the years
1914 to 1937, are all from The Berggruen Klee Collection at the Museum.
Recent Acquisitions: Works on Paper
Through May 4, 2003
An exhibition of 39 drawings by 21 living artists, with a focus on abstraction. Chosen from the Department of Modern Art's collection, the selection features works by artists of seven nationalities, with distinctive personal styles. They are shown together at the Museum for the first time.
Thomas Struth
Through May 18, 2003
This major retrospective features 90 stunning photographs by one of today's leading contemporary artists, whose body of work is of truly global reach and ambition. Ranging from early black-and-white views of city streets in the United States and Europe to recent, large-scale views of primeval jungles and forests in Asia and South America, Struth's photographs show the actual condition of our world's cultures and traditions on the cusp of a new millennium. The exhibition highlights his celebrated "Museum" series—monumental pictures of people visiting museums, churches, and other cultural destinations around the world that reconcile the timeless and the ephemeral, the real and the spiritual ideal. Also included are his mesmerizing individual and family portraits, landscapes, and rapturous flower studies. Accompanying the exhibition is a spectacular projection of Struth's video portraits in the Museum's Great Hall, constituting the first time the work of a living artist has been shown in the monumental space.
Complementing this exhibition is a related display of works (in The Howard Gilman Gallery) entitled Thomas Struth: Streets that presents an expanded view of his classic black-and-white streetscapes. Included are photographs from the artist's "Streets of New York" portfolio from 1978, as well as photographs from the 1980s made in the great cities of Europe, America, and Asia—distinctive portraits of place that capture the irreducible character and visible history of our urban environments.
The exhibition is made possible in part by Altria Group, Inc.
Additional support has been provided by the Gail and Parker Gilbert Fund.
The exhibition was organized by the Dallas Museum of Art.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting
Through June 29, 2003
This exhibition examines the impact of Spanish painting on French artists, presenting some 150 paintings by masters of Spain's Golden Age—Velázquez, Murillo, Ribera, El Greco, and Zurbarán—as well as masterpieces by the 19th-century French artists they influenced, among them Delacroix, Courbet, Millet, Degas, and, most notably, Manet. The exhibition also includes works by American artists such as Sargent, Eakins, Whistler, and Cassatt, who studied in France but learned to paint like Spaniards. An exhibition on this subject has never before been attempted at this scale and depth, and it promises to be revelatory. Napoleon's Spanish campaigns (1808–14) marked a turning point in the French perception of Spanish painting, which, up to that time, had been virtually ignored and poorly represented in the French royal collections. Yet, only two decades later, in 1838, King Louis Philippe inaugurated the Galerie Espagnole at the Louvre, placing on view his extraordinary collection of hundreds of Spanish paintings. Although this collection was sold in 1853, these paintings left an indelible impression in France and by the 1860s, the French taste for Spanish painting was perceptible at each Paris Salon. At the core of the exhibition are 30 paintings by Manet, including many of his so-called "Spanish" works of the 1860s.
A special, interactive Web feature that complements the exhibition is available at www.metmuseum.org.
Accenture is the proud sponsor of the exhibition.
The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the
Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Musée d'Orsay.
An indemnity has been granted by the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
African-American Artists, 1929–1945:
Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Through July 6, 2003
More than 70 works by African-American artists—drawn exclusively from the collection of the Metropolitan—include prints by Robert Blackburn, Elizabeth Catlett, William H. Johnson, Raymond Steth, and Dox Thrash, among others, as well as paintings and watercolors by Jacob Lawrence, Joseph Delaney, Lois Mailou Jones, Horace Pippin, Romare Bearden, Samuel Joseph Brown, Palmer Hayden, and Bill Traylor. Focusing
on the years 1929–45, the selection reflects aspects of daily life for African Americans during the latter part of the Harlem Renaissance, the Depression and New Deal era,
and World War II.
The exhibition is made possible by The Fletcher Foundation and Fletcher Asset Management, Inc.
Additional support has been provided by Jane and Robert Carroll.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
Genesis: Ideas of Origin in African Sculpture
Through July 6, 2003
How did the world begin? What is our ancestry? What is the source of agriculture and of kingship, and other societal institutions? African cultures seek to provide answers to these questions through elaborate interwoven traditions of oral history, poetry, and art. Genesis: Ideas of Origin in African Sculpture explores how artists in 17 distinct African cultures have interpreted these ideas and sought to answer these questions. Within that framework, the exhibition explores in depth one noteworthy classical sculptural form, the ci wara antelope headdress of the Bamana people. The exhibition includes 40 exceptional ci wara headdresses, as well as 35 masterpieces from across sub-Saharan Africa inspired by distinctive myths of origin ranging from the Dogon of Mali, the Senufo of Côte d'Ivoire, and the Yoruba of Nigeria to the Luba and Kuba of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Chokwe of Angola, and the Ntwane of South Africa.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
Chinese Export Porcelain at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Through July 13, 2003
On display in The Erving and Joyce Wolf Gallery in The American Wing are 80 works from the Museum's important collection of Chinese porcelain made for export to both Europe and America. The selection of objects, dating from the early 16th century to the last quarter of the 19th century, includes bowls and vases, services and tureens, reverse glass paintings, and works in ivory.
The exhibition and its accompanying publication are made possible by
Mary and Marvin Davidson.
Arms and Armor: Notable Acquisitions 1991–2002
Through January 18, 2004
This exhibition celebrates more than a decade of acquisitions made since the reinstallation of the Arms and Armor Galleries in 1991. Although high-quality works are becoming increasingly rare, a number of important gifts and purchases have significantly enriched the Museum's renowned collection of European, North American, Japanese, and Islamic arms. Major acquisitions, as well as curatorial purchases of more modest value, are highlighted, and newly explored areas of collecting such as Tibetan arms and armor are presented for the first time.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
Significant Objects from the Modern Design Collection
Through April 25, 2004
On display is a rotating selection of approximately 30 works in all media spanning the period from the late 19th to the early 21st century. Examples of furniture, metalwork, silver, ceramics, and glass are shown for their significance, both in art-historical terms and in the context of the Museum's collection.
Medieval Masterworks on Loan from the Morgan Library
Through June 2005
The Metropolitan is displaying seven superb examples of medieval art from the Morgan Library while that facility undergoes renovation. Among them are some of the favorite works of the noted financier and collector J. Pierpont Morgan, a past president of the Metropolitan Museum, including the splendid 12th-century Stavelot Triptych and the dazzling gold and jeweled binding of the Lindau Gospel Book.
NEW AND RECENTLY INSTALLED EXHIBITIONS
Gallery of Italian Renaissance Bronzes
Opening summer 2003
Newly installed in the gallery adjacent to the Vélez Blanco Patio will be a selection of 100 Italian bronze sculptures—many shown for the first time—from the Metropolitan Museum's holdings, a collection that is without peer in this country for its size, variety, and interest. Included will be statuettes by the influential Early Renaissance artists Bartolomeo Bellano and Andrea Riccio of Padua and the Mantuan known as Antico; masterpieces by the 16th-century mannerists Alessandro Vittoria in Venice and Giambologna in Florence; examples of reliefs and plaquettes; and domestic objects such as andirons and inkwells.
A Notable Acquisition of Japanese Textiles of the Edo Period (1615–1868)
Through September 21, 2003
More than 35 works, both fragments and costumes, are exhibited to celebrate a remarkable acquisition of Japanese textiles. The gloriously dyed and embroidered fragments trace the history of kimono fashion, embracing both the dramatic asymmetrical designs of the second half of the 17th century and the colorful detailed patterns characteristic of yûzen dyeing, which began at the end of that period. The costumes include two men's garments that bear the crest of the Tokugawa, the ruling family of the Edo period.
Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan
Through August 17, 2003 (galleries for Chinese Painting and Calligraphy) and
Through September 21, 2003 (galleries for the Arts of Japan)
This exhibition, presented in both the galleries for Chinese Painting and Calligraphy and in the galleries for the Arts of Japan, explores how Chinese pictorial themes—Buddhist
iconography, landscape imagery, flower and bird subjects, and figural narratives—were selectively adopted and reinterpreted by native artists in Korea and Japan.
The exhibition is made possible by the Parnassus Foundation, courtesy of Jane and Raphael Bernstein.
Deedee Wigmore Gallery of the Arts of Louis C. Tiffany
Opened October 16, 2002
This past October, the Museum opened a new gallery devoted to the arts of Louis C. Tiffany, one of the most versatile and talented American artists working in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The installation in the new Deedee Wigmore Gallery highlights the Museum's preeminent collections and features Tiffany's windows, lamps, furniture,
mosaics, blown Favrile glass vases, pottery, enamelwork, and jewelry. In addition, there is a rotating display selected from the Museum's collection of more than 400 design drawings from Tiffany's studios.
Glimpses of the Silk Road: Central Asia in the First Millennium
Opened August 5, 2002
As seen in the 37 diverse objects that are on view in this new installation of works drawn primarily from the Metropolitan's collection, the art of Central Asia is marked by an astonishing amalgam of different influences, combining Hellenistic imagery and Near Eastern motifs with Chinese and Indian features. Goods and raw materials as well as new ideas, religious beliefs, artistic styles and motifs, and technological innovations were transmitted throughout the region along overland caravan routes that later became known as the "Silk Road." Sculptures from various sites, and rare wall paintings from the Kushan kingdom (ca. 1st century B.C.–early 4th century A.D.) and that of Kucha (ca. 4th–7th century) illustrate the fascinating blend of eastern and western traditions that defines Central Asian art. Buddhist themes, often represented in the sculptures and paintings, reflect the spread of this Indian religion throughout the region and into China. The display also illustrates the transmission of technology and motifs in the applied arts. Perhaps the most outstanding examples of works of art in the Parthian period (247 B.C.–224 A.D.) are two ivory rhytons from Nysa, which combine Iranian and Greek themes and styles. Metalwork, textiles, and stucco produced by the Persians, the Kushans, the Sogdians, the Chinese, and others share numerous themes and decorative elements, interpreting and adapting them into their own creations.
Jacques and Natasha Gelman Galleries: The School of Paris
Newly installed August 2002 (opened June 1, 2001)
A new installation of outstanding works by modern masters from the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection is now on view. Included are paintings by Balthus, Bonnard, Braque, Brauner, de Chirico, Derain, Dubuffet, Ernst, Gris, Léger, Matisse, Miró, Modigliani, Mondrian, Picasso, Rouault, Tanguy, and Vlaminck, as well as one painting and three bronzes by Giacometti. These prime works by painters of the School of Paris range in date from 1895 to 1972. Several are icons of 20th-century art, and 19 works on paper are shown for the first time.
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.
Treasures of a Lost Art: Italian Manuscript Painting of the Middle Ages and Renaissance
A smaller version of an exhibition that will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from September 30, 2003 to February 1, 2004 (see p. 7), Treasures of a Lost Art includes highlights from the impressive collection of Italian illuminated manuscripts formed by Robert Lehman (1891–1969). Presented to the public for the first time are little-known masterpieces by some of the most famous names in Italian painting, as well as examples by leading figures in the history of Italian manuscript illumination.
Current and upcoming venues:
Cleveland Museum of Art, OH February 23–May 4, 2003
California Palace of the Legion of Honor,
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA June 7–August 31, 2003
Earthly Bodies: Irving Penn's Nudes, 1949–50
Based on the Metropolitan's recent exhibition, these photographs by one of the world's finest photographers are among the most ambitious and successful female nudes ever made. Folded, twisted, and stretched, with extra belly, mounded hips, and puddled breasts, the fleshy torsos of Penn's models are charged with powerful physical and sexual energy yet remain somehow chaste.
Current venue:
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA March 22–August 10, 2003
Previously shown at:
The Art Institute of Chicago, IL June 1–October 6, 2002
VISITOR INFORMATION AND MUSEUM HOURS
MAIN BUILDING
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Sundays, Tuesdays–Thursdays 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
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THE CLOISTERS
March–October hours:
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Mondays Closed
ADMISSION
Suggested admission to the Main Building and The Cloisters:
Adults $12.00
Students, senior citizens $ 7.00
Members and children under 12
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