SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS SEPTEMBER—DECEMBER 2000

The Embodied Image: Chinese Calligraphy from the John B. Elliott Collection
September 15, 2000—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 — hanging scrolls, handscrolls, album leaves, and letters — are featured in this exhibition, accompanied by selections 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.

The exhibition is made possible by Fleet.

The accompanying catalogue is made possible through the support of the William Cullen Bryant Fellows.

"La Divine Comtesse": Photographs of the Countess de Castiglione
September 19—December 31, 2000
Considered the most beautiful woman of her time, the Countess de Castiglione was a special agent for the cause of Italian unification, the mistress of Napoleon III, and a mysterious recluse notorious for her multiple love affairs. She collaborated with photographer Pierre-Louis Pierson to chronicle her natural beauty and extravagant couture and to recreate for posterity the great moments of her public life. This exhibition of more than 90 photographs, many of which were elaborately painted under her direction, tells an extraordinary tale of narcissism and delusion — and of a surprisingly innovative approach to photography.

Accompanied by a publication.

Queen Victoria and Thomas Sully
September 19—December 31, 2000
The highlight of the career of the Philadelphia portraitist Thomas Sully (1783—1872) was his 1837—38 commission to paint young Queen Victoria. This exhibition explores the artist's experiences in London during the exciting coronation year and the success of his ingenious portraits of the queen. Included are oil portraits, wash drawings, and graphite sketches by Sully, along with a selection of related works by other artists and various mementos of his trip. The exhibition is mounted in commemoration of the anniversary of Queen Victoria's death in 1901. The exhibition is made possible by Crown Equipment Corporation.

Accompanied by a catalogue.

Thomas Sully in the Metropolitan
September 19, 2000—January 7, 2001
Presented in conjunction with Queen Victoria and Thomas Sully, described previously, 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, self-portraits, and other works.

The Eugénie Prendergast Exhibitions of American Art are made possible by a grant from Jan and Warren Adelson.

Egyptian Art at Eton College: Selections from the Myers Museum
September 26, 2000—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.

The accompanying publication is made possible by the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation Inc.

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.

Romanticism and the School of Nature: Nineteenth-Century Drawings and Paintings from the Karen B. Cohen Collection
October 17, 2000—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.

Modern Photographs from the Permanent Collection
October 31, 2000—late April 2001
The second part in an ongoing series of installations of postwar photography, including large-scale contemporary works being exhibited at the Metropolitan for the first time.

Rain of the Moon: Silver in Ancient Peru
November 3, 2000—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 litter decorated with cut-out silver sheet, 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.

The Still Lifes of Evaristo Baschenis: The Music of Silence
November 17, 2000—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. Approximately 15 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.

Annual Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche
November 25, 2000—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 beginning December 1.

The installation is made possible by The Loretta Hines Howard Trust.

A Century of Design, Part III: 1950—1975
November 28, 2000—April 1, 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 European modernist designers, 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 Columbo, Vico Magistretti, Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglione, and Gaetano Pesce.

Photography: Processes, Preservation, Treatment
January 30—May 6, 2001
Celebrating the opening of the new Sherman Fairchild Center for Works on Paper and Photographs Conservation, this exhibition will explain various photographic processes and explore issues of 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 unfortunately time-worn — will be 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.

Modern Chinese Painting, 1840—1980: Selections 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 will focus 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 are nearly 40 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.

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 will be 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 artist of Mannerism. The exhibition will present 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 with the participation of The Royal Library.

Accompanied by a catalogue.

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 rich collection of his works will be shown with selections from a loan collection of Richards's charming postcard-size watercolors of landscape and marine subjects in Pennsylvania, New England, and the British Isles.

Treasury of the 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, 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 rock crystal, bronze, gilded copper, and wood on display, including one of the original storage cupboards.

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 75 paintings by some 20 artists, 35 drawings, and smaller selections of tapestries, gilded silver, and Delftware faience will 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, and by The National Gallery, London.

Accompanied by a catalogue.

William Blake
March 27—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 printmaker, painter, and poet, William Blake will present more than 200 works drawn from public and private collections in Britain, America, Canada, and Australia. The exhibition will represent the broad range of Blake's artistic and poetic vision, with special attention to his innovative printmaking techniques and methods of painting, his visionary imagination, and the implications of his radical politics for his art. The exhibition is being organized by Tate Britain, London.

The exhibition is made possible by The Isaacson-Draper Foundation.

Accompanied by a catalogue.

Support for the exhibition has been provided by Condé Nast.

The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum.

The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden
May 1—late fall 2001
A selection of 20th-century works will be 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 urban skyline. Beverage and sandwich service will be available from 10:00 a.m. until closing, including Friday and Saturday evenings.

A Century of Design, Part IV: 1975—2000
May—October 2001
This will be the final exhibition in a four-part series surveying 20th-century design through the presentation of significant objects in all media drawn from the Museum's collection.

The Annenberg Collection of Impressionist and Postimpressionist Masterpieces
Late May—mid-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.

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.

Photographs: A Decade of Collecting
June 5—September 2, 2001
This celebration of the Metropolitan Museum's acquisitions over the past ten years focuses on two areas of special interest: French photographs of the 1850s and 1860s and American photographs of the 1960s.

Beyond the Easel: Decorative Painting by Bonnard, Vuillard, Denis, and Roussel, 1890—1930
June 26—September 16, 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 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 approximately 70 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.

Support for the exhibition has been provided by Janice H. Levin.

Accompanied by a catalogue.

Chardin
Through September 3, 2000<
This major loan exhibition offers a survey of Chardin's distinguished career as a still-life and genre painter, as seen in 66 works from international collections. The son of a Parisian artisan, Jean-Siméon Chardin (1699—1779) was received into the French Academy in 1728. The quality of his naturalistic painting in the 17th-century Dutch tradition was exceptional and his success as a painter of animals, birds, and fruit was immediate. The artist later turned to half-length figures and genre scenes, which depict 18th-century bourgeois life and are remarkable for the studied harmony of their pictorial structure. The critic Diderot wrote in 1763 that a still life by Chardin "is nature itself; the objects free themselves from the canvas and are deceptively true to life." Among the highlights of the exhibition are The Ray (Musée du Louvre, Paris), Girl with Shuttlecock (private collection), The Governess (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa), and Basket of Wild Strawberries (private collection), as well as the Metropolitan's own Soap Bubbles.

The exhibition is made possible by The Florence Gould Foundation.

The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris, the Kunstmuseum and Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf, and the Royal Academy of Arts, London.

An indemnity has been granted by the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Accompanied by a catalogue.

Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art, 1935
Through September 3, 2000
In 1935, a large and groundbreaking exhibition of African sculpture was mounted at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In it, the works were shown as art objects rather than as ethnographic objects. Walker Evans, then 32 years old, was commissioned to create a photographic portfolio of a selection of works in the show, including some 477 images. Seventeen portfolios, each comprising four volumes, were then produced. Perfect Documents displays 50 of the photographs from Walker Evans's portfolio, along with several related sculptures. The opening of the exhibition coincided with the opening of the Walker Evans Archive, which was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum in 1994.

This exhibition is sponsored by Philip Morris Companies Inc.

The accompanying catalogue is made possible by the Doris Duke Fund for Publications.

The Birth of Baroque: The Carracci at the Metropolitan
Through September 17, 2000
Between the years 1580 and 1610, the Carracci — Annibale, Agostino, and their cousin Ludovico — laid the foundation for what we know as Baroque art. Through a series of remarkable acquisitions — most notably, Ludovico Carracci's groundbreaking Lamentation purchased just six months ago for a record-setting price — the Metropolitan Museum's collection of works by the Carracci is now the richest and most comprehensive in this hemisphere. In this exhibition, visitors can acquaint themselves with paintings, drawings, and prints that changed the course of European painting for two and a half centuries.

Fireworks! Four Centuries of Pyrotechnics in Prints and Drawings
Through September 17, 2000
More than 100 prints and drawings, culled primarily from the Metropolitan's collection, illustrate the fireworks that celebrated special occasions, such as births, weddings, and royal entries. The works range in date from the 16th to the 20th century and include depictions of firework displays at the Vatican, on the Arno in Florence, lighting up the cathedral in Antwerp, at Versailles, in St. Petersburg and Vienna, and celebrating the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge. Among the artists represented are Antonio Tempesta, Jacques Callot, Claude Lorrain, Jean-Louis Desprez, Francesco Piranesi, Winslow Homer, Edgar Degas, and the lithographers Currier and Ives.

Accompanied by a Museum Bulletin.

John Singer Sargent Beyond the Portrait Studio:
Paintings, Drawings, and Watercolors from the Collection
Through September 24, 2000
Some 110 paintings and drawings selected from the Museum's extensive holdings illuminate episodes in Sargent's career as he studied and sought inspiration outside the confines of the portrait studio. These works reflect his travels to Spain, Morocco, and other destinations in North Africa and the Near East; his enduring fascination with Venice; his summer holidays in the Italian lake district and the Alps; his tours of North America, including Florida and the Rocky Mountains; and his visit to the western front during World War I as an official war artist. Also on view are Sargent's preparatory sketches for allegorical murals for the Boston Public Library, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Harvard University's Widener Library. The exhibition commemorates the 75th anniversary of the artist's death and the 50th anniversary of the gift of numerous works to the Metropolitan by his sister, Mrs. Francis Ormond, and celebrates the publication of the collection catalogue of his drawings and watercolors.

The exhibition and its accompanying publications are made possible by the Marguerite and Frank A. Cosgrove Jr. Fund.

Parks and Promenades:
Maurice Prendergast in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Through October 22, 2000
A selection of paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints by the New England modernist Maurice Prendergast (1858—1924), all drawn from the Museum's collection. His watercolors, which provide an engaging chronicle of daily life, capture fleeting, incidental imagery in shimmering hues. Among the highlights of the exhibition are the 40 large-scale watercolors once bound in the Large Boston Public Garden Sketchbook.

The exhibition is made possible by Robert Lehman Foundation, Inc.

Now! Modern Photographs from the Permanent Collection
Through October 22, 2000
The inauguration of a series of selections from the expanding permanent collection of contemporary photographs, this installation concentrates on 13 works that directly or indirectly address issues of time and measurement. Instantaneous shots taken while speeding down a freeway in L.A., images gradually laid down on a negative for the duration of a feature film, images gestating while tadpoles turn into frogs over a period of weeks, photographs of millions of light years — the selection is rich in conceptual leaps, technical approaches, and jumps in scale. Works by Vito Acconci, Chris Burden, Walter de Maria, Jan Dibbets, and Dennis Oppenheim from the 1960s and 1970s introduce recent works by Adam Fuss, Susan Derges, Vik Muniz, Gabriel Orozco, Thomas Ruff, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Thomas Struth, and others.

A Century of Design, Part II: 1925—1950
Through October 29, 2000<
This is the second in a four-part series of exhibitions surveying design in the 20th century through the presentation of significant objects in all media by major European modernist designers, drawn from the Museum's collection. While the luxurious and sensual aesthetic of Art Deco reigned in France during the late 1920s and 1930s, avant-garde German design of the same period presented an ethical and polemical antithesis.

Bauhaus designers such as Marianne Brandt, Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Wilhelm Wagenfeld explored the possibilities of functionalism, mass production, and industrial materials. Though enormously influential, the severity of their uncompromising work was soon challenged by the softer lines and natural materials of Scandinavian design from the 1930s by such designers as Alvar Aalto and Bruno Mathsson. This exhibition is an interesting complement to American Modern, 1925—1940: Design for a New Age (see page 16).

David Smith on the Roof
Through late fall 2000 (weather permitting)
A selection of works in burnished stainless steel by David Smith (1906—1965), considered the most original and influential American sculptor of his generation, is installed on the Museum's 10,000-square-foot open-air Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, which offers a panoramic view of the Manhattan skyline and Central Park. Beverage and sandwich service is available from 10:00 a.m. until closing, including Friday and Saturday evenings.

The installation is made possible by the Lita Annenberg Hazen Charitable Trust.

The Annenberg Collection of Impressionist and Postimpressionist Masterpieces
Through November 5, 2000
Please see above for a description.

Celebrating The American Wing: Notable Acquisitions 1980—1999
Through November 12, 2000
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of The American Wing — which contains the world's most comprehensive collection of historical American decorative and fine arts — the Metropolitan presents an exhibition of notable acquisitions made by gift or purchase since 1980, when the original wing was expanded to its current size. Important works are featured in their customary settings in the permanent collection galleries, revealing how they complement existing holdings. All these recent additions are highlighted by special labels that describe their significance within the context of the Museum's collection and the circumstances of their acquisition.

The exhibition is made possible by The Bank of New York and The George Link, Jr. Foundation.

Riding across Central Asia:
Images of the Mongolian Horse in Islamic Art
Through November 12, 2000
This exhibition examines the depiction of horses in Islamic art, especially during the Seljuq and the Ilkhanid periods (ca. 12th—14th century) in Iran. The Mongolian horse — a small, heavy-boned, agile, and tireless animal that became instrumental when the Mongol armies moved across Central Asia in the 13th century — can also be viewed as a swift carrier of different cultures and traditions to the Islamic world. Uniting some 25 objects from the Museum's collection, this exhibition displays representations of the horse as seen in various media, including illustrated manuscripts, inlaid metalwork, ceramic tiles, stone, and stucco, in addition to two saddles and a Yüan scroll representing grooms and horses.

The exhibition is made possible by The Hagop Kevorkian Fund.

Painters in Paris: 1895—1950<
Through January 7, 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 prime 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 Forgotten Friezes from the Castle of Vélez Blanco
Through January 7, 2001
An extraordinary group of six spectacular carved pine friezes have been lent to celebrate the Museum's reopening of the newly renovated Renaissance patio from the Fajardo castle at Vélez Blanco in southern Spain (see page 18). 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 decoration of the reception halls in the same castle and are boldly carved with classical and mythological scenes representing the Triumph of Julius Caesar and the Labors of Hercules.

Sculpture and Decorative Arts of the Spanish Renaissance
Through January 7, 2001
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 newly reopened Vélez Blanco Patio (see page 18). 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 glittering and vibrant material culture of Renaissance Spain. Among the highlights of the installation are two rare and delicate 11-foot-high embroidered hangings depicting heroic events in the Catholic reconquest of Spain. Long in storage, they are displayed to celebrate the patio's reopening.

American Modern, 1925—1940: Design for a New Age
Through January 7, 2001
Between 1925 and 1940, a pioneer 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. A related exhibition of interest, on view through October 29, is A Century of Design, Part II: 1925—1950 (see page 13).

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.

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.

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.

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.

European Helmets, 1450—1650: Treasures from the Reserve Collection
Through January 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 Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries for Byzantine Art
Opening November 14, 2000
This fall, the new Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries for Byzantine Art are opening in a dramatically expanded and redesigned space that includes an intimate 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.

The 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, The Forgotten Friezes from the Castle of Vélez Blanco and Sculpture and Decorative Arts of the Spanish Renaissance are on view through January 7, 2001 (see page 15).

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 recently reopened to the public. The new 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
Following several years of planning and construction, seven completely renovated and reinstalled galleries for Archaic and Classical Greek art are open to the public on the Museum's first floor. This latest 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 Chosôn (1392—1910) dynasty drawn from the permanent holdings of the Metropolitan and the renowned collection of the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, one of the most distinguished and comprehensive assemblages of Korean ceramics in the world. Other works from the Metropolitan's collection on view include metalwork, sculpture, and paintings.

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.

Phase I of the New Greek and Roman Art Galleries:
The Robert and Renée Belfer Court
Opened June 1, 1996
The Belfer Court constitutes Phase I of the renovation of the Greek and Roman Galleries and reinstallation of the Greek and Roman collections. The western section of the court, devoted to the earliest Greek art, contains Neolithic, Cycladic, Minoan, Mycenaean, and Geometric objects; the eastern section documents the colorful picture of Archaic Greece.

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 25—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 American paintings from the Museum's Department of Modern Art.

New York State Museum, Albany, NY
Late May—October 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