May 1 – late fall 2001 (weather permitting)
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden
Five sculptures by renowned American artist Joel Shapiro (born 1941) are currently on view in the 2001 installation of The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden. Drawn from public and private collections, Joel Shapiro on the Roof includes three large cast bronze and two painted cast aluminum sculptures, dating from 1989 to the present. Three have not been exhibited previously in New York, and two have been newly created. The works are exhibited in the 10,000-square-foot open-air space that offers spectacular views of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline. The installation marks the fourth consecutive single-artist installation on the Roof Garden.
The installation is made possible by the Lita Annenberg Hazen Charitable Trust.
Born and raised in New York City, Shapiro earned his bachelor's and master's degrees, the latter in art, from New York University. From 1965 to 1967 he worked in southern India as a Peace Corps volunteer. Since his first one-person exhibition at a New York gallery in 1970, he has held more than 125 solo
exhibitions in galleries, museums, and public gardens in the United States, Europe,
the Middle East, and Japan. He has also been commissioned to make publicly
sited sculpture for the permanent collections of numerous institutions, including the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., the Cologne
Sculpture Park in Cologne, Germany, and the city of Orléans, France. Shapiro
lives and works in New York City and the Adirondacks. He has one daughter, Ivy, and is married to the painter Ellen Phelan.
The exhibition is accompanied by a brochure and related educational programs.
Joel Shapiro on the Roof was coordinated by Nan Rosenthal, Consultant in the Department of Modern Art, and Anne L. Strauss, Assistant Curator, also in the Department of Modern Art. Exhibition design is by Michael Langley, Exhibition Designer, with graphics by Sue Koch, Senior Graphic Designer.
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The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden opened to the public in 1987. Annual installations have featured selections of modern sculpture from the Museum's collection and, most recently, presentations of works by the artists Ellsworth Kelly (1998), Magdalena Abakanowicz (1999), and David Smith (2000).
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The Cantor Roof Garden is open to the public through late fall, as weather permits. Sandwiches and beverage service – including espresso, cappuccino, iced tea, soft drinks, wine, and beer – are available at the Roof Garden daily from 10:00 a.m. until closing.
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May 14, 2001
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