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"We mingle our praises with those of God's angels, whom we cannot hear."
Cassiodorus (sixth-century Roman scholar and monk)
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EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: Information provided below is subject to change.
To confirm scheduling and dates, call the Communications Department at (212) 570-3951.
CONTACT NUMBER FOR USE IN TEXT IS (212) 535-7710.
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The Christmas tree and Neapolitan Baroque crèche at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a long-established yuletide tradition in New York, will be on view for the holiday season from November 25, 2008 through January 6, 2009. The brightly lit, 20-foot blue spruce – with a collection of 18th-century Neapolitan angels and cherubs among its boughs and groups of realistic crèche figures flanking the Nativity scene at its base – will once again delight holiday visitors in the Museum's Medieval Sculpture Hall. Set in front of the 18th-century Spanish choir screen from the Cathedral of Valladolid, with recorded Christmas music in the background and daily lighting ceremonies, the installation reflects the spirit of the holiday season.
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Some 900 outstanding examples of medieval art created between the fourth and 14th centuries return to view this fall in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's newly expanded Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries for Byzantine Art and new Gallery for Western European Art from 1050 to 1300. The new galleries incorporate the recently acquired "Jaharis Byzantine Lectionary"—an important, rare, and beautifully ornamented liturgical manuscript from about 1100—in an apse-like space, while the former Medieval Tapestry Hall has been transformed into a grand space for the presentation of western European art from the early Middle Ages.
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More than any other type of picture, photographs seem to have a direct and natural connection to visible reality. Reality Check: Truth and Illusion in Contemporary Photography surveys the ways in which artists exploit illusionism in photography to blur the distinction between what is real and what is not. Among the works featured are photographs of staged scenarios and constructed environments that appear to be real, as well as real scenes or landscapes that appear strangely artificial. On view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from November 4, 2008, through March 22, 2009, Reality Check is the third installation in the Joyce and Robert Menschel Hall for Modern Photography, the Museum's new gallery for contemporary photographs.
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To celebrate Philippe de Montebello's 31 years as Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the curators of the Museum have organized an exhibition of approximately 300 of the more than 84,000 works of art acquired during his tenure. This unique project – The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions, which will be on view in The Tisch Galleries from October 24, 2008, through February 1, 2009 – is a collaboration of the curators currently working in the Museum's 17 curatorial departments. Special emphasis will be placed on works that were transformative to the Metropolitan Museum's collections by building on existing strengths and expanding into new areas of collecting. Mr. de Montebello – the eighth and longest-serving Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art – announced in January his plans to retire at the end of the year.
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Sixteen photographs by contemporary artist Shigeyuki Kihara (b. 1975, Samoa) will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning October 7. This marks the first presentation of Samoan contemporary art at the Museum. Shigeyuki Kihara: Living Photographs explores themes of Pacific culture, identity, colonialism, indigenous spirituality, stereotypes, gender roles, and consumerism. Works on view include a hauntingly beautiful picture from the artist's 2004 Vavau series called Taema ma Tilafaiga: Goddess of Tatau, depicting Samoan goddesses chanting about the art of tattooing, as well as a highly praised work titled Fa'a fafine: In a Manner of a Woman, Triptych 1-3, a sequence of photographs, in which the artist re-create and addresses a Samoan portrait genre, in which women were posed as reclining "South Seas Belles." All works on view were printed this year by the artist in Auckland, New Zealand, except two from the Metropolitan's own collection. Complementing the exhibition will be a performance by the artist, Taualuga: The Last Dance, in the Museum's Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium on October 19.
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中國十七世紀下半最著名的藝術家王翬的繪畫九月九日開始，將在大都會博物館展出。《山水清暉：王翬（1632-1717）藝術展》闡述王翬的藝術發展歷程，從早年對傳統山水畫風的精湛詮釋，至1689年獲選繪製康熙皇帝南巡中國文化區行程，事業臻於巔峰爲止。展出的二十七幅畫來自臺北、北京、上海、和北美洲的幾個公私收藏，其中十一件作品—包括兩件山水長卷巨幅—從來沒有在西方展出過。配合王翬作品展出的，還有精選的早期山水畫，大都來自大都會博物館的館藏，以彰顯王翬藝術的淵源。
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Rhythms of Modern Life: British Prints 1914-1939, the first major exhibition in the United States to examine the impact of modern artistic movements – especially Italian Futurism – on British printmaking from the outbreak of World War I to the beginning of World War II, will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning September 23, 2008. Featuring the work of 14 artists, Rhythms of Modern Life will showcase more than 100 prime examples of graphic works that celebrate the vitality and dynamism of modern life.