Exhibitions

Richard Serra's First Retrospective Exhibition of Drawings Opens at Metropolitan Museum on April 13

The first retrospective of the drawings of American contemporary artist Richard Serra will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from April 13, 2011, through August 28, 2011. Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective traces the crucial role that drawing has played in Richard Serra's work for more than 40 years. Although Serra is well known for his large-scale and site-specific sculptures, his work has also changed the practice of drawing. This major exhibition will show how Serra's work has expanded the definition of drawing through innovative techniques, unusual media, monumental scale, and carefully conceived relationships to surrounding spaces. The exhibition, which includes many loans from important European and American collections, features 43 drawings and 28 sketchbooks from the 1970s to the present, as well as four films by the artist and a new, large-scale work completed specifically for this presentation.

Exhibition of Magnificent Andean Tunics on View at Metropolitan Museum Beginning March 8

The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present a special exhibition focusing on the Andean tunic, beginning March 8. Featuring some 30 tunics drawn from the Museum's collection with loans from The Textile Museum, Washington, D.C., The Cleveland Museum of Art, and two private collections, The Andean Tunic, 400 BCE – 1800 CE, will examine the form of the tunic, essentially a type of shirt, which had an important cultural place in Andean South America for centuries. Textiles, a much developed art form there in ancient times, were themselves valued as wealth, and tunics were among the most treasured of them.

Met Museum's New Installation Positions African Masks with Works by Modern and Contemporary Artists from Africa, Europe, and U.S.
March 8 - August 21, 2011

Guitar Heroes Exhibition, Opening February 9, to Feature Extraordinary Instruments Created by Three Legendary Modern-day Master Craftsmen

Three New York master luthiers, renowned for their hand-carved stringed instruments—particularly their archtop guitars, which have been sought after by many of the most important guitarists of the last century—will be the subject of Guitar Heroes: Legendary Craftsmen from Italy to New York, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from February 9 through July 4, 2011. Featuring the extraordinary guitars of John D'Angelico, James D'Aquisto, and John Monteleone, this unprecedented exhibition of approximately 80 musical instruments will focus on the work of these modern-day master craftsmen and their roots in a long tradition of stringed instrument-making that has thrived for more than 400 years and that was first brought to New York from Italy around the turn of the 20th century.

Cézanne's Card Players Series United in Landmark Exhibition at Metropolitan Museum

Cézanne's Card Players, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning February 9, 2011, will unite works from the famous series by Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), bringing together a majority of the related paintings, oil studies, and drawings. A select group of portraits of peasants, several of whom appear in the Card Players compositions, will also be included in this landmark exhibition, the first devoted to the subject. Created in the 1890s while the artist was living at his family's estate outside Aix-en-Provence, these images capture the character Cézanne admired in the people of the region. Together the works chart the development of the series as Cézanne strove to achieve the most powerful expression of his motif.

International Loan Exhibition of Forbidden City Treasures Goes on View at Metropolitan Museum February 1

"When China's last emperor, Puyi, left the Forbidden City in 1924, the doors closed on a secluded compound of pavilions and gardens deep within the palace. Filled with exquisite objects personally commissioned by the Qianlong emperor, the complex of lavish buildings and thoughtful landscaping lay dormant for decades."
—From Juanqinzhai in the Qianlong Garden, The Forbidden City, Beijing

SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS

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Sculptural Installations by Contemporary Icelandic Artist Katrin Sigurdardottir on View October 19 at Metropolitan Museum

Katrin Sigurdardottir at the Met is an exhibition of two new sculptural installations created specifically for the Metropolitan by Sigurdardottir, an Icelandic artist (born in 1967), who lives and works in New York City and Reykjavik. Sigurdardottir is known for her highly detailed renditions of places, both real and fictional, that often incorporate an element of surprise.

Eclectic Centennial Exhibition of 1910s Photography,"Our Future Is In The Air," on View at Metropolitan Museum Beginning November 10

The 1910s—a period remembered for "The Great War," Einstein's theory of relativity, the Russian Revolution, and the birth of Hollywood—was a dynamic and tumultuous decade that ushered in the modern era. This new age—as it was captured by the quintessentially modern art of photography—will be the subject of the exhibition "Our Future Is In The Air": Photographs from the 1910s, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from November 10, 2010, through April 10, 2011.

Original Color Photographs by Stieglitz and Steichen on View at Metropolitan Museum for One Week Only, January 25-30

For the first time in more than 25 years, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will display five of its original Autochromes by Edward Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz for one week only—January 25-30, 2011—as part of the current exhibition Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand. Invented by Auguste and Louis Lumière in 1907, Autochromes are one-of-a-kind color transparencies that are seductively beautiful when backlit.