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The geographic expanse and cultural diversity covered by the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas will be highlighted this summer when a selection of works acquired by The Metropolitan Museum of Art over the past five years goes on view at the Museum, beginning May 22. The exhibition African, Oceanic, and Ancient American Art: Recent Acquisitions will include some 70 works from such widely diverse places as the Republic of Vanuatu in the South Pacific, the country of Ethiopia in northeastern Africa, and the central highlands of Mexico and will demonstrate the breadth of department's collecting interests. Equally varied are the functions to which the works were put, the materials from which they are made, and the eras in which they were produced. They range in date from the end of the second millennium B.C. to 1998.
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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.
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The last piano owned by famed Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt (1811-86) – known as a revolutionary figure of romantic music and the one of the great virtuoso pianists – is currently on view in The André Mertens Galleries for Musical Instruments at The Metropolitan Museum of Art through July 23. Manufactured around 1865 by the French company Erard, the grand piano was owned by Liszt during the last 15 years of his life and was used by him primarily for composing and teaching. It was lost after Liszt's death but was rediscovered in 1991 by the Italian pianist Carlo Dominici, the current owner of the instrument, with its soundboard miraculously intact. After a period of careful restoration, this historic instrument has been returned to playing order.
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Summer 2001 will mark the inaugural season of a series of annual exhibitions drawn from the Museum's collection of works on paper created by American artists between the 1780s and 1900. This year's presentation of Summer Selections will include some three dozen drawings, watercolors, and pastels of landscape subjects, and will open to the public on May 29, 2001.
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New Exhibitions
Upcoming Exhibitions
Continuing Exhibitions
New and Recently Opened Installations
Traveling Exhibitions
Visitor Information
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Among the most innovative and influential artists of his age, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ca. 1527—1569), was a remarkable draftsman and designer of prints as well as a painter. On view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from September 25 through December 2, 2001, this landmark exhibition will include 54 of the 61 extant drawings by Bruegel – a larger number than has ever been assembled for any previous exhibition. In addition, the exhibition will also include some 60 prints designed by him, and another 20 drawings by his contemporaries.
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The first-ever American exhibition devoted to the art of Easter Island – the most remote inhabited place on the earth – will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on December 12, 2001. Featuring some 50 works, including a celebrated stone head of a moai, Splendid Isolation: Art of Easter Island will explore the island's distinctive art forms as expressions of supernatural and secular power.
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Vermeer and the Delft School, a major international loan exhibition, premieres at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from March 8 through May 27, 2001. Best known for quiet, carefully described images of domestic life as seen in works by Johannes Vermeer, Pieter de Hooch, and others, Delft masters also produced history pictures in an international style, highly refined flower paintings, princely portraits, and superb examples of the decorative arts. Featuring 85 paintings – including 15 Vermeers – by 30 artists, about 35 drawings, and smaller selections of tapestries, gilded silver, and Delftware faience, the exhibition casts 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.
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Sultan Ali of Mashhad (1442-1520) is the acknowledged master of nastaliq, a style of calligraphy favored in the 15th and 16th century for poetical texts written in the Persian language. Although the elegant and fluid script - which was once likened to the patterns of flying geese - originated in Iran, it soon influenced calligraphy in the Muslim courts of India and Turkey.