Additional Viewing Opportunities for Frans Hals, Heroic Africans, Infinite Jest, and The Art of Dissent exhibitions
A diverse roster of special exhibitions, permanent collection galleries, and amenities will be open to the public at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Columbus Day, October 10—the next in the series of Met Holiday Mondays. These are extra public viewing days that take place on the Mondays of major holiday weeks and weekends, when historically the Museum has been closed. The four popular exhibitions that will be featured this Columbus Day are: Frans Hals in the Metropolitan Museum; Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures; Infinite Jest: Caricature and Satire from Leonardo to Levine; and The Art of Dissent in 17th-century China: Masterpieces of Ming Loyalist Art from the Chih Lo Lou Collection.
Columbus Day is the final opportunity to view Frans Hals in the Metropolitan Museum, an exhibition of 13 paintings by the celebrated Dutch artist Frans Hals (1582/83–1666), whose portraits and genre scenes were famous in his lifetime for their immediacy and dazzling brushwork (on view through October 10). Infinite Jest: Caricature and Satire from Leonardo to Levine explores humorous imagery from the Italian Renaissance to the present, from the elevated to the rudely humorous, drawn in large part from the Museum’s collection (through March 4). The international loan exhibition Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures features more than 100 masterpieces from eight sculptural traditions from West and Central Africa that challenge conventional perceptions of African art (through January 19). And The Art of Dissent in 17th-Century China: Masterpieces of Ming Loyalist Art from the Chih Lo Lou Collection showcases more than 60 landscapes and calligraphies that were created in response to the collapse of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and subsequent conquest of China by semi-nomadic Manchu tribesmen (through January 2).
Emily K. Rafferty, President of the Metropolitan Museum, commented: “This Columbus Day marks the eight-year anniversary of the Met Holiday Monday program. In that time, more than 100,000 people have taken advantage of these extra viewing days to see special exhibitions, or to explore the Met with their family and friends. We hope that visitors who have been here before will come again, and that tourists or residents who have not been to the Museum will come see what they have been missing.”
Charles H. Tally Holiday Monday Family Programs specially organized for Columbus Day include discussion and sketching activities that will be available for families with children ages 5 through 12 at 11 a.m., noon, 1:15 and 2:30 p.m. These programs are free with Museum admission.
The Metropolitan's public cafés and restaurants, and several Museum shops in the Main Building will be open.
The next two Met Holiday Mondays will be during Christmas/New Year’s Week, on December 26, 2011, and January 2, 2012, when a different selection of exhibitions and galleries will be open.
Credits: Frans Hals: Generously made possible by Bernard and Louise Palitz. Infinite Jest: Made possible by The Schiff Foundation. Heroic Africans: Made possible in part by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Ceil & Michael E. Pulitzer Foundation, Inc., and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Art of Dissent: Organized by the Hong Kong Museum of Art of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of HKSAR Government and the Chih Lo Lou Art Promotion (Non-profit Making) Ltd.
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October 6, 2011
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