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• Metropolitan Museum Exhibitions Create $593 Million Economic Impact for New York

  Sunday, November 22, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

  (New York, November 23, 2009)—The Metropolitan Museum's summer 2009 opening of its New American Wing, along with the concurrent presentation of three highly acclaimed and widely attended special exhibitions—Roxy Paine on the Roof: Maelstrom; Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective; and The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion—generated $593 million in spending by regional, national, and foreign tourists to New York, according to a visitor survey the Museum released today. Using the industry standard for calculating tax revenue impact, the study found that the direct tax benefit to the City and State from out-of-town visitors to the Museum totaled some $59.3 million. (Study findings are attached.)

• Metropolitan Museum Celebrates the Holidays by Opening on "Holiday Monday" December 28

  Sunday, November 22, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

  The Metropolitan Museum of Art will be open to the public on Monday, December 28 (the Monday between Christmas and New Year's Day), as part of the Museum's popular "Holiday Mondays" program. The Museum will open the doors of its main building this winter and spring on three additional major Monday holidays: January 18 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day), February 15 (Presidents' Day), and May 31 (Memorial Day).

• Last Chance!
  Vermeer's Masterpiece "The Milkmaid"
  Watteau, Music, and Theater
  Roxy Paine on the Roof: "Maelstrom"
  Close at Metropolitan Museum on Sunday, November 29

  Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

  Vermeer's Masterpiece "The Milkmaid"
  On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's historic voyage from the Netherlands to New York, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has sent The Milkmaid, perhaps the most admired painting by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675), to the Metropolitan Museum. The exhibition marks the first time that The Milkmaid has traveled to the U.S. since 1939, and also features all five paintings by Vermeer from the Metropolitan's collection and works by other Dutch masters.

• "Watteau and Words: A Reading of French Poetry" by Philippe de Montebello at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

  Monday, October 12, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

  Philippe de Montebello, Director Emeritus of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and currently the Fiske Kimball Professor in the History of Culture and Museums, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, returns to the Museum for his first public appearance there since last fall, to offer "Watteau and Words: A Reading of French Poetry" on Thursday, November 19, 2009, at 6:00 p.m. The event will take place in the Museum's Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium in conjunction with Watteau, Music, and Theater, an exhibition presented in honor of Mr. de Montebello, who stepped down from his 31-year directorship of the Museum on December 31, 2008.

• American Stories Exhibition to Open on Columbus Day "Met Holiday Monday"

  Monday, October 5, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

  The public's first opportunity to visit the landmark exhibition American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life 1765-1915 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art will be October 12 (Columbus Day), the next "Met Holiday Monday." Met Holiday Mondays are extra public viewing days that take place on the Mondays of major holiday weekends, when historically the Museum has been closed.

• Robert Frank's Groundbreaking Photographs Featured in Major Exhibition Marking 50th Anniversary of His Book The Americans

  Wednesday, September 30, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

  The 50th anniversary of the publication of The Americans, Robert Frank's ground-breaking book of black-and-white photographs, will be celebrated with the major exhibition Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art September 22, 2009–January 3, 2010. Robert Frank is one of the great living masters of photography, and his seminal book The Americans captured a culture on the brink of social upheaval. The exhibition traces the artist's process of creating this once-controversial suite of photographs, which grew out of several cross-country road trips in 1955 and 1956. Born in Switzerland in 1924, Frank was an outsider encountering much of America for the first time; he discovered its power, its vastness, and—at times—its troubling emptiness. Although Frank's depiction of American life was criticized when the book was released in the U.S. in 1959, The Americans soon became recognized as a masterpiece of 20th-century art. Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans features all 83 photographs from his original book. Remarkably, the exhibition at the Metropolitan will be the first time that this body of work is presented in its entirety to a New York audience.

• "The Enchantress of Florence: A Conversation With Salman Rushdie" on Visual Imagary in his Recent Novel at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Tuesday, October 6, 2009, at 6:00 p.m.

  Wednesday, September 23, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

  Salman Rushdie's latest novel, The Enchantress of Florence, brings together Florentine Italy and Mughal India, and the cultures that lie between them, in a tale that has been described as a "sumptuous mixture of history and fable." On Tuesday, October 6, 2009, at 6:00 p.m., the Metropolitan Museum of Art Concerts & Lectures series will present a conversation with the author and three art historians – Carmen Bambach, Curator of Drawings and Prints, and Navina Haidar Haykel, Associate Curator of Islamic Art, both of the Museum; and David Roxburgh, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor of Islamic Art History at Harvard University – to explore major themes and visual imagery in his novel.

• Director Thomas P. Campbell Announces New Senior Staff Appointments at Metropolitan Museum

  Monday, September 7, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

  (New York, September 8, 2009)—Thomas P. Campbell, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, today announced four major senior staff appointments:

• Musical Heritage of China Celebrated in Metropolitan Museum Exhibition Opening September 5

  Thursday, September 3, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

  The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present an exhibition celebrating the musical heritage of China – one of the oldest continuously documented traditions with roots reaching back more than 8,000 years – beginning September 5. Featuring some 60 objects and illustrations – drawn largely from the Museum's collections of Asian art and musical instruments – Silk and Bamboo: Music and Art of China will reveal the dynamic interplay of cultures, the continuity of musical practice, and the diversity of China's musical traditions from the fifth century B.C. to the present.

• SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS
  MAY 2009–APRIL 2010

  Tuesday, July 14, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

  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.

• Japanese Mandalas on View at Metropolitan Museum through November 29

  Sunday, June 28, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

  An impressive group of Japanese mandalas—graphic depictions of the Buddhist universe and its myriad realms and deities—are featured in an exhibition on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art through November 29. Showcasing more than 60 magnificent works—painting, sculpture, drawing, metalwork, stoneware, textile, and lacquer—drawn from major museums and collections in the United States, Japanese Mandalas: Emanations and Avatars illustrates the exceptional and complex world of Esoteric Buddhist art in Japan. Highlights of the exhibition include a set of monumental 13th-century mandalas on loan from the Brooklyn Museum—this pair was selected by the Japanese government to be conserved in Japan. Displayed in tandem with iconographic drawings that explain the character and placement of the deities, the mandalas introduce viewers to the supreme Buddha Dainichi Nyorai, the principal buddha of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism, and his innumerable emanations and avatars across the Buddhist cosmos.

• Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute Explores Role of Fashion Models as Muses of Recent Eras

  Monday, June 22, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

  The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion, the spring 2009 exhibition organized by The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, explores the reciprocal relationship between high fashion and evolving ideals of beauty, focusing on iconic fashion models in the latter half of the 20th century and their roles in projecting, and sometimes inspiring, the fashion of their respective eras. The exhibition is on view at the Metropolitan from May 6 through August 9, 2009.

• Rarely Seen Medieval Drawings on View in New Exhibition at Metropolitan Museum

  Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

  With strokes of genius, artists in the Middle Ages explored the medium of drawing, creating a rich panoply of works ranging from spontaneous sketches to powerful evocations of spirituality and intriguing images of science and the natural world. Opening June 2 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle Ages is the first museum exhibition to examine in depth the achievements of the medieval draftsman. Through some 50 examples created in settings as diverse as a ninth-century monastery and the 14th-century French court, the presentation considers the aesthetics, uses, and techniques of medieval drawings, mastered by artists working centuries before the dawn of the Renaissance. Works from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum are displayed along with important loans from American and European museums, and the great national, university, and monastic libraries of Europe. Many of these manuscripts are so highly prized that they have never before been lent outside of their home countries.

• Roxy Paine Creates Monumental Sculpture for 2009 Installation of Metropolitan Museum's Roof Garden

  Monday, May 25, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

  Conceptual artist Roxy Paine (American, b. 1966) has created a site-specific installation for the 2009 season of The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, the most dramatic outdoor space for sculpture in New York City. Roxy Paine on the Roof: Maelstrom features a 130-foot-long by 45-foot-wide stainless-steel sculpture, Maelstrom (2009), that encompasses the nearly 8,000-square-foot Roof Garden, and is the largest sculpture to have been installed on the roof of the Metropolitan. Set against, and in dialogue with, the greensward of Central Park and its architectural backdrop, this swirling entanglement of stainless- steel pipe showcases the work of an artist keenly interested in the interplay between the natural world and the built environment, as well as the human desire for order amid nature's inherently chaotic processes.

• Afghanistan's Dazzling National Treasures—Hidden for 25 Years—Presented at Metropolitan Museum

  Monday, May 18, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

  Ancient Afghanistan—located at the crossroads of major trade routes, where it attracted invading armies and nomadic migrations—was home to some of the most complex, rich, and original civilizations on the continent of Asia. Opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art this summer, the traveling exhibition Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul, celebrates the country's unique role, as both the recipient of diverse cultural elements and the creator of distinctive styles of art from the Bronze Age into the Kushan period. The presentation also commemorates the heroic rescue of Afghanistan's national treasures long thought to have been destroyed. The exhibition features a rich selection of artworks from four archaeological sites. All works belong to the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul. Highlights include gold vessels from the Bronze Age Tepe Fullol hoard; superb works and architectural elements from the Hellenistic city of Aï Khanum; sculptural masterpieces in ivory, plaster medallions, bronzes, and Roman glass from Begram; and extraordinary turquoise-encrusted gold jewelry and ornaments from the nomadic tombs at Tillya Tepe.

• Spectacular French Bronzes on View at Metropolitan Museum in Exhibition Spanning Renaissance and Age of Enlightenment

  Thursday, April 30, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

  Beginning in the 16th century, a tradition of bronze sculpture developed in France that was influenced by achievements of the Italian Renaissance, while manifesting its own distinct refinement and force. Even though French bronzes were among the glories of royal châteaux, including Versailles, and were collected eagerly by connoisseurs, they have received relatively little scrutiny from scholars. Cast in Bronze: French Sculpture from Renaissance to Revolution, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, brings together a large number of spectacular bronzes and is the first exhibition to address this subject in 40 years.

• Message from James R. Houghton, Chairman, Board of Trustees, The Metropolitan Museum of Art - February 2009

  Monday, April 27, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

  (February 2009)—A special message from Board of Trustees Chairman James R. Houghton regarding the Museum's continued commitment to its mission during the ongoing global fiscal crisis: Message from James R. Houghton (PDF)

• Francis Bacon's Provocative Works Featured in Major Retrospective Opens May 20 at Metropolitan Museum

  Sunday, April 26, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

  The first major New York exhibition in 20 years devoted to Francis Bacon (British, 1909–1992)—one of the most important painters of the 20th century—will be presented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from May 20 through August 16, 2009. Marking the 100th anniversary of the artist's birth, Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective will bring together the most significant works from each period of the artist's remarkable career. Drawn from public and private collections around the world, this landmark exhibition will consist of some 65 paintings, complemented by never-before-seen works and archival material from the Francis Bacon Estate, which will shed new light on the artist's career and working practices. The Metropolitan Museum is the sole U.S. venue of the exhibition tour.

• "Pictures Generation" of New York Contemporary Artists Featured in Spring Metropolitan Museum Exhibition

  Sunday, April 19, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

  The first major museum exhibition to focus on the highly influential group of New York artists known as the "Pictures Generation" will be presented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from April 21 through August 2, 2009. The Pictures Generation, 1974–1984 will trace the development of one of the most important art movements of the last quarter of the 20th century, which included some of the key figures in contemporary art: Robert Longo, Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince, Sherrie Levine, David Salle, Matt Mullican, Jack Goldstein, James Welling, and Troy Brauntuch. The "Pictures Generation" worked in all mediums—photography chief among them—to explore how images shape our perceptions of ourselves and the world. Drawing from the Museum's collection as well as from public and private collections, the exhibition will feature more than 160 works by 30 artists, including photographic works by Barbara Kruger, Laurie Simmons, James Casebere, Allan McCollum, Sarah Charlesworth, and Louise Lawler, and film and video by Ericka Beckman, Michael Smith, and Dara Birnbaum. The exhibition will also examine the pivotal roles played by lesser-known artists such as Paul McMahon and Michael Zwack.

• Masterpieces of African and Oceanic Art from Barbier-Mueller Museum on View This Summer at Metropolitan Museum

  Tuesday, March 31, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

  An exhibition featuring exceptional works of African and Oceanic sculpture selected from the extensive holdings of the Barbier-Mueller Museum in Geneva, one of Europe's preeminent private collections of non-Western art, will go on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on June 2. Presenting more than 35 works—most never before seen in the United States—African and Oceanic Art from The Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva: A Legacy of Collecting will explore the wide spectrum of artistic creativity from two distinct regional traditions that have profoundly influenced world art.

• Credential Application Guidelines for Red Carpet Arrivals at the 2009 Costume Institute Gala

  Tuesday, March 31, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

  Applications must be received by Friday, April 24, from all media outlets wishing to be considered for accreditation to cover red-carpet arrivals at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala Benefit, which will be held on the evening of Monday, May 4, 2009, to inaugurate the exhibition The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion.

• Metropolitan Museum Lectures in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

  Wednesday, February 18, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

  For tickets, call the Concerts & Lectures Department at 212-570-3949 or visit www.metmuseum.org/tickets, where updated schedules and programs (including additional lectures that are free with Museum admission) are available. Tickets are also available at the Great Hall Box Office, which is open Tuesday–Thursday 10–5:00, Friday and Saturday 10–7:00, and Sunday noon–5:00. Student discount tickets are available for some events; call 212-570-3949.

• Brilliant Chinese Paintings and Calligraphies of Ming Dynasty in New Exhibition at Metropolitan Museum

  Wednesday, January 21, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

  Drawn entirely from the extensive resources of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Arts of the Ming Dynasty: China's Age of Brilliance will present a grand array of artworks created during one of the most celebrated dynasties in Chinese history. Featuring 70 paintings and calligraphies, including masterpieces by Wang Fu (1362-1416), Xia Chang (1388-1470), Wen Zhengming (1470–1559), Dong Qichang (1555–1636), and Chen Hongshou (1599–1652), the exhibition will examine various artistic trends as well as the distinctive personal expressions of many of the leading artists of the time. The works will be complemented by more than 30 ceramics, textiles, lacquers, cloisonnés, jades, and bamboo carvings that will showcase the material prosperity experienced during the period.

• Metropolitan Museum's Summer Exhibitions J. M. W. Turner, Jeff Koons on the Roof, and Superheroes Generated $610 Million Economic Impact on New York

  Wednesday, January 21, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

  (New York, November 24, 2008) – The Metropolitan Museum's presentation of three acclaimed and widely attended exhibitions in the summer 2008 season—J. M. W. Turner, Jeff Koons on the Roof, and Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy—generated $610 million in spending by regional, national, and foreign tourists to New York, according to a visitor survey released today by the Museum. Using the industry standard for calculating tax revenue impact, the study found that the direct tax benefit to the City and State from out-of-town visitors to the Museum totaled some $61 million.

• Pierre Bonnard's Luminous Late Interiors Featured in Metropolitan Museum Exhibition Opening January 27

  Tuesday, January 20, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

  The first exhibition to focus entirely on the radiant late interiors and still-life paintings of Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947) will open January 27, 2009, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Pierre Bonnard: The Late Interiors features 80 paintings, drawings, and watercolors that date from 1923 to 1947, when Bonnard centered his painting activity in Le Cannet, a hill town in the south of France. Working in his modest house overlooking the Mediterranean, Bonnard's paintings transformed the rooms and objects that surrounded him into dazzling images infused with intense light. It is these luminous late interiors that define Bonnard's modernism and prompt a reappraisal of his reputation in the history of 20th-century art. Among the 45 paintings, 16 watercolors and gouaches, and 19 drawings and sketches in the exhibition are numerous rarely seen works from private collections, as well as loans from prominent museums in Europe and the U.S. The exhibition will also reunite several pictures that once hung side-by-side on Bonnard's studio wall in Le Cannet.

• Master Drawings from Collection of Jean Bonna On View at Metropolitan Museum

  Monday, January 19, 2009, 5:00 a.m.

  Raphael to Renoir: Drawings from the Collection of Jean Bonna is the first comprehensive exhibition dedicated to the European Old Master and 19th-century drawings from this distinguished Swiss collection. On view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning January 21, 2009, Raphael to Renoir provides a rare opportunity to see 120 master drawings, ranging across 500 years of the history of art, from the Renaissance to 1900. Representing a range of artistic schools, the selection includes works by famous artists—such as Carpaccio, Raphael, Andrea del Sarto, Parmigianino, Canaletto, Rembrandt, Claude Lorrain, Watteau, Chardin, Boucher, Fragonard, Goya, Ingres, Gericault, Delacroix, Manet, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Degas, Cézanne, Redon, Renoir, Gauguin, Van Gogh, and Seurat—as well as superb and poignant drawings by lesser-known artists.

• Metropolitan Museum Celebrates the Holidays by Opening on "Holiday Monday" December 29

  Monday, December 22, 2008, 5:00 a.m.

  The Metropolitan Museum of Art will be open to the public on Monday, December 29 (the Monday between Christmas and New Year's Day), as part of the Museum's popular "Holiday Mondays" program. The Museum will open the doors of its main building this winter and spring on three additional major Monday holidays: January 19 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day), February 16 (Presidents' Day), and May 25 (Memorial Day).

• METROPOLITAN MUSEUM LECTURES IN THE GRACE RAINEY ROGERS AUDITORIUM

  Tuesday, December 16, 2008, 5:00 a.m.

  For tickets, call the Concerts & Lectures Department at 212-570-3949 or visit www.metmuseum.org/tickets, where updated schedules and programs (including additional lectures that are free with Museum admission) are available. Tickets are also available at the Great Hall Box Office, which is open Tuesday–Thursday 10–5:00, Friday and Saturday 10–7:00, and Sunday noon–5:00. Student discount tickets are available for some events; call 212-570-3949.

• Brooklyn Museum Announces Landmark Costume Collection Partnership with Metropolitan Museum

  Monday, December 15, 2008, 5:00 a.m.

  (New York, December 16, 2008)—The Brooklyn Museum announced today a landmark collection-sharing partnership with The Metropolitan Museum of Art. http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/press/ (PDF)

• Rich Legacy of African Textiles on View in Metropolitan Museum Exhibition

  Thursday, December 4, 2008, 5:00 a.m.

  Africa's extraordinary legacy of textile arts, with its explosive color and complex graphic statements, will be presented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning September 30. Bringing together more than 40 works dating from the early 19th century to the present – including a spectacular silk and cotton kente prestige cloth woven in Ghana during the 19th century and a 30-foot-long installation work by contemporary artist Yinka Shonibare – The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End will highlight the enduring significance of textiles as a major form of aesthetic expression across the continent. While examining some of the finest and earliest preserved examples of different regional textile traditions, the exhibition will relate these to works by eight contemporary artists, who draw inspiration from textiles in their explorations of other media ranging from sculpture, painting, and photography to video and installation art. Works selected for the exhibition are drawn primarily from the collections of the Metropolitan and the British Museum as well as several private collections in the U.S. and Europe.

• SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS SEPTEMBER 2008 - AUGUST 2009

  Wednesday, November 12, 2008, 5:00 a.m.

  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.

• Contemporary Photographs Explore Truth and Illusion in Reality Check at Metropolitan Museum

  Tuesday, October 21, 2008, 4:00 a.m.

  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.

• Curators Pay Tribute to Outgoing Director with Exhibition The Philippe de Montebello Years

  Sunday, October 19, 2008, 4:00 a.m.

  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.

• Photographs by Samoan Multimedia Artist On View at Metropolitan Museum This Fall

  Monday, October 6, 2008, 4:00 a.m.

  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.

• Dynamic Exhibition of Modern British Prints on View at Metropolitan Museum

  Sunday, September 21, 2008, 4:00 a.m.

  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.

• Classic 1930s Street Photographs of New York City on View at Metropolitan Museum September 23

  Wednesday, September 17, 2008, 4:00 a.m.

  In the late 1930s, Rudy Burckhardt—then a recent émigré to America from Switzerland—photographed his adopted hometown of New York City, and immediately made some of the most lyrical, witty, and poetic images of the city ever created. New York, N. Why?: Photographs by Rudy Burckhardt, 1937–1940, opening September 23 at the Metropolitan Museum, will present in its entirety Burckhardt's unique, handmade album of 67 classic images of sidewalks, outdoor advertising, and pedestrians, selected and sequenced by Burckhardt in 1940 and acquired by the Museum in 1972.

• Contemporary Works by African-American Artists Featured in Provocative Visions Installation

  Monday, September 15, 2008, 4:00 a.m.

  Thirteen works by seven contemporary African-American artists – Chakaia Booker, Willie Cole, Glenn Ligon, Whitfield Lovell, Alison Saar, Lorna Simpson, and Kara Walker – are featured at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Provocative Visions: Race and Identity – Selections from the Permanent Collection. The installation, which opened August 19, examines the ways these artists challenge accepted perceptions and assumptions about race, gender, and identity. Cultural heritage and personal history provide a context for these images. All of the sculptures, prints, and drawings were acquired during the past 13 years, within a year or two of their creation – supported in large part by gifts from the Peter Norton Family Foundation and the Hortense and William A. Mohr Sculpture Purchase Fund. Most works are on display at the Metropolitan Museum for the first time.

• Thomas P. Campbell Named Next Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

  Wednesday, September 10, 2008, 4:00 a.m.

  (New York, September 9, 2008)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today that Thomas P. Campbell – an accomplished curator with a specialty in European tapestry who has worked at the Museum since 1995 – has been elected its next Director and CEO, succeeding Philippe de Montebello, who announced in January his intention to retire from the Metropolitan Museum at the end of this year. Mr. Campbell, who organized the groundbreaking and widely acclaimed exhibitions Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence (2002) and Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor (2007), is currently Curator in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts as well as Supervising Curator of the Museum's Antonio Ratti Textile Center. He was elected at today's meeting of the Board of Trustees and will assume the directorship of the Metropolitan Museum on January 1, 2009.

• Landscapes by Revered Chinese Painter Wang Hui in Fall Exhibition at Metropolitan Museum

  Monday, August 18, 2008, 4:00 a.m.

  The paintings of Wang Hui, the most celebrated artist of late 17th-century China, will be featured in an exhibition opening on September 9 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Landscapes Clear and Radiant: The Art of Wang Hui (1632-1717) will trace Wang's artistic development – from his early years as a brilliant reinterpreter of classic landscape styles to the pinnacle of his career, when he was chosen to illustrate the Kangxi Emperor's epic 1689 inspection tour of China's cultural heartland – through 27 paintings drawn from the Taipei and Beijing Palace Museums, Shanghai Museum, and several North American collections. The presentation of Wang Hui's career will incorporate 11 works that have never before been exhibited in the West, including two enormous panoramic landscape handscrolls. Wang's paintings will be complemented by a selection of earlier landscapes, drawn largely from the Metropolitan Museum's holdings, that will highlight the sources of Wang Hui's inspiration.

• Metropolitan Museum to Open on Labor Day "Met Holiday Monday"

  Wednesday, August 6, 2008, 4:00 a.m.

  Galleries, shops, and dining areas at The Metropolitan Museum of Art will be open to the public on September 1 (Labor Day), the next "Met Holiday Monday." This special viewing day is also the last chance for visitors to see two popular exhibitions: Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy, which has already had more than 400,000 visitors since it opened on May 7, and Radiance from the Rain Forest: Featherwork in Ancient Peru.

• Buddhist Manuscript Paintings on View at Metropolitan Museum This Summer

  Thursday, July 17, 2008, 4:00 a.m.

  An installation of 30 palm-leaf folios from Indian illuminated manuscripts will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on July 29, 2008. Featuring some of the earliest surviving Indian manuscripts, dating from the 10th to the 13th century, Early Buddhist Manuscript Painting: The Palm-leaf Tradition will center on one remarkable Mahayanist Buddhist text, the Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita Sutra ('Perfection of Wisdom'), illustrated through the Museum's rare holdings of eastern Indian and Nepalese illuminated palm-leaf manuscripts, book-covers, initiation cards, thankas, and sculptures.

• Luxury Objects of Carved and Inlaid Semiprecious Stones to be Displayed at Metropolitan Museum

  Monday, June 30, 2008, 4:00 a.m.

  The Italian term pietre dure – literally meaning "hard stones" – refers to the artistic cutting of semiprecious stones, such as agate, lapis lazuli, and other colorful hardstones, to fashion extravagant luxury objects, from architectural ornament and furniture to ornate display items and personal jewelry. Opening July 1 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the landmark exhibition Art of the Royal Court: Treasures in Pietre Dure from the Palaces of Europe will feature more than 170 masterpieces in carved stone, many of them embellished with gold and silver mounts or decorated with exotic woods and other coveted materials. From the Renaissance to the early 19th century, the affluent societies of Europe were mesmerized by works in pietre dure, both as diplomatic gifts and as objects of desire. The presentation at the Metropolitan will offer the most comprehensive overview ever dedicated to this magnificent medium.

• Hindu God Krishna Celebrated in New Installation at Metropolitan Museum

  Thursday, May 22, 2008, 4:00 a.m.

  A new installation at The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Krishna: Mythology and Worship – celebrates the Hindu god Krishna, perhaps the most popular of all the appearances (avatars) of the Indian Hindu deity Vishnu. The installation of 23 painting, textiles, and sculptures from the Museum's collection will be on view in the Museum's Florence and Herbert Irving Galleries for the Arts of South and Southeast Asia through July 28, 2008. Most of the paintings on display are manuscript pages produced in Rajasthan and the Punjab Hills, illustrating popular events from Krishna's life. The textiles were employed to enhance shrines devoted to Krishna.

• Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute Salutes Power of "Superheroes" Imagery in Fashion

  Wednesday, April 30, 2008, 4:00 a.m.

  AsAs superheroes enjoy a surge in mass popularity, The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art explores the symbolic and metaphorical associations between these fictional characters and fashion in Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy, an exhibition at the Museum from May 7 through September 1, 2008. The exhibition features approximately 60 ensembles including movie costumes, avant-garde haute couture, and high-performance sportswear to reveal how the superhero serves as the ultimate metaphor for fashion and its ability to empower and transform the human body.

• SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS MAY 2008–APRIL 2009

  Wednesday, April 23, 2008, 4:00 a.m.

  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.

• Master Photographers' Work of 1840-1940 Highlighted from Rich Holdings of the Metropolitan Museum

  Tuesday, April 22, 2008, 4:00 a.m.

  Framing a Century: Master Photographers, 1840-1940 tells the story of photography's first 100 years through the work of 13 key figures who helped shape the aesthetic and expressive course of the medium: Gustave Le Gray, Roger Fenton, Carleton Watkins, William Henry Fox Talbot, Julia Margaret Cameron, Nadar, Edouard Baldus, Charles Marville, Eugène Atget, Walker Evans, Man Ray, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Brassaï. Opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on June 3, 2008, the exhibition will present 10 to 12 iconic works by each of these influential artists, to convey a broad sense of their contributions to photography. Many of the works displayed in Framing a Century are drawn from the acclaimed Gilman Paper Company Collection, which was acquired by the Museum in 2005.

• Sculptures by Renowned American Artist Jeff Koons On View at Metropolitan Museum April 22

  Tuesday, April 15, 2008, 4:00 a.m.

  Sculptures by Jeff Koons (b. 1955) – an American artist known internationally for his controversial and intriguing contributions to contemporary art – comprise The Metropolitan Museum of Art's 2008 installation on The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, opening April 22. The installation will feature three large-scale and brilliantly colored works: Balloon Dog (Yellow) of 1994-2000, Coloring Book of 1997-2005, and Sacred Heart (Red/Gold) of 1994-2007 – all made of high chromium stainless steel with transparent color coating. These sculptures have never before been on public display. They will be situated in the 10,000-square-foot open-air space that offers spectacular views of Central Park and the New York City skyline. Jeff Koons on the Roof will be the 11th consecutive single-artist installation on the Cantor Roof Garden.

• Splendid Featherwork Of Ancient Peru To Go On View At Metropolitan Museum

  Sunday, April 13, 2008, 4:00 a.m.

  An unprecedented exhibition of luxury items from ancient Peru, embellished with brilliantly colored feathers of Amazonian rainforest birds, went on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on February 26. Bringing together more than 70 works from public and private collections in the United States and the Metropolitan's own holdings – many of which have never been displayed before – Radiance from the Rain Forest: Featherwork in Ancient Peru explores the more than 2,000-year-old tradition of sophisticated feather-working that prospered in ancient Peru. The exhibition was made possible by the Friends of the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.

• Metropolitan Museum Lectures in the Grace Rainy Rogers Auditorium

  Thursday, April 3, 2008, 4:00 a.m.

  For tickets, call the Concerts & Lectures Department at 212-570-3949, or visit www.metmuseum.org/tickets, where updated schedules and programs (including additional lectures that are free with Museum admission) are also available. Tickets are also available at the Great Hall Box Office, which is open Tuesday-Saturday 10-5:00, and Sunday noon-5:00. Student discount tickets are available for some events; call 212-570-3949.

• Metropolitan Museum Lectures in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

  Wednesday, March 19, 2008, 4:00 a.m.

  For tickets, call the Concerts & Lectures Department at 212-570-3949, or visit www.metmuseum.org/tickets, where updated schedules and programs (including additional lectures that are free with Museum admission) are also available. Tickets are also available at the Great Hall Box Office, which is open Tuesday-Saturday 10-5:00, and Sunday noon-5:00. Student discount tickets are available for some events; call 212-570-3949.