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METROPOLITAN MUSEUM INTRODUCES KEY TO THE MET AUDIO GUIDE FOR SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS AND PERMANENT COLLECTION
Sunday, May 23, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
(New York City, May 24, 1999)—In a major initiative to promote tourism through technology — and enhance the museum experience for local visitors, both English- and foreign-language-speaking — an all-new state-of-the-art audio guide becomes available this spring for visitors to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Key to the Met Audio Guide provides random-access commentary on both special exhibitions and the permanent collection — all on one CD player. For the first time, a "Director's Selections" tour of the permanent collection by Metropolitan Museum Director Philippe de Montebello will be offered in six languages, five of them narrated by Mr. de Montebello himself.
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GUSTAVE MOREAU: BETWEEN EPIC AND DREAM
Wednesday, May 19, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of French artist Gustave Moreau (1826-1898), The Metropolitan Museum of Art is presenting a major exhibition — the largest retrospective of Moreau's work ever shown in the United States — featuring masterpieces from every phase of his distinguished career. Gustave Moreau: Between Epic and Dream includes nearly 175 works — some 40 paintings and 60 watercolors in addition to drawings and preparatory studies, lent primarily from the Musée Gustave Moreau in Paris, with other works drawn from public and private collections in Europe and America.
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CéZANNE TO VAN GOGH: THE COLLECTION OF DOCTOR GACHET OPENS AT METROPOLITAN MUSEUM MAY 25
Tuesday, May 11, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
Some 50 Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings and drawings that have never before been lent from the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, are the centerpiece of an exhibition devoted to the extraordinary art collection formed by Dr. Paul-Ferdinand Gachet (1828-1909), the physician who cared for Vincent van Gogh in the months prior to his suicide in 1890, and who was immortalized in several renowned portraits by the artist. The exhibition, which features more than 130 works in all, includes an additional 40 paintings and works on paper from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and other collections in Europe and America that also once belonged to the legendary Dr. Gachet, who was both friend and patron to the artists — Monet, Pissarro, Guillaumin, Renoir, Sisley, and above all, Cézanne and Van Gogh — whose works he collected.
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ART MUSEUMS, INTERNET, AND NEW TECHNOLOGY TO BE SUBJECT OF MAY 10 PANEL DISCUSSION AT METROPOLITAN MUSEUM
Thursday, April 22, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
A panel of four of the world's most distinguished museum directors will discuss and debate the challenges and opportunities facing museums as computers, the Internet, and other new technologies enter the arts arena. The program will take place on Monday, May 10, at 6:00 p.m. in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium.
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METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OPENS NEWLY RENOVATED GREEK GALLERIES
Sunday, April 11, 1999, 4:00 a.m.
For more information on the individual galleries, go to:
Greek Art of the Sixth through Fourth Centuries B.C.: Mary and Michael Jaharis Gallery;
Greek Art of the Sixth Century B.C.: Judy and Michael H. Steinhardt Gallery;
Greek Art of the Sixth Century B.C.: The Bothmer Gallery I;
Greek Art of the Fifth Century B.C.: The Bothmer Gallery II;
Greek Art of the Fifth Century B.C.: The Wiener Gallery;
Greek Art of the Fifth and Early Fourth Centuries B.C.: Stavros and Danaë Costopoulos Gallery;
Greek Art of the Fourth Century B.C.: Spyros and Eurydice Costopoulos Gallery
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's extensive collection of ancient Greek art — preeminent in the Western Hemisphere and among the finest in the world — returns to view on April 20, 1999, in a dramatic new presentation in seven large galleries refurbished to their original neoclassical grandeur.
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JOE DIMAGGIO BASEBALL CARDS TO GO ON DISPLAY AT METROPOLITAN IN TIME FOR OPENING OF NEW YORK BASEBALL SEASON IN APRIL
Sunday, April 4, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
Seven rare baseball cards spanning the career of the late New York Yankees icon Joe DiMaggio — the earliest dating to his fabled rookie year of 1936 — will go on display in The American Wing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art on April 20, concurrently with the opening of the 1999 baseball season and the celebration of Joe DiMaggio Day at Yankee Stadium (April 25). The DiMaggio cards will be on view remain on view through the World Series — October 31, 1999.
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FRANK E. RICHARDSON ELECTED TRUSTEE
Monday, March 22, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
(March 23, 1999) — Frank E. Richardson has been elected a Trustee of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was announced today by James R. Houghton, Chairman of the Board of the Museum. The election took place at the March 9 meeting of the Board of Trustees.
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INSTALLATIONS IN THE HOWARD GILMAN GALLERY SPRING AND SUMMER 1999
Sunday, March 7, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
MASTERPIECES FROM THE GILMAN PAPER COMPANY COLLECTION February 26 - May 23, 1999
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TWO WORKS BY VINCENT VAN GOGH BEQUEATHED
Sunday, January 31, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
Two important works on paper by Vincent van Gogh entered the permanant collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art on October 8, 1998, under the terms of an unusual bequest of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. Left to the Metropolitan by Ms. Rockefeller upon her death in 1948, her bequest allowed that the Museum of Modern Art, of which she was a founder, was able to borrow the works for a period of up to 50 years. When the 50 years elapsed, the drawings were transferred to the Metropolitan.
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ANNA WINTOUR ELECTED HONORARY TRUSTEE
Monday, January 11, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
(New York, January 12, 1999) — Anna Wintour has been elected an Honorary Trustee of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was announced today by James R. Houghton, Chairman of the Board of the Museum. The election took place at today's meeting of the Board of Trustees.
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THE NATURE OF ISLAMIC ORNAMENT, PART IV: FIGURAL REPRESENTATION
Sunday, January 10, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
One of the most misunderstood aspects of Islamic art is its supposed ban on figural representation. In fact — and surprising to many people — figural imagery is relatively common during many periods in various Islamic cultures. A special exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in the fall of 1999 will examine these traditions and the variety of figural forms found in Islamic art, as well as the religious issues involved and the resultant tendency toward greater abstraction in ornamentation.
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RODIN'S MONUMENT TO VICTOR HUGO
Sunday, January 10, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
This loan exhibition will comprise approximately 20 sculptures by Auguste Rodin, ranging from a small terracotta sketch to a life-size portrait in marble, as well as bronze figures, all relating to Rodin's monument to Victor Hugo that was originally commissioned for the Panthéon in Paris. Although a plaster model for the work was a popular success in the Paris Salon of 1897, the completion of this version of the monument and its installation in the Panthéon never took place. A modified version of it in marble was erected in the gardens of the Palais Royal in Paris, where it stood until 1933.
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ABAKANOWICZ ON THE ROOF
Sunday, January 10, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art will open an outdoor installation of sculptures by Magdalena Abakanowicz, one of the most startlingly innovative artists of our time, on May 1, 1999. Abakanowicz on the Roof will feature a selection of figural works, including signature pieces as well as objects created during the past year that have never before been exhibited. They will be installed in the 10,000-square-foot open-air space of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, located atop the Lila Acheson Wallace Wing. The Cantor Roof Garden offers a spectacular view of Central Park and the New York City.
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DEVOTIONS AND DIVERSIONS: PRINTS AND BOOKS FROM THE LATE MIDDLE AGES IN NORTHERN EUROPE
Sunday, January 10, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
Some of the earliest extant northern European prints and books — all from The Metropolitan Museum of Art's exceptional collection of this material — will be presented in Devotions and Diversions: Prints and Books from the Late Middle Ages in Northern Europe , from May 11 through August 29, 1999, in the Museum's Karen B. Cohen Gallery and Charles Z. Offin Gallery. Forty-one German, Netherlandish, and French woodcuts and metalcuts (many of them unique impressions), several Netherlandish woodcut blockbook pages, and about twenty illustrated books, including a number of printed French Books of Hours, will be on view.
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PICASSO: PAINTER AND SCULPTOR IN CLAY
Sunday, January 10, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
More than 170 rarely exhibited unique ceramic works by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), created by the artist in the South of France primarily from 1947 to 1962, will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Picasso: Painter and Sculptor in Clay, from March 3 through June 6, 1999. Although Picasso is acknowledged as one of the most revolutionary artists of this century, with an unquestioned reputation as a painter, sculptor, draftsman, and printmaker, this exhibition is the first large-scale examination of his ceramic oeuvre, which he commenced at the age of 66. Intimately related in theme and subject matter to Picasso's art in other media, the subjects of these works range from still lifes to bullfights and include a lively cast of characters: a mistress and a wife, lovers and clowns, dancers and musicians, centaurs and fauns, as well as birds and fish. These join many sculpted and painted ceramics that celebrate the female form — nude and clothed, standing and seated.
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MIRROR OF THE MEDIEVAL WORLD
Sunday, January 10, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
Nearly 300 outstanding examples of medieval art — all drawn from the superb holdings of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and all acquired during the last two decades — will be moved from their customary settings this spring for Mirror of the Medieval World, an important new exhibition of the art of the Middle Ages. Organized thematically, the exhibition will feature several unexpected groupings of works of art created between the fourth and the 16th century, inviting visitors to reassess familiar works and to draw stylistic comparisons among objects created for purposes as diverse as personal adornment, the activities of daily life, and liturgical rites.
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THE NATURE OF ISLAMIC ORNAMENT PART III: GEOMETRIC PATTERNS
Sunday, January 10, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
The third in a four-part series on Islamic ornament dating from the 9th to the 18th century, The Nature of Islamic Ornament, Part III: Geometric Patterns will open on March 17, 1999. Some 25 objects that feature predominantly geometric decoration, drawn from the Metropolitan Museum's own collection — including illuminated manuscripts, rugs, carved and inlaid woodwork, and pottery — reflect the variety of production of Islamic art and the wide range of application of geometric patterns.
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HANS HOFMANN AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
Sunday, January 10, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
The work of the noted abstract artist and influential teacher Hans Hofmann (1880-1966) will be the subject of an exhibition, Hans Hofmann at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, on view from April 13 through October 17, 1999. The focus of the exhibition will be the nine paintings of "The Renate Series" and several other paintings by Hofmann in the Museum's collection.
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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FRENCH DRAWINGS IN NEW YORK COLLECTIONS
Sunday, January 10, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
Throughout the 18th century, France was an artistic center whose influence reached far beyond its borders. In a culture that placed a high value on artistic inspiration and individuality, the appreciation of drawings — one of the most immediate and intimate of art forms — saw a vast expansion. Though drawings continued to play a utilitarian role in the artist's creative process, they were increasingly made as independent objects, with an eye toward display and delectation. On view February 2 through April 25, 1999, Eighteenth-Century French Drawings in New York Collections surveys the many achievements of this widely-admired period of French art, when artists such as Watteau, Boucher, Fragonard, Robert, David, and Greuze, among others, created images of surpassing beauty and virtuosity.
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AMERICAN FOLK ART IN THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
Sunday, January 10, 1999, 5:00 a.m.
Paintings, watercolors, drawings, and portrait miniatures by the greatest names in American folk art — Rufus Hathaway, Edward Hicks, Joshua Johnson, Ammi Phillips, and other artists working within naive and provincial traditions in the United States during the 18th and 19th centuries — will be featured in American Folk Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, on view in The American Wing.