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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Photography on Photography: Reflections on the Medium since 1960
Thursday, March 13, 2008, 4:00 a.m.
Photography on Photography: Reflections on the Medium since 1960, on view from April 8 through October 19, 2008, is the second exhibition in the Museum's new gallery for contemporary photographs. Photography on Photography presents four decades of photographs by artists in the permanent collection who have made photography itself their subject and taken aim at its claims of objectivity and its ubiquity in modern life. Featured in the exhibition are works by Vito Acconci, William Anastasi, Lutz Bacher, Liz Deschenes, Roe Ethridge, Robert Heinecken, Sherrie Levine, Robert Mapplethorpe, Richard Prince, Thomas Ruff, Allen Ruppersberg, Karin Sander, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Andy Warhol, as well as recently acquired photographs by Moyra Davey, Kota Ezawa, Janice Guy, Josephine Pryde, James Welling, Christopher Williams, and Mark Wyse.
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SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS - JANUARY–APRIL 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 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.
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Classic/Fantastic: Selections from the Modern Design Collection
Wednesday, March 5, 2008, 5:00 a.m.
Order and disorder, reason and emotion, restraint and excess — opposing impulses such as these have influenced design since the beginning of civilization. Classic/Fantastic: Selections from the Modern Design Collection, opening December 21 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, juxtaposes these divergent approaches, presenting an Apollonian/Dionysian dichotomy of design philosophies in the modern era. Of the approximately 75 works in a wide range of media — including furniture, metalwork, ceramics, glass, textiles, and drawings — half will be devoted to designs rooted in the centuries-old vocabulary of classicism, updated yet still linked to the rules and traditions of the past, and the other half to romantic and surreal subjects of fantasy, drawn from the realm of pure imagination. A number of works from the Metropolitan Museum's collection will be exhibited for the first time, including tables by Costa Achillopoulo and John Dickinson, a Dutch Rozenburg ceramic covered vase (ca. 1900-14), a Danish lamp by Sigfrid Wagner (1905), a Dale Chihuly Venetian series glass vase (1989), and flatware designed by the American Marion Weeber (1965-70).
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How to Read Chinese Paintings to be Discussed in Metropolitan's New Installation
Monday, March 3, 2008, 5:00 a.m.
A Chinese saying summarizes the dichotomy between image and text this way:
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Jasper Johns's Shades of Gray Revealed in Major Metropolitan Museum Exhibition Opening February 5
Wednesday, February 20, 2008, 5:00 a.m.
Opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on February 5, Jasper Johns: Gray will be the first exhibition to examine the use of the color gray in the work of American artist Jasper Johns. From the mid-1950s to the present, gray has been a consistent thread in Johns's practice and an important means for the artist to evoke different moods and to explore a range of formal ideas. This major exhibition offers a new lens through which to see the work of this pivotal American artist, bringing together 119 paintings, reliefs, drawings, prints, and sculptures. Jasper Johns: Gray features masterworks of Johns's career — such as Canvas, Gray Target, Jubilee, 0 through 9, No, Diver, and The Dutch Wives — as well as works from the artist's recent Catenary series and new works never before exhibited.
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Rare Korean Screens Depicting Scholars' Books and Objects On View at Metropolitan Museum
Tuesday, January 29, 2008, 5:00 a.m.
A special installation of magnificent Korean screens dating from the late 19th to the early 20th century will go on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on March 11. Featuring four screens drawn from American collections, Beauty and Learning: Korean Painted Screens will highlight a unique genre of Korean painting known as ch'aekkŏri (books and things), which flourished in Korea from the late 18th to the early 20th century. These screens, portraying books and objects, can be seen as representations of a scholar's study or studio. Approximately 20 objects, including ceramics and bronzes similar to those illustrated in the screens, will complement the installation. This is the first exhibition to focus on the subject in the United States.
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Metropolitan Museum's Multicultural Initiative to Celebrate Tenth Anniversary at January 24 Gala Benefit "Evening of Many Cultures"
Thursday, January 17, 2008, 5:00 a.m.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Multicultural Audience Development Initiative will mark its tenth anniversary on January 24, 2008, with its first-ever gala benefit, An Evening of Many Cultures. At the event, two of the founding members of the initiative, Lowery Stokes Sims and Richard V. Clarke, will be honored for their longstanding commitment to the Museum and to its outreach efforts. The celebration will feature special evening viewings in the Museum's constellation of galleries reflecting many of the cultures of the world. Also on view will be the acclaimed exhibition Eternal Ancestors: The Art of the Central African Reliquary and new installations of works by the contemporary, African-American artist, Kara Walker, and the African artist, El Anatsui.
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Lee Friedlander: A Ramble in Olmsted Parks
Wednesday, January 9, 2008, 5:00 a.m.
On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the design for Central Park, Frederick Law Olmsted's 843-acre New York City masterpiece, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present Lee Friedlander: A Ramble in Olmsted Parks. On view from January 22 to May 11, 2008, the exhibition will feature 36 photographs, most never before on public display. Friedlander describes these striking photographs, culled from a 20-year exploration of public parks and private estates designed by North America's premier landscape architect, as "one photographer's pleasurable and wandering glances at places that bear the great vision of Mr. Olmsted."
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"blog.mode: addressing fashion" Sparks Dialogue at Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute
Monday, December 17, 2007, 5:00 a.m.
As a living art, fashion is open to multiple readings, and blog.mode: addressing fashion at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from December 18, 2007, through April 13, 2008, presents approximately 65 costumes and accessories dating from the 18th century to the present — all recent Metropolitan Museum acquisitions — and invites the public to share their reactions via a blog on the Museum's website. Over the duration of the exhibition, which will take place in The Costume Institute galleries, individual costumes and accessories will be posted on the blog periodically with commentary from curators Harold Koda and Andrew Bolton, and, where relevant, from contemporary designers.
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Metropolitan Museum Concerts January2008
Monday, December 10, 2007, 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 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.