Search the Press Room

Current search results within: All topics

• Metropolitan Museum's Restaurants to Offer Van Gogh-Inspired Dining and Afternoon Tea

  Wednesday, October 19, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  Inspired by the exhibition Vincent van Gogh: The Drawings– which will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from October 18 through December 31, 2005 – the Museum's restaurants will offer visitors a variety of special dining experiences, including afternoon tea, guest chefs from around New York City, and prix-fixe dinner options.

• Asian Art

  Wednesday, September 21, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  The Asian collection at the Metropolitan Museum is the largest and most comprehensive in the West. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works that provide – in both quality and breadth – an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world. The collection, which ranges in date from the second millennium B.C. to the early 20th century, includes paintings, woodblock prints, sculptures, metalwork, ceramics, lacquers, decorative arts, and textiles from China, Korea, and Japan, as well as the countries of South and Southeast Asia. Since the Museum's centennial in 1970, the department has been engaged in expanding its staff, collections, and display space. This process culminated in 1998 with the completion of an entire wing, occupying 64,500 square feet, devoted to Asian art – a "museum within a museum."

• European Paintings

  Wednesday, September 21, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  The Museum's collection of Old Master and 19th-century European paintings – one of the greatest such collections in existence – numbers approximately 2,500 works, dozens of which are instantly recognizable worldwide. The French, Italian, Flemish, and Dutch schools are most strongly represented, with fine works also by British and Spanish masters.

• The Robert Lehman Collection

  Wednesday, September 21, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  The Robert Lehman Collection – numbering nearly 3,000 works of art and one of the most extraordinary private art collections ever assembled in the United States – was presented to the Metropolitan Museum by the Robert Lehman Foundation in 1969, following Mr. Lehman's death. The collection was assembled by Mr. Lehman and his parents, and is housed today in The Robert Lehman Wing, which opened to the public in 1975, and which contains galleries that were specially designed to reflect the ambience of the Lehman house in New York City.

• Musical Instruments

  Wednesday, September 21, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  The musical instruments collection at the Metropolitan Museum originated with gifts in 1889 of several hundred European, American, and non-Western instruments from private collectors Joseph W. Drexel and Mrs. John Crosby Brown. Mrs. Brown continued to give musical instruments to the Museum until her death in 1918, by which time some 4,000 items had been catalogued and placed on display, making the assemblage the largest and most comprehensive of its kind outside Europe.

• Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

  Wednesday, September 21, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  Nearly 1,600 objects from Africa, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas are on view in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. They span 3,000 years, three continents, and many islands, and represent a rich diversity of cultural traditions.

• European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

  Wednesday, September 21, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  The Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts has evolved from one that was established as a repository of decorative art in 1907, during the presidency of J. Pierpont Morgan. Today it is responsible for a comprehensive and important historical collection, one of the Metropolitan Museum's largest, reflecting the development of art in the major Western European countries.

• Modern Art
  Lila Acheson Wallace Wing

  Wednesday, September 21, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  Since its founding in 1870 the Metropolitan Museum has been concerned with the art of its own time as well as that of the past. In 1906 and 1911 funds established by George A. Hearn particularly encouraged acquisitions of works by contemporary American painters. During the first decades of the 20th century fewer examples by European artists were acquired, but certain purchases are notable. Among these were Renoir's Mme Georges Charpentier and Her Children (1879) acquired in 1907 and Cézanne's View of the Domain Saint Joseph (1889) acquired from the Armory Show in 1913. Monet died in 1926. In the same year the Museum received its first gift of one of his paintings, and in 1929 the extraordinary bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer included an additional eight.

• A Brief History of the Museum

  Wednesday, September 21, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 by a group of American citizens – businessmen and financiers as well as leading arists and thinkers of the day – who wanted to create a museum to bring art and art education to the American people.

• Drawings and Prints

  Wednesday, September 21, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  In 1880 Cornelius Vanderbilt presented to the Metropolitan Museum 670 drawings by or attributed to European Old Masters. In its early decades, the collection of drawings grew slowly through purchase, gift, and bequest. Among notable acquisitions of this period were major drawings by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Rembrandt. In 1935, the Museum purchased an album of 50 sheets by Goya, while more than 100 works, mostly by Venetian artists of the 18th century, were acquired from the marquis de Biron in 1937. It was not until 1960 that the Department of Drawings was established as a separate curatorial area of the Museum with Jacob Bean as its first curator. During the next 30 years, the department's holdings nearly doubled in size; the collection is known particularly for its works by Italian and French artists of the 15th through the 19th century.

• I giardini del museo The Met Cloisters

  Tuesday, August 23, 2005, 2:18 p.m.

• Robert Rauschenberg: Combines

  Thursday, August 4, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  Some of the most daring and influential works by one of America's great modern artists – Robert Rauschenberg – will go on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on December 20. Robert Rauschenberg: Combines takes a rare and comprehensive look at the three-dimensional works that Robert Rauschenberg (b. 1925) terms combines. The exhibition, which will include approximately 65 objects created between 1954 and 1964, is the first to focus exclusively on this significant body of work. Robert Rauschenberg: Combines remains on view through April 2, 2006, before continuing on an international tour through 2007.

• SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS SEPTEMBER–DECEMBER 2005

  Wednesday, August 3, 2005, 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.

• Metropolitan Museum Continues Popular "Holiday Monday" Program

  Wednesday, August 3, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  (New York, August 2, 2005) – The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today that its Met Holiday Mondays program, which began in fall 2003, will be extended for an additional three years. Met Holiday Mondays are extra public viewing days that take place on the Mondays of major holiday weekends. Continuation of the program is sponsored by Bloomberg LP.

• Metropolitan Museum Names Michael Gallagher the Sherman Fairchild Conservator in Charge of Paintings Conservation

  Wednesday, August 3, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  (New York, June 21, 2005)—Michael Gallagher, who has been Keeper of Conservation at the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh since 1999, will be the new Sherman Fairchild Conservator in Charge of the Department of Painting Conservation at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was announced by Philippe de Montebello, Director of the Metropolitan. The election, which was formally approved by the Museum's Board of Trustees, is effective July 1, 2005. Mr. Gallagher will assume the post in October.

• Major Retrospective of Vincent van Gogh's Drawings to Open at Metropolitan Museum in October 2005

  Wednesday, July 20, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  The first major exhibition in the United States ever to focus on Vincent van Gogh's extraordinary drawings will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on October 18. Vincent van Gogh: The Drawings — comprising 113 works selected from public and private collections worldwide, including an exceptional number of loans from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam — will reveal the range and brilliance of the artist's draftsmanship as it evolved over the course of his decade-long career. Generally over-shadowed by the fame and familiarity of his paintings, Van Gogh's more than 1,100 drawings remain comparatively unknown although they are among his most ingenious and striking creations. Van Gogh engaged drawing and painting in a rich dialogue, which enabled him to fully realize the creative potential of both means of expression. A group of paintings will be exhibited alongside the related drawings. The exhibition will remain on view through December 31.

• Fra Angelico

  Wednesday, July 20, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  The first American retrospective devoted to the work of the great Italian Renaissance artist known as Fra Angelico (1390/5-1455) – and the first comprehensive presentation of his work assembled anywhere in the world in half a century – will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on October 26. More than 50 public institutions and private collections in Europe and America will participate in the landmark exhibition, which commemorates the 550th anniversary of the artist's death. Fra Angelico will feature nearly 80 drawings, paintings, and manuscript illuminations from throughout his career, supplemented by 45 additional works by his assistants and closest followers. Highlights of the exhibition include recently discovered paintings and new attributions, paintings never before displayed publicly, and reconstructed groupings of works, some of them reunited for the first time.

• The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult

  Wednesday, July 20, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  Ghosts, spirit séances, levitation, auras, ectoplasm … extraordinary photographs of these and other paranormal phenomena will be on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult, an exhibition devoted to the historical intersections between photography and the once wildly popular interest in spiritualism, on view from September 27 to December 31, 2005.

• THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART ANNOUNCES 2005-2006 SEASON OF CONCERTS

  Thursday, July 7, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents the 52nd season of its acclaimed concert series in 2005-2006, 76 events ranging from a three-part piano recital series, Bach cantatas in the Medieval Sculpture Hall, and Flamenco music and dance, to a master class with Jordi Savall, Beethoven by the Beaux Arts Trio, and an evening of doo-wop from the 1940s and 1950s. The season is the 37th programmed by Concerts & Lectures General Manager Hilde Limondjian.

• The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt

  Tuesday, July 5, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  A long-neglected area of Egyptian art – works associated with protection and healing – will be explored in the exhibition The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt, opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in fall 2005. By focusing on this fundamental, yet little-known aspect of Egyptian art, the exhibition will provide a new perspective on some 65 of the most beautiful and intriguing works from the Museum's renowned collection. The centerpiece will be the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus – the sole borrowed work in the exhibition – which is on loan from the New York Academy of Medicine. This manuscript, dating from the Second Intermediate Period (ca. 1650-1550 B.C.), is one of only two complete medical texts from ancient Egypt. Rarely seen even by Egyptologists, the manuscript's presentation at the Metropolitan represents its first public display in more than half a century.

• Pearls of the Parrot of India: The Emperor Akbar's Illustrated Khamsa, 1597-98

  Monday, June 27, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  In India in the late 16th century, the Mughal emperor Akbar – a great patron of the arts – amassed an extensive library of some 20,000 beautifully illustrated and illuminated manuscripts. One of them, a lavishly ornamented copy of the Khamsa (Quintet of Tales) by Amir Khusrau Dihlavi (1253-1325), will be on view at the Metropolitan Museum beginning October 14, 2005, in the exhibition Pearls of the Parrot of India: The Emperor Akbar's Illustrated Khamsa, 1597-98.

• "Get Modern at the Met" A Year-Long Focus on Modern and Contemporary Art At The Metropolitan Museum of Art

  Monday, June 27, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  From Coco Chanel's iconic little black dress to Sol LeWitt's sculptural "splotches," to the exotic textiles that inspired Henri Matisse – and more – The Metropolitan Museum of Art will display an unprecedented number of modern and contemporary art exhibitions this year and into 2006, featuring a wide variety of artists and media. Visitors to the Museum will also experience the lyrical architecture of Santiago Calatrava, the artistic inventions of Tony Oursler and Robert Rauschenberg, and the gentle watercolors of David Milne.

• Santiago Calatrava: Sculpture into Architecture

  Monday, June 20, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  Santiago Calatrava, the world-renowned architect who has designed some of the most beautiful structures of our epoch, is the subject of a new exhibition, Santiago Calatrava: Sculpture into Architecture, opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on October 18, 2005. This exhibition, on view through January 22, 2006, will demonstrate that many of the forms of his celebrated buildings originated in his independent works of art.

• Rara Avis: Selections from the Iris Apfel Collection

  Monday, June 20, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  The Costume Institute will celebrate one of America's quintessential stylemakers this fall with an exhibition of accessories and fashion from Iris Apfel. On view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from September 13, 2005, to January 22, 2006, Rara Avis: Selections from the Iris Apfel Collection will spotlight 40 objects, exploring the affinity between fashion and accessory designs and examining the power of dress and accessories to assert style above fashion, the individual above the collective.

• Photographs from Recently Acquired Gilman Collection on View at Metropolitan Museum

  Monday, June 20, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  A rotating selection of pivotal, iconic works from The Metropolitan Museum of Art's recent landmark acquisition of the Gilman Paper Company Collection, entitled Master Photographs from the Gilman Collection: A Landmark Acquisition, will be on view this summer in The Howard Gilman Gallery and, in two installments through April 2006, in the Robert Wood Johnson, Jr. Gallery.

• SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS MAY - AUGUST 2005

  Monday, June 6, 2005, 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.

• Matisse: The Fabric of Dreams

  Wednesday, June 1, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  The first exhibition to explore Henri Matisse's (1869–1954) lifelong fascination with textiles and its profound impact on his art will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on June 23, 2005. Matisse: The Fabric of Dreams – His Art and His Textiles features 45 painted works and 31 drawings and prints displayed alongside examples from Matisse's personal collection of fabrics, costumes, and carpets. The exhibition marks the first public showing of Matisse's textile collection – referred to by the artist as his "working library" – which has been packed away in family trunks since Matisse's death in 1954. The exhibition remains on view at the Metropolitan through September 25, 2005.

• Tony Oursler at the Met: "Studio" and "Climaxed"

  Wednesday, May 18, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  Tony Oursler at the Met: "Studio" and "Climaxed," at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from May 17 to September 18, 2005, presents two installations by the internationally renowned artist Tony Oursler (American, b. 1954) that have never before been on view in the United States.

• Metropolitan Museum Announces Summer 2005 Programs For Children and Their Families

  Wednesday, May 11, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  Summer activities for children and families at The Metropolitan Museum of Art –featuring regularly scheduled weekday and weekend classes, including a weekly Spanish-language program – will begin with a special Gallery Workshop for Families at The Cloisters on July 2, and will conclude with the program Look Again! on August 7. Additional highlights include special Holiday Monday programs on July 4, a film screening on Saturday, July 16, and a final workshop at The Cloisters on Saturday, August 6. These programs for children up to age 12 and their adult companions are free with Museum admission, and all materials are provided.

• Metropolitan Museum to Present Unprecedented Chanel Exhibition

  Wednesday, May 4, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  CHANEL —The Costume Institute's major spring exhibition—will be presented in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Special Exhibition Galleries from May 5 to August 7, 2005. Nearly 34 years after the passing of Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, the spirit of the house of Chanel will be manifested this spring in an extraordinary presentation of iconic fashions from Coco Chanel to Karl Lagerfeld.

• Metropolitan Museum Presents Special Exhibition of Chanel

  Monday, April 25, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  Chanel —The Costume Institute's major spring exhibition—will be presented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from May 5 through August 7, 2005. The spirit of the House of Chanel will be re-created in a landmark presentation of iconic fashions from Coco Chanel to Karl Lagerfeld.

• Sol LeWitt on the Roof: Splotches, Whirls and Twirls

  Wednesday, April 13, 2005, 4:00 a.m.

  Five sculptures and one wall-drawing by the celebrated American artist Sol LeWitt (born 1928) will go on view in The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden of The Metropolitan Museum of Art on April 26, 2005. A prolific artist since his emergence in the mid-1960s, LeWitt will show recent painted fiberglass sculptures, Splotches, as well as a unique wall-drawing created for the Roof Garden's eastern wall. The works will be exhibited in the 10,000-square-foot open-air space that offers spectacular views of Central Park and the New York City skyline. The installation will mark the eighth single-artist installation on the Cantor Roof Garden.

• Defining Yongle: Imperial Art in Early Fifteenth-Century China

  Wednesday, March 23, 2005, 5:00 a.m.

  Featuring some 50 extraordinary works of art, Defining Yongle: Imperial Art in Early Fifteenth-Century China will explore a crucial moment in the development of imperial Chinese art, and its relationship to later traditions. On view will be sculptures, paintings, lacquers, metalwork, ceramics, textiles, and ivories created in the imperial workshops during the reign of the Yongle Emperor (r. 1403-1424). Important recent acquisitions – such as a gilt-bronze sculpture, Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, and a rare lacquer sutra box with incised gold decoration (qiangjin) – will be presented along with 12 works (embroidered silks and works in cloisonné, ivory, and lacquer) acquired since 1990. Fifteen loans, many from New York collections, will supplement 33 objects drawn from the Metropolitan Museum's permanent collection.

• Ann G. Tenenbaum Named Elective Trustee at Metropolitan Museum

  Thursday, March 17, 2005, 5:00 a.m.

  Ann G. Tenenbaum has been elected to the Board of Trustees of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was announced today by James R. Houghton, the Museum's Chairman. The election took place at the March 8 meeting of the Board of Trustees.

• Metropolitan Museum Acquires World-Renowned Collection of Photographs from The Howard Gilman Foundation

  Tuesday, March 15, 2005, 5:00 a.m.

  (New York, March 16, 2005)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Howard Gilman Foundation announced jointly today that the Museum has acquired the Gilman Paper Company Collection, widely regarded as the world's finest collection of photographs in private hands. With exceptional examples of 19th-century French, British, and American photographs, as well as masterpieces from the turn-of-the-century and modernist periods, the Gilman Collection has played a central role in establishing photography's historical canon and has long set the standard for connoisseurship in the field. In addition to many unique and beautiful icons of photography by such masters as Julia Margaret Cameron, Roger Fenton, Nadar, Gustave Le Gray, Mathew Brady, Carleton Watkins, Edward Steichen, and Man Ray, the Gilman Collection includes extensive bodies of work by numerous pioneers of the camera. The collection was acquired through purchase, complemented by a generous gift from the Foundation. It contains more than 8,500 photographs, dating primarily from the first century of the medium, 1839-1939.

• SPECIAL EVENT FOR CHILDREN ON SATURDAY, APRIL 2, AT THE CLOISTERS

  Tuesday, March 15, 2005, 5:00 a.m.

  Children ages four through 12 and their families are invited to attend Hear Me Roar! – an hour-long program on Saturday, April 2, at The Cloisters, the branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe.

• Max Ernst: A Retrospective

  Wednesday, March 9, 2005, 5:00 a.m.

  The much-anticipated exhibition Max Ernst: A Retrospective, the first major U.S. survey of the artist's work in 30 years, will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning April 7, 2005. Ernst (1891-1976) was a founding member of the Dada and Surrealist movements in Europe and was one of the most ingenious artists of the 20th century. The exhibition will remain on view through July 10, 2005.

• Diane Arbus, Legendary New York Photographer, Celebrated in Retrospective at Metropolitan Museum

  Monday, March 7, 2005, 5:00 a.m.

  For the first time in more than 30 years, a major museum retrospective of the work of legendary photographer Diane Arbus (1923-1971) will go on view in New York City, her lifelong home and the primary source of her subjects and inspiration. Diane Arbus Revelations, opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on March 8, features approximately 180 of the artist's most significant photographs. Not since 1972, when The Museum of Modern Art honored the artist following her death, has there been as rich an opportunity to experience the scope of Arbus's achievements. The exhibition remains on view until May 30.

• John Townsend: Newport Cabinetmaker

  Monday, March 7, 2005, 5:00 a.m.

  During the second half of the 18th century, the New England seaport of Newport, Rhode Island, became a leading center of American furniture-making, with members of the Townsend and Goddard families dominating the trade. Preeminent among these stellar cabinetmakers was John Townsend (1733-1809), whose meticulous craftsmanship and elegant designs set a standard that was seldom matched. The Metropolitan Museum of Art will celebrate his pivotal role in the history of American furniture this spring with John Townsend: Newport Cabinetmaker.

• Matisse: The Fabric of Dreams--His Art and His Textiles

  Monday, March 7, 2005, 5:00 a.m.

  The first exhibition to explore Henri Matisse's (1869–1954) lifelong fascination with textiles and its profound impact on his art will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on June 23, 2005. Matisse: The Fabric of Dreams – His Art and His Textiles features approximately 30 paintings and 35 works on paper displayed alongside examples from Matisse's personal collection of fabrics, costumes, and carpets. The exhibition marks the first public showing of Matisse's textile collection – referred to by the artist as his "working library" – which has been packed away in family trunks since Matisse's death in 1954. The exhibition remains on view at the Metropolitan through September 25, 2005.

• Miniature Masterpieces on View in Cameo Appearances Exhibition at Metropolitan Museum

  Monday, March 7, 2005, 5:00 a.m.

  Cameo Appearances will put on display, beginning March 8, more than 160 superb examples of the art of hardstone carving from The Metropolitan Museum of Art's wide-ranging collections. Inspired by the recent acquisition of a magnificent jasper carving of the head of Medusa by Benedetto Pistrucci, the exhibition traces cameo carving from Greco-Roman antiquity to the 19th century, highlighting the Metropolitan's rich holdings of neoclassical Italian cameos by the great gem-carvers Pistrucci, Girometti, and Saulini. Cameo Appearances also considers related subjects such as cameo glass, illuminates the differences between cameos and intaglios, and touches on fakery.

• Special Rooftop Viewing Opportunity Extended at Metropolitan Museum for The Gates

  Sunday, February 27, 2005, 5:00 a.m.

  (Monday, February 28, 2005)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art's special 'window' onto The Gates – its opening of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden – will be extended through this week, it was announced today. Offering visitors exceptional views of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's spectacular work of art in Central Park – The Gates, Central Park, New York City, 1979-2005, the rooftopwill be kept open to the public, weather permitting, until the monumental work of art is dismantled. The Gates' 16-day installation in Central Park officially ended on Sunday, February 27, but the extended viewing opportunity provides additional opportunities for the public to view the gates positioned near the Museum until they are disassembled by volunteers sometime during the week of March 1.

• Metropolitan Museum Exhibition Catalogue Wins Prestigious Award

  Tuesday, February 15, 2005, 5:00 a.m.

  (New York, February 16, 2005) – The catalogue for Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557), The Metropolitan Museum of Art's landmark exhibition of spring 2004, received the College Art Association's (CAA) prestigious Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Award, it was announced today. The award was accepted in Atlanta, Georgia, at the annual meeting of the CAA by the Museum's curator of Byzantine art, Dr. Helen C. Evans, who edited the book and organized the exhibition.

• Matisse: The Fabric of Dreams His Art and His Textiles

  Wednesday, February 2, 2005, 5:00 a.m.

  The first exhibition to explore Henri Matisse's (1869-1954) lifelong fascination with textiles and its profound impact on his art will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on June 23, 2005. Matisse: The Fabric of Dreams – His Art and His Textiles features approximately 30 paintings and 35 works on paper displayed alongside examples from Matisse's personal collection of fabrics, costumes, and carpets. The exhibition marks the first public showing of Matisse's textile collection – referred to by the artist as his "working library" – which has been packed away in family trunks since Matisse's death in 1954. The exhibition remains on view at the Metropolitan through September 25, 2005.

• Metropolitan Museum Offers Special Viewing Opportunities and Events in February for Christo and Jeanne-Claude's The Gates in Central Park

  Wednesday, February 2, 2005, 5:00 a.m.

  The Metropolitan Museum of Art will offer visitors an array of viewing opportunities – highlighted by the special off-season opening of its Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden (weather permitting) – as well as other events to provide exceptional access to Christo and Jeanne-Claude's widely anticipated public work of art The Gates, Central Park, New York City, 1979–2005, which will be installed in Central Park February 12-27, 2005 (weather permitting).

• From Filippo Lippi to Piero della Francesca: Fra Carnevale and the Making of a Renaissance Master

  Monday, January 31, 2005, 5:00 a.m.

  "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet."
  --William Shakespeare
  Romeo and Juliet

• METROPOLITAN MUSEUM ANNOUNCES SCHEDULE OF CLASSES FOR SPANISH-SPEAKING FAMILIES

  Monday, January 17, 2005, 5:00 a.m.

  (New York, January 18, 2005)–The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced two special programs in its weekly series for Spanish-speaking families, El Primer Contacto con el Arte. Classes in the series – which focuses on a different theme and area of the Museum each month – meet on Saturdays, 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., and feature discussion and sketching activities for ages six through 12.

• First Major Retrospective of Rubens Drawings in the U. S. Opens at Metropolitan Museum

  Friday, January 14, 2005, 5:00 a.m.

  The first major retrospective ever to be devoted to the drawings of Peter Paul Rubens in the United States will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on January 15, 2005. Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640): The Drawings will bring together 115 of the versatile Baroque master's finest and most representative drawings, including dozens that have never before been on view in the United States. Court painter, diplomat, and international celebrity, Rubens was one of the most influential artists of northern Europe in the 17th century. Best known for his paintings, this universal genius is among the most imaginative of draftsmen. His topics vary from engaging biblical scenes to alluring nudes, from animated and stately portraits to poignant animal studies, and from landscapes sketched from nature to complex allegories.

• Metropolitan Museum Announces New Executive Assignments for Deborah Winshel, Sharon Cott, and Harold Holzer

  Sunday, January 9, 2005, 5:00 a.m.

  (New York, January 10, 2005)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced that three of its senior executives would assume new and expanded administrative responsibilities this month. The announcements were made by Philippe de Montebello, Director of the Museum, and Senior Vice President Emily K. Rafferty, who takes office as the Museum's new President on January 18.

• SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS JANUARY - APRIL 2005

  Friday, December 31, 2004, 5:00 a.m.

  New Exhibitions
  Upcoming Exhibitions
  Continuing Exhibitions
  
  New and Recently Opened Installations
  Closing Soon
  Traveling Exhibitions
  Visitor Information

• EARLY RENAISSANCE MASTERPIECE BY DUCCIO ACQUIRED BY METROPOLITAN MUSEUM

  Tuesday, November 9, 2004, 5:00 a.m.

  (New York, November 10, 2004)—In what Metropolitan Museum of Art Director Philippe de Montebello described as "one of the great single acquisitions of the last half century," the Museum announced today the purchase of a rare and uniquely important early Renaissance masterpiece by the 14th-century Italian painter Duccio di Buoninsegna (active by 1278; died 1319). The painting, in tempera and gold on wood, shows the Madonna and Child behind a parapet. The work—the last known Duccio still in private hands—is known as the Stroganoff Madonna, after its first recorded owner, Count Grigorii Stroganoff, who died in Rome in 1910.

• METROPOLITAN TO DESIGNATE ASIAN ART GALLERIES THE FLORENCE AND HERBERT IRVING WING

  Monday, November 8, 2004, 5:00 a.m.

  (New York, November 9, 2004)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced that it will officially name its Asian art galleries the Florence and Herbert Irving Asian Wing in recognition of the couple's exceptionally generous new promised gift to the Museum—which, together with their previous support, constitutes one of the largest gifts ever made to advance the field of Asian art in any American museum.

• METROPOLITAN MUSEUM NAMES TWO NEW VICE PRESIDENTS IN AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT AND FINANCE

  Monday, November 8, 2004, 5:00 a.m.

  (New York, November 9, 2004)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today the promotion of two new officers: Nina Diefenbach to the post of Vice President for Development and Membership, and Jeffrey Russian as Vice President for Finance and Planning. They were both elected at today's meeting of the Museum's Board of Trustees.

• METROPOLITAN MUSEUM NAMES NEW VICE PRESIDENT FOR DEVELOPMENT AND MEMBERSHIP

  Monday, November 8, 2004, 5:00 a.m.

  (New York, November 9, 2004)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today the promotion of Nina Diefenbach to the post of Vice President for Development and Membership. She was elected at today's meeting of the Museum's Board of Trustees.

• CYCLADIC ANTIQUITIES ACQUIRED BY METROPOLITAN MUSEUM

  Thursday, November 4, 2004, 5:00 a.m.

  (New York, November 5, 2004)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today the acquisition of a group of three exceptional Cycladic terracotta vases dating to circa 2000 B.C. Purchased through a gift from The Annenberg Foundation, the group consists of a container for offerings known as a kernos, a tall jar, and a jug.

• The Met Cloisters: descrizione generale

  Wednesday, November 3, 2004, 8:30 a.m.

• METROPOLITAN MUSEUM'S FAMILY PROGRAMS FOCUS ON 18TH CENTURY FRANCE DURING WEEKEND OF NOVEMBER 19-21

  Tuesday, November 2, 2004, 5:00 a.m.

  (NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 3)—Children and their families are invited to travel back in time to 18th -century France during The Metropolitan Museum of Art's special Adventures in French Art! weekend, Friday evening, November 19, through Sunday afternoon, November 21. With the Museum's European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Galleries as a focal point, each drop-in program throughout the weekend will illuminate the grand lifestyle of the period through an examination of the richly decorated furnishings on view. Many of the programs, which are free of charge for children with accompanying adults, will be enhanced by storytellers, demonstrations, or live performances of music and dance that 18th -century French audiences might have seen and heard.

• Renaissance Splendors of Dresden Court on View at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

  Sunday, October 24, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  Visitors to the Electoral-princely collections in Renaissance Dresden encountered room after room of treasures proclaiming the refined splendor of the court—exquisite gold and silver objects embellished with precious and semi-precious stones and exotic materials, ivory turnings, ebony furniture, clocks, automatons, and decorated tools. In the first exhibition on Dresden to be held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 25 years, Princely Splendor: The Dresden Court, 1580-1620, nearly 250 of these major works of art and precious objects—on loan from the Dresden State Art Collections (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden), and in particular the fabled Green Vault—will be on view. This exhibition will illustrate the richness of one of the most spectacular princely collections of Europe—the Dresden Kunstkammer—as it existed around 1600. Reflecting the broad range of the collections amassed by the Electors of Saxony during this period of unusual prosperity, the exhibition will also include rare arms and armor, paintings, and sculptures, including several bronzes by Giambologna.

• The 20th Century Photography Monograph Celebrated in Metropolitan Museum Exhibition

  Sunday, October 24, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  From November 5, 2004, through March 6, 2005, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present Few Are Chosen: Street Photography and the Book, 1936-1966. Drawn from the collections of the Metropolitan and the Gilman Paper Company, the exhibition spotlights 35 photographs related to six influential 20th-century publications by the photographers Bill Brandt, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, William Klein, and Helen Levitt. Few Are Chosen also includes copies of each book, sometimes represented in multiple editions to show how the meaning of images changed with their presentation.

• The Met Cloisters: Descrição geral

  Thursday, October 14, 2004, 7:00 p.m.

• The Met Cloisters: Ein Überblick

  Thursday, October 14, 2004, 6:59 p.m.

• The Met Cloisters: 개요

  Thursday, October 7, 2004, 6:00 a.m.

• Metropolitan Museum Offers Preview of Landmark Chinese Art Exhibition for Columbus Day "Holiday Monday"

  Tuesday, October 5, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  (New York, October 1, 2004) – Visitors to The Metropolitan Museum of Art during its next "Holiday Monday" – Columbus Day, October 11 – will enjoy a special opportunity to view the landmark exhibition China: Dawn of A Golden Age, 200-750 AD on the day before it officially opens to the public. The exhibition brings together more than 300 works of extreme rarity and cultural importance, most of them recently excavated, and many never seen outside China.

• 修道院藝術博物館: 概述

  Sunday, October 3, 2004, 4:13 p.m.

• Landmark Exhibition of Ancient Chinese Art— Featuring Recently Excavated Treasures Never Seen in U.S.— Opens at Metropolitan Museum

  Wednesday, September 29, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present a landmark exhibition of ancient Chinese art – the largest ever to be organized with loans from across Mainland China – beginning October 12, 2004. Bringing together more than 300 works of extreme rarity and art historical importance, many of which have never before been exhibited outside China, China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 AD will tell the story of Chinese art and culture from the Han to the Tang dynasty, a period of major transformation for Chinese civilization due to massive immigrations from northern Asia into China and extensive trade contacts with all parts of Asia. The exhibition will feature objects in an astounding variety of media – including objects in jade, bronze, gold, silver, metal, stone, and wood, as well as textiles, works on paper, and wall paintings – ranging in size from an enormous sculpture of a fantastic animal to a small gold coin.

• Heritage of Power: Ancient Sculpture from West Mexico The Andrall E. Pearson Family Collection

  Monday, September 27, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  An exhibition of more than 40 ceramic sculptures made in the western region of Mexico two thousand years ago will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on October 19, 2004. The volcanic highland areas of the contemporary Mexican states of Colima, Jalisco, and Nayarit are the source of the three-dimensional sculptures that portray ancestors, warriors, ballplayers, dancers, and musicians, among other depictions of life and ritual. Ranging in size from a few inches to about two-and-a-half feet in height, the sculptures in Heritage of Power: Ancient Sculpture from West Mexico – The Andrall E. Pearson Family Collection are drawn from holdings that emphasize the human figure, and its activities and concerns.

• EMILY K. RAFFERTY ELECTED NEXT PRESIDENT OF METROPOLITAN MUSEUM

  Monday, September 13, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  (New York, September 14, 2004)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced that Emily Kernan Rafferty, an accomplished senior executive at the Museum, will become its next President, effective with the previously announced retirement of David E. McKinney on January 15, 2005. Ms. Rafferty was formally elected to the presidency today at the regular meeting of the Metropolitan's Board of Trustees. The decision was announced by James R. Houghton, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and Philippe de Montebello, the Museum's Director and Chief Executive Officer.

• SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS SEPTEMBER–DECEMBER 2004

  Sunday, August 29, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS SEPTEMBER–DECEMBER 2004 New Exhibitions
  Upcoming Exhibitions
  Continuing Exhibitions
  New and Recently Opened Installations
  Traveling Exhibitions
  Visitor Information
  Closing Soon
  SPECIAL NOTE

• Gilbert Stuart, Renowned Portraitist of America's First Presidents, To Be Featured in Full Retrospective at Metropolitan Museum

  Sunday, August 29, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828), the most successful and resourceful portraitist of America's early national period, is best remembered today for his many incisive likenesses of George Washington. This fall, in the artist's first retrospective in nearly four decades, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will show nearly 100 exceptional works that reveal his talent for capturing both the appearance and the character of his many prominent clients. Representing all periods of Stuart's long career and featuring works drawn from private collections and museums in America and Britain, Gilbert Stuart opens on October 21.

• Princely Splendor: The Dresden Court, 1580–1620

  Sunday, August 29, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  Visitors to the Electoral-princely collections in Renaissance Dresden encountered room after room of treasures proclaiming the refined splendor of the court—exquisite gold and silver objects embellished with precious and semi-precious stones and exotic materials, ivory turnings, ebony furniture, clocks, automatons, and decorated tools. In the first exhibition on Dresden to be held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 25 years, Princely Splendor: The Dresden Court, 1580-1620, nearly 250 of these major works of art and precious objects—on loan from the Dresden State Art Collections (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden), and in particular the fabled Green Vault—will be on view. This exhibition will illustrate the richness of one of the most spectacular princely collections of Europe—the Dresden Kunstkammer—as it existed around 1600. Reflecting the broad range of the collections amassed by the Electors of Saxony during this period of unusual prosperity, the exhibition will also include rare arms and armor, paintings, and sculptures, including several bronzes by Giambologna.

• 修道院艺术博物馆: 概述

  Tuesday, August 3, 2004, 2:37 p.m.

• نبذة عامة : "The Met Cloisters" متحف

  Tuesday, August 3, 2004, 2:36 p.m.

• The Colonial Andes: Tapestries and Silverwork, 1530–1830

  Tuesday, August 3, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  The arrival of the Spanish in South America in 1532 dramatically transformed the Andean cultural landscape, changing societies that had evolved over thousands of years within less than one generation. The arts, however, continued to thrive amid the upheavals, and an unspoken dialogue evolved between Andean and European artistic traditions. A major exhibition of more than 175 works of art focusing on two uniquely rich and inherently Andean art forms that flourished during the Colonial period – tapestry and silverwork – will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 29, 2004. The Colonial Andes: Tapestries and Silverwork, 1530–1830 will present the finest examples of Inca and colonial garments and tapestries, as well as ritual and domestic silverwork, drawn from museums, churches, and private collections in South America, Europe, and the United States.

• Metropolitan Museum Announces Fall/Winter Schedule of Programs for Children and Their Families

  Tuesday, August 3, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  (New York, August 4, 2004) – The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced its schedule of weekend and weekday programs for children and their families for the period October 2004 through January 2005. In addition to an extensive range of age-specific art programs, the Metropolitan's amenities for families include special greeters on weekends and on Holiday Mondays, family Audio Guide tours, free printed guides for independent activities within the Museum, family-friendly dining – including a special children's menu in the cafeteria – a MetKids catalogue, Children's Shop, and "MuseumKids" Web page.

• Romare Bearden at the Met

  Monday, August 2, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  On the occasion of the citywide celebration of the artist's life and work, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present a special installation, Romare Bearden at the Met, from October 19, 2004, through March 6, 2005.

• The Armored Horse in Europe, ca. 1475 to 1625

  Monday, August 2, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  Forty rare examples of European horse armor – varying in style, construction, and decoration – will go on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on December 14, 2004. The exhibition, The Armored Horse in Europe, ca. 1475 to 1625 – drawn exclusively from the Museum's own collection – will cover the peak period of the use of horse armor from around 1500 through its eventual obsolescence in the early 17th century. Established in 1912, the Metropolitan's Department of Arms and Armor houses the most extensive collection of European horse armor in the United States and one of the most comprehensive in the world.

• China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 AD

  Monday, August 2, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present a landmark exhibition of ancient Chinese art – one of the largest ever to be organized with loans from across Mainland China – beginning October 12, 2004. Bringing together more than 300 works of extreme rarity and art historical importance, many of which have never before been exhibited outside China, China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 AD will tell the story of Chinese art and culture from the Han to the Tang dynasty, a period of major transformation for Chinese civilization due to massive immigrations from northern Asia into China and extensive trade contacts with all parts of Asia. The exhibition will feature objects in an astounding variety of media – including objects in jade, bronze, gold, silver, metal, stone, and wood, as well as textiles, works on paper, and wall paintings – ranging in size from an enormous sculpture of a fantastic animal to a small gold coin.

• Successful "Holiday Monday" Program Enters Second Year at Metropolitan Museum

  Monday, August 2, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  (New York, August 3, 2004) -- The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today that, in response to enthusiastic public support of the "Holiday Mondays" program inaugurated in 2003, it will continue to offer these special viewing days – which take place on the Mondays of major holiday weekends – for a second year. The Metropolitan Museum's main building will be open to the public on the following Monday holidays: September 6 (Labor Day), October 11 (Columbus Day), December 27, 2004 (the Monday between Christmas and New Year's Day), January 17 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day), February 21 (Presidents' Day), and May 30, 2005 (Memorial Day). The Museum had previously been closed to the public on Mondays for some 30 years.

• The Games in Ancient Athens: A Special Presentation to Celebrate the 2004 Olympics

  Monday, July 26, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  In honor of the modern Olympics that will take place in Athens this summer, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will display a special selection of ancient Greek vases, bronzes, and additional works showcasing aspects of the games that were held in Athens in antiquity. Opening on June 29, The Games in Ancient Athens: A Special Presentation to Celebrate the 2004 Olympics will feature some 50 works of art created between the sixth and the fourth century B.C. depicting chariot races, foot races, wrestling, and discus throwing, among other athletic activities. This presentation, which is drawn entirely from the Museum's extensive collection of Greek art, will be located within the Mary and Michael Jaharis Gallery, as well as in adjacent areas of the New Greek Galleries, where examples of athletic art already on view will be highlighted.

• Hidden Jewels: Korean Art from the Mary Griggs Burke Collection

  Monday, July 26, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  An exhibition of 36 Korean paintings, ceramics, and sculpture from the collection of Mary Griggs Burke will go on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning July 3. Many of these pieces – which date primarily to the Choson dynasty (1392-1910) – will make their public debut in this exhibition. Mrs. Burke, renowned for her collection of Japanese art, has since the late 1970s also assembled a small but splendid selection of Korean art. This exhibition, Hidden Jewels: Korean Art from the Mary Griggs Burke Collection, provides a rare opportunity to glimpse a lesser-known side of her collection and to learn more about the diversity and beauty of Korean art.

• SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS MAY–AUGUST 2004

  Monday, July 26, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  New Exhibitions
  Upcoming Exhibitions
  Continuing Exhibitions
  New and Recently Opened Installations

• Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640): The Drawings

  Monday, July 26, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  The first major retrospective ever to be devoted to the drawings of Peter Paul Rubens in the United States will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on January 15, 2005. Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640): The Drawings will bring together 115 of the versatile Baroque master's finest and most representative drawings, including 12 recently discovered works that have never before been exhibited. Court painter, diplomat, and international celebrity, Rubens was one of the most influential artists of northern Europe in the 17th century. Best known for his paintings, this universal genius is among the most imaginative of draftsmen. His topics vary from engaging biblical scenes to alluring nudes, from animated and stately portraits to poignant animal studies, and from landscapes sketched from nature to complex allegories.

• The Bishop Jades

  Monday, July 26, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  An exhibition of some 100 precious Chinese and Mughal jade carvings from the Heber R. Bishop collection will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art this spring. Featuring the objects from practical vessels and pendants to ornaments intended for the emperor's desk, The Bishop Jades will illustrate the full range of the lapidary's repertoire. An industrialist and entrepreneur, Mr. Bishop was an active patron of the arts and a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum. In the late 19th century, he assembled a collection of more than one thousand pieces of jade and other hardstones from China and elsewhere, and in 1902, he bequeathed the collection to the Museum.

• George Washington: Man, Myth, Monument

  Monday, July 26, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  Beginning October 19, more than four dozen works in all media depicting George Washington, the Revolutionary War hero who became the first president of the United States, will be presented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in George Washington: Man, Myth, Monument—Images from the Metropolitan. The exhibition is drawn entirely from the extensive holdings of the Museum's American Wing and includes paintings, sculpture, drawings, and prints, as well as works in glass, ceramics, silver, textiles, and wood that were created in the late 18th and the 19th century.

• THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART ANNOUNCES 2004-2005 SEASON OF CONCERTS, THE 51ST SEASON

  Friday, July 2, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  The Metropolitan Museum of Art launches its second half-century of presenting concerts in the 2004-2005 season with a diverse selection of world-renowned artists and young talent, upholding the Concerts & Lectures 50-year tradition.
  "The success of the Museum's 50th anniversary concert season has renewed our dedication to excellence, continuity, and innovation in programming," said the Metropolitan's Director, Philippe de Montebello. "That these qualities are carried forward is evidenced by the dynamic combination of hand-picked artists and programs in our 51st season. The year's pianists, following the 50th anniversary's impressive piano roster, range from a festival of young competition winners to The Art of André Watts, while notable early-music events are complemented by a series devoted to contemporary composer Steve Reich."
  Highlights of the 62 concerts comprising the 2004-2005 season, the 36th programmed by Hilde Limondjian, Concerts & Lectures General Manager since 1969, include two spring festivals – Celebrating Jordi Savall, three concerts in April presenting the viola da gamba artist and early music leader with his three acclaimed ensembles, and A Festival of International Competition Winners, also in April, of six young pianists, first-prize winners of major competitions, many in their U.S. debuts. The U.S. premiere of Steve Reich's 2003 work Dance Patterns highlights The Music of Steve Reich, a three-concert series performed by Steve Reich and Musicians. Continuing an initiative from the 50th anniversary season celebrating the multifaceted artistry of one musician, The Art of André Watts showcases the pianist in a recital, a chamber program, and an illustrated talk. Three major ensembles – Orpheus, New York Collegium, and Chanticleer – offer early-music programs in gallery spaces, and two singers make their Metropolitan Museum debuts at The Temple of Dendur in The Sackler Wing: soprano Olga Borodina and tenor Rolando Villazón, whose performance will also be his U.S. recital debut.
  The Beaux Arts Trio, which celebrates its own 50th anniversary in 2004-2005, will begin a three-year Beethoven project that will present all of the composer's piano trios, sonatas for violin and piano, and sonatas for cello and piano. Complementing this is a series of six concerts, Surrounding Beethoven, of music that anticipated, mirrored, or followed this core repertoire, performed by a diverse roster of artists: Frederic Chiu and Windscape, Jonathan Biss and Miriam Fried, the Juilliard String Quartet with Heinz Holliger, the Prague Symphony Orchestra with Navah Perlman, the Borromeo String Quartet, and the Salzburger Kammerphilharmonie with Kate Dillingham. The chamber music of Dvorák is the anchor for the Guarneri String Quartet's five concerts, which feature eminent guest artists including Peter Serkin, Ida Kavafian, Anton Kuerti, and former member David Soyer. Paula Robison continues her exploration of The Great Vivaldi with two programs. And the artist roster of the season's Musicians from Marlboro series includes Kim Kashkashian and Samuel Rhodes.
  In addition to the Festival of International Competition Winners, two series showcase some of today's finest young talent. The Accolades young artist series features four violinists: Stefan Jackiw, Giora Schmidt, Corey Cerovsek, and Jennifer Koh. Also, in its second season, the newest of the Museum's resident ensembles and the first to bear its name, Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert, presents three programs of classic repertoire mirroring the new, which will be broadcast live on 96.3 FM WQXR.

• METROPOLITAN MUSEUM CREATES NEW AND EXPANDED CURATORIAL DEPARTMENT: NINETEENTH-CENTURY, MODERN, AND CONTEMPORARY ART

  Monday, June 14, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  (NEW YORK, JUNE 15, 2004)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced a major restructuring and redefinition of curatorial responsibilities at the Museum with the creation of a new and expanded department: Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art, embracing European paintings from 1800 to the present, as well as international 20th-century sculpture, drawings, prints, decorative arts, and design. The integrated and broadened new department will enjoy the mandate—and, within several years, additional new gallery space as well—to bring to the public the full and dynamic story of modern art, in all media, from its beginnings to the present day.

• Metropolitan Museum Extends Landmark Exhibition Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557) through Holiday Monday, July 5

  Thursday, June 10, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  (New York-June 4, 2004)—Due to the exceptional public response to The Metropolitan Museum of Art's acclaimed international loan exhibition Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557), the Museum announced today that it will extend the run of the show through Monday, July 5, which is a special "Holiday Monday" viewing day at the Museum. The exhibition was originally scheduled to close on Sunday, July 4.

• Metropolitan Museum Announces Retirement of President David E. McKinney in January 2005; Trustees Launch Process to Choose Successor

  Thursday, June 10, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  (New York, June 11, 2004)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced that the Museum's President, David E. McKinney, would retire in January 2005, soon after he reaches the age of 70.

• All That Glitters Is Not Gold: The Art, Form, and Function of Gilt Bronze in the French Interior

  Tuesday, May 11, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  Many of the gold objects adorning sumptuous French interiors—from the Palace of Versailles to grand residences in Paris—are generally not made of gold at all but of gilt bronze. Both functional and highly decorative, gilt-bronze mounts and bronzes d'ameublement, such as light fixtures, fireplace fittings, and clocks, played a very important role in the French interior from the late 17th to the early 19th century. Always in keeping with the latest stylistic changes, gilt-bronze pieces were often designed by well-known artists and sculptors, such as Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier and Augustin Pajou, and manufactured by highly specialized craftsmen. A rigid guild system maintained the high standards of craftsmanship and regulated the process of gilt bronze manufacture. The exhibition All That Glitters Is Not Gold: The Art, Form, and Function of Gilt Bronze in the French Interior focuses on the use of gilt bronze in the interior décor, as well as on the designs and techniques involved in the casting, chasing, and gilding of gilt bronze objects. Drawn from the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the exhibition will include some 80 objects.

• Metropolitan Museum of Art Unveils Great Modern Gift: The Pierre and Maria-Gaetana Matisse Collection

  Tuesday, May 11, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  The recent gift of more than 100 works from the Pierre and Maria-Gaetana Matisse Foundation will be celebrated in a major exhibition opening on May 18, 2004. Collected by New York art dealer Pierre Matisse (1900-1989), the younger son of French painter Henri Matisse, the selection includes paintings, sculpture, and drawings by such icons of 20th-century art as Matisse, Balthus, Chagall, Derain, Dubuffet, Giacometti, Magritte, Miró, and Tanguy. The Pierre and Maria-Gaetana Matisse Collection, on view through June 26, 2005, will feature highlights from the Foundation's gifts together with works previously donated by Mr. and Mrs. Matisse.

• August Sander: People of the Twentieth Century. A Photographic Portrait of Germany

  Tuesday, April 20, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  Approximately 150 images by the pioneering German photographer August Sander (1876-1964) will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning May 25, 2004. The photographs are drawn from the artist's most famous project, People of the Twentieth Century (Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts), which was envisioned as a comprehensive visual record of the German populace.

• Andy Goldsworthy on the Roof

  Tuesday, April 20, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  British sculptor Andy Goldsworthy (born 1956), known for working in, and with, the natural landscape, has been invited by The Metropolitan Museum of Art to create the sculpture installation for The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, opening to the public on May 4, 2004. Andy Goldsworthy on the Roof will consist of two monumental, organic domes of wood and stone, inspired by the immediate surroundings of Central Park and its architectural setting. This special project will be exhibited in the 10,000-square-foot open-air space that offers spectacular views across Central Park to the Manhattan skyline. This is one in a series of solo-artist installations presented on the Cantor Roof Garden, and the first to be constructed on site by the artist.

• American Impressions, 1865-1925: Prints, Drawings, and Watercolors from the Collection

  Wednesday, April 14, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  More than 50 works on paper by some of the best-known and most highly regarded late 19th-century American artists will be displayed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, beginning on June 8, in American Impressions, 1865-1925: Prints, Drawings, and Watercolors from the Collection. Among the artists featured will be such luminaries as Winslow Homer, James McNeill Whistler, Mary Cassatt, and Maurice Prendergast. The exhibition was organized to complement and coincide with the Museum's retrospective Childe Hassam, American Impressionist, opening to the public on June 10, and will situate Hassam within a broader context of artists of the same period who treated the same images and used the same media.

• METROPOLITAN MUSEUM ANNOUNCES SUMMER 2004 WEEKDAY & WEEKEND DROP-IN PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES

  Wednesday, April 14, 2004, 4:00 a.m.

  The following English- and Spanish-language weekday and weekend programs for children up to age 12 and their adult companions will be offered by The Metropolitan Museum of Art from Tuesday, July 6, through Sunday, August 8, 2004. These drop-in programs are free with Museum admission, and all materials are provided.

• Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Gates, Central Park, New York

  Thursday, April 1, 2004, 5:00 a.m.

  The evolution of the widely anticipated outdoor work of art for New York City initiated in 1979 by the husband-and-wife collaborators Christo and Jeanne-Claude will be the subject of the exhibition Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Gates, Central Park, New York, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from April 6 through July 25, 2004. Fifty-one preparatory drawings and collages by Christo, 64 photographs, and 11 maps and technical diagrams will document the soon-to-be-realized work of art, which when completed will consist of 7,500 saffron-colored gates placed at 12-foot intervals throughout 23 miles of pedestrian walkways lacing Central Park from 59th Street to 110th Street and from Central Park West to Fifth Avenue.

• Metropolitan Museum Announces Promotions in Department of Photographs

  Sunday, March 28, 2004, 5:00 a.m.

  The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today that Malcolm Daniel, Acting Curator in Charge of the Department of Photographs for the past seven months, would assume the post of Curator in Charge, effective immediately. The appointment – ratified February 10 by the Executive Committee of the Museum's Board of Trustees – will allow Maria Morris Hambourg, founding curator of the department and its head for the past 12 years, to assume the post of Consulting Curator. In this new role, Ms. Hambourg will continue to work closely with the department on special projects, exhibitions, and acquisitions, free of day-to-day administrative duties.

• Dazzling Byzantine Treasures Displayed in Major International Exhibition at Metropolitan Museum, Opening March 23

  Thursday, March 11, 2004, 5:00 a.m.

  As the triumphant Byzantine general Michael VIII Palaiologos entered Constantinople on August 15, 1261, carrying aloft the famed icon of the Virgin Hodegetria, the city's eternal protector, he initiated an artistic and intellectual flowering in Byzantium, and among its East Christian rivals, that would endure for nearly 300 years. The restoration of the "Empire of the Romans" – the basileia ton Rhomaion – just 57 years after the fall of Constantinople to the knights of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, encouraged faith-inspired art of astonishing beauty and widespread influence.

• Public Lecture by His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Spiritual Head of Worldwide Orthodox Christian Church, Presented in Conjunction with Upcoming Byzantium Exhibition at Metropolitan Museum

  Thursday, March 11, 2004, 5:00 a.m.

  His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual head of the worldwide Orthodox Christian Church, will deliver the lecture "Byzantine Icons: A Legacy for Humanism" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Thursday, March 18. Presented in conjunction with the upcoming international loan exhibition Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557), the lecture will take place at 2 p.m. in the Museum's Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. Reservations, which are required, may be obtained on a first-come, first-served basis by calling (212) 570-3792. The event is free to the public with Museum admission.

• METROPOLITAN MUSEUM LAUNCHES '21st-CENTURY MET': INTERIOR CONSTRUCTION PLAN TO RETURN ROMAN AND HELLENISTIC ART TO PUBLIC VIEW IN MAJESTIC NEW SETTING, RENOVATE AND REINSTALL GALLERIES FOR ISLAMIC ART, 19th-CENTURY ART, MODERN ART, AND MODERN PHOTOGRAPHY,

  Monday, February 23, 2004, 5:00 a.m.

  (NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 24, 2004)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced plans to launch—and fund—a series of milestone 21st-Century Met interior construction projects aimed at dramatically enhancing the Museum's displays of Hellenistic and Roman art, Etruscan art, Islamic art, 19th-century art, modern art, and modern photography. Additionally, the major new "building-from-within" program will substantially upgrade the Museum's Ruth and Harold D. Uris Center for Education, the traditional welcoming point of entry for some 125,000 school visitors each year. To finance the projects, the Museum announced a new plan to complete private funding for the construction and rehabilitation work.

• Major Gift of Diane Arbus Photographs Promised to The Metropolitan Museum of Art

  Thursday, February 19, 2004, 5:00 a.m.

  (New York, February 17, 2004)--An important group of photographs by Diane Arbus, one of the most original and influential photographers of the last half-century, will join the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art as the promised gift of collectors Danielle and David Ganek. The 13 rare, vintage prints represent one of the most significant acquisitions of 20th-century photography in the history of the Metropolitan and more than double the Museum's holdings of works by the artist.