SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS SEPTEMBER 2008 - AUGUST 2009

Landscapes Clear and Radiant: The Art of Wang Hui (1632–1717)
September 9, 2008–January 4, 2009

Wang Hui, the most celebrated painter of late 17th-century China, played a key role in reinvigorating past traditions of landscape painting as well as in establishing the stylistic foundations for the imperially sponsored art of the Manchu Qing court. An artist of protean talent and immense artistic ambition, Wang developed an all-embracing synthesis of historical landscape styles that constituted one of the greatest innovations in the arts of late imperial China. The exhibition features 27 masterpieces by Wang Hui from the Taipei and Beijing Palace Museums, the Shanghai Museum, and several North American collections, including five outstanding works from the Metropolitan's permanent collection. These 27 paintings are complemented by a selection of earlier landscapes from the Song (960–1279), Yuan (1279–1368), and Ming (1368–1644) dynasties, mostly drawn from the Museum's holdings, that highlight the sources of Wang Hui's inspiration.
The exhibition is made possible by The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Foundation.
The catalogue is made possible by the Joseph Hotung Fund and The Dillon Fund.

Giorgio Morandi, 1890–1964
September 16–December 14, 2008

This is a comprehensive survey—the first in this country—of the career of Giorgio Morandi, one of the greatest 20th-century masters of still-life and landscape painting in the tradition of Chardin and Cézanne. The exhibition presents approximately 110 paintings, watercolors, drawings, and etchings from his early "metaphysical" works to his late evanescent still lifes, culled mainly from Italian collections, including those formed with Morandi's help by his friends and by renowned scholars of his art.
The exhibition is made possible by Jane and Robert Carroll.
Additional support is provided by Isabella del Frate Rayburn and Maurice Kanbar.
The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and MAMbo–Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna.
It is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
Accompanied by a catalogue.

Royal Porcelain from the Twinight Collection, 1800–1850
September 16, 2008–August 9, 2009

The porcelain factories of Berlin, Sèvres, and Vienna achieved an extraordinary level of both artistic and technical skill in the first half of the 19th century, and the quality of painted decoration practiced in these factories at that time has never been surpassed. This exhibition brings together approximately 75 extraordinary examples from these three European porcelain manufactories and illustrates the exchange of ideas and styles between the factories that resulted in some of the most remarkable porcelain ever produced.
The exhibition is made possible by Richard Baron Cohen.
Accompanied by a related publication.

Rhythms of Modern Life: British Prints 1914–1939
September 23–December 7, 2008

This is the first major exhibition in the United States to explore the impact of modern artistic movements—especially Italian Futurism—on British printmakers from the outbreak of World War I to the beginning of World War II. Featuring the work of 14 artists, Rhythms of Modern Life showcases selective works inspired by Vorticism, the first radically modern, inherently abstract British art movement of the 20th century. The principal artists represented are the prominent early followers of Futurism and Vorticism and the later color linocut artists of the esteemed Grosvenor School of Art in London. The exhibition displays more than 100 prime examples of graphic works that celebrate the vitality and dynamism of modern life, from Edward Wadsworth's hard-edged, industrial-inspired woodcuts to C. R. W. Nevinson's Futurist etchings of the first mechanized war to Cyril Power's vibrantly colored linocuts of London's modern tube stations.
The exhibition is made possible by The Schiff Foundation.
It was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in collaboration with
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Accompanied by a catalogue.

New York, N. Why?: Photographs by Rudy Burckhardt, 1937–1940
September 23, 2008–January 4, 2009

In the late 1930s, Rudy Burckhardt—then a recent émigré to America from Switzerland—created a suite of remarkably sophisticated, lively, and poetic images of New York City. This exhibition presents in its entirety a unique album of 67 now-classic images of street furniture, outdoor advertising, and pedestrians, selected and sequenced by Burckhardt in 1940 and acquired by the Museum in 1972.
Accompanied by a facsimile edition of the album.

The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End
September 30, 2008–March 22, 2009

Dazzling textile traditions have constituted an important form of aesthetic expression throughout Africa's history and cultural landscape. Textiles have long been a focal point of the vast continental trading networks that carried material culture and technological innovations across regional centers and linked Africa to the outside world. Leading contemporary artists reflecting on Africa's distinctive cultural heritage and its relationship to the world at large have drawn upon the imagery of textiles in sculpture, painting, photography, installation art, video, and other media. This exhibition illustrates the stunningly diverse classical textile genres created by artists in West Africa through some of their earliest documented and finest works. Highlights of the Metropolitan's own holdings are presented along with some 20 works that entered the British Museum's collection by the early 20th century. Selected works represent inventive variations on major themes of the influential classical genres. The exhibition relates these genres to contemporary
art forms by affording an appreciation of the cultural context and visual language of these
traditions and exploring their synergy and resonance in works by eight living artists.
The exhibition is made possible in part by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,
Fred and Rita Richman, and The Ceil & Michael E. Pulitzer Foundation, Inc.
It was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in collaboration with
the British Museum, London.
Accompanied by a publication.

The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of
Acquisitions
October 24, 2008–February 1, 2009

In honor of Philippe de Montebello—soon to retire after 31 years as the Metropolitan Museum's eighth and longest-serving director—this exhibition, proposed and conceived by the curators, brings together for the first time well over 250 masterpieces acquired by the Metropolitan during the director's tenure. All of the Museum's curatorial departments are represented by works ranging through the centuries from ancient prehistory to today and across the globe from Europe to Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Acquired by purchase and donation, singularly and in groups, these works demonstrate how the de Montebello years have dramatically enhanced the Museum's encyclopedic collections and encouraged public access to the world's artistic treasures.

Raqib Shaw at the Met
November 4, 2008–March 1, 2009

In this selection of work by Raqib Shaw (b. 1974), the Indian-born, London-based artist responds to the Holbein in England exhibition held in 2006–7 at Tate Britain. This is Shaw's first solo show at a New York museum, featuring new paintings and works on paper that have never before been exhibited. The installation is the fifth in an ongoing series highlighting the work of contemporary artists, who have included Tony Oursler, Kara Walker, Neo Rauch, and Tara Donovan.

Art and Love in Renaissance Italy
November 18, 2008–February 16, 2009

This exhibition explores the various exceptional objects created to celebrate love and marriage in the Italian Renaissance. The approximately 150 objects, which date from about 1400 to the mid-16th century, range from exquisite examples of maiolica and jewelry given as gifts to the couple, to marriage portraits and paintings that extol sensual love and fecundity, such as the Metropolitan's Venus and Cupid by the great Venetian artist Lorenzo Lotto. The exhibition also includes some of the rarest and most significant pieces of Renaissance
glassware, cassone panels, birth trays, and drawings and prints of amorous subjects.
The exhibition is made possible by the Gail and Parker Gilbert Fund
and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
Additional support is provided by The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation.
The catalogue is made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Additional support is provided by the Charles Bloom Foundation.
The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
and the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth.
It is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
Press preview: Monday, November 10, 10:00 a.m.–noon

Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C.
November 18, 2008–March 15, 2009

This exhibition of approximately 350 objects highlights the extraordinary art created in the second millennium B.C. for the royal palaces, temples, and tombs from Mesopotamia, Syria, and Anatolia to Cyprus, Egypt, and the Aegean. Objects of the highest artistry reflect the development of a sophisticated trade network throughout the eastern Mediterranean region and the resulting fusion of Near Eastern, Aegean, and Egyptian cultural styles. The impact of these far-flung connections is documented in the precious materials exchanged between royal courts and, most dramatically, in objects discovered on the oldest-known seagoing ship, wrecked off the shores of southern Turkey. The history of the period and the artistic creativity fostered by interaction among the powers of the ancient Near East are represented by spectacular loans from more than 30 lending institutions in some 15 countries.
The exhibition is made possible by Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman and
The Hagop Kevorkian Fund.
Corporate sponsors are the DEIK Turkish-American Business Council,
Doðan Holding, Doðuþ Holding, Koç Holding, and Sabancý Holding.
Additional support is provided by the Oceanic Heritage Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The catalogue is made possible by The Hagop Kevorkian Fund.
Additional support is provided by Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm H. Wiener.
The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
Press preview: Monday, November 17, 10:00 a.m.–noon

Annual Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche
November 25, 2008–January 6, 2009

The Museum continues a long-standing holiday tradition with the annual presentation of its Christmas tree, a favorite of New Yorkers and visitors from around the world. A vivid 18th-century Neapolitan Nativity scene—embellished with a profuse array of diminutive, lifelike attendant figures and silk-robed angels hovering above—will adorn the candlelit spruce. Recorded music and lighting ceremonies adds to the enjoyment of the holiday display. The exhibit of the crèche is made possible by gifts to The Christmas Tree Fund and
the Loretta Hines Howard Fund.

Choirs of Angels: Painting in Italian Choir Books, 1300–1500
November 25, 2008–April 12, 2009

Some two dozen splendid examples from the Museum's little-known collection of choral manuscript illuminations will be exhibited. With jewel-like color and gold, these precious images—which include scenes of singing angels, Hebrew prophets, heroic saints, and Renaissance princes—spring from the unique, artful marriage of painting, text, and music. The Museum's collection includes works created for cathedrals and monasteries across Italy, from Florence to Venice, from Cremona to Naples, by some of the most celebrated painters of their day.
The exhibition is made possible by the Michel David-Weill Fund.
Accompanied by a Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin.

Calder Jewelry
December 9, 2008–March 1, 2009

American-born artist Alexander Calder (1898–1976) is celebrated for his mobiles, stabiles, paintings, and objets d'art. This landmark exhibition is the first museum presentation dedicated solely to his extensive output of inventive jewelry. During his lifetime Calder produced approximately 1,800 pieces of brass, silver, and gold body ornaments, often embellished with found objects such as beach glass, ceramic shards, and wood. Calder Jewelry features nearly 100 works—bracelets, necklaces, earrings, brooches, and tiaras—many of which were made as personal gifts for the artist's family and friends. While Calder's more diminutive avant-garde creations converged closely with the aesthetics of the modern age, they always remained personal and unmistakably Calder.
The exhibition was organized by the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, and the Calder Foundation, New York.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
Press preview: Monday, December 8, 10:00 a.m.–noon

Raphael to Renoir: Drawings from the Collection of Jean Bonna
January 21–April 26, 2009

This will be the first comprehensive exhibition dedicated to European old master and 19th-century drawings from the distinguished collection of Mr. Jean Bonna in Geneva, Switzerland. Many of the 120 drawings on display are masterpieces, ranging through 500 years of the history of art, from the Renaissance to 1900, and representing a diversity of artistic schools in Italy, Northern Europe, France, and Great Britain, among other regions. The selection will feature works by renowned artists-—such as Carpaccio, Raphael, Andrea del Sarto, Parmigianino, Canaletto, Rembrandt, Claude Lorrain, Watteau, Chardin, Boucher, Fragonard, Goya, Ingres, Gericault, Delacroix, Manet, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Degas, Cézanne, Renoir, Gauguin, Van Gogh, and Seurat—as well as superb and poignant drawings by others less well-known. The exhibition is made possible in part by the Gail and Parker Gilbert Fund.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
Press preview: Tuesday, January 20, 10:00 a.m.–noon

Pierre Bonnard: The Late Interiors
January 27–April 19, 2009

This will be the first exhibition to focus entirely on the late interiors and related still-life imagery of Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947). The 75 paintings, drawings, and watercolors on display date from 1923 to 1947. Bonnard spent much of this time in his house in Le Cannet, a hill town in the south of France where he settled in 1931 with his wife, model, and muse, Marthe de Méligny. Overlooking the Mediterranean, in a bedroom converted to a studio, Bonnard masterminded the dazzling paintings that we have come to consider his finest— stunning metaphors of daily ritual where raking light and a shimmering palette transform random objects into pulsating color. In looking at Bonnard's late interiors and still-life paintings, the exhibition will present a deserved reappraisal of the artist in the context of French modernism.
The exhibition is made possible by The Florence Gould Foundation.
The catalogue is made possible by the Janice H. Levin Fund.
The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and
the Humanities.
Press preview: Monday, January 26, 10:00 a.m.–noon

Walker Evans and the Picture Postcard
February 3–May 25, 2009

This exhibition will focus on a collection of 9,000 picture postcards amassed and classified by the American photographer Walker Evans (1903–1975), now part of the Metropolitan's Walker Evans Archive. The picture postcard represented a powerful strain of indigenous American realism that directly influenced Evans's artistic development. The dynamic installation of hundreds of American postcards drawn from Evans's collection will reveal the symbiotic relationship between Evans's own art and his interest in the style of the postcard. This will also be demonstrated with a selection of about a dozen of his own photographs printed in 1936 on postcard-format photographic paper.
Accompanied by a publication.

Cast in Bronze: French Sculpture from Renaissance to Revolution
February 24–May 24, 2009

Beginning in the 16th century, a tradition of bronze sculpture developed in France that was influenced by achievements of the Italian Renaissance while manifesting its own distinct refinement and force. Even though French bronzes were among the glories of royal châteaux, including Versailles, and were always collected eagerly by connoisseurs, they have received relatively little scrutiny from scholars. Evolving from a decadelong collaborative study by curators and other scholars, this will be the first exhibition to address the subject in 40 years. Approximately 120 of the finest statuettes, portrait busts, and monuments will reveal the French genius for bronze from the late Renaissance through the times of Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI. Germain Pilon, Barthélemy Prieur, Michel Anguier, François Girardon, Antoine Coysevox, Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, and Jean-Antoine Houdon are only a few of the masters in the exhibition who lent their prodigious talents to the medium.
The exhibition is made possible by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation.
It was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Musée du Louvre, Paris, and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
Press preview: Monday, February 23, 10:00 a.m.–noon

Art of the Korean Renaissance, 1400–1600
March 17–June 21, 2009

This international loan exhibition will present approximately 45 works of art that illustrate the height of artistic production under court and elite patronage during the first 200 years of the Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1910), a time of extraordinary cultural achievements. The diverse yet cohesive group of secular and religious paintings, porcelain, sculpture, lacquer, and metalwork will highlight the aesthetics, conventions, and innovations of a Neo-Confucian elite and its artistic milieu. This will be the first in a series of special exhibitions at the Museum focusing on significant periods in Korean art history. Accompanied by a catalogue.

The Pictures Generation, 1974–1984
April 21–August 2, 2009

This will be the first major museum exhibition to focus exclusively on "The Pictures Generation." Born into the media culture of postwar America, this tightly knit group of New York artists created some of the most important and influential works of the late 20th century. Their overarching subject was how pictures of all kinds not only depict but also shape reality. Highly seductive photographs by Richard Prince and Cindy Sherman reveal the ways in which images from B movies and magazine advertisements determine much of our sense of who we are. Louise Lawler and Sherrie Levine examine how the myths and legends of modern art are inextricably tied to the institutions of the museum and art history. Also included are photographs by Laurie Simmons, James Casebere, and James Welling, as well as works in other media by Robert Longo, Troy Brauntuch, David Salle, Matt Mullican, Jack Goldstein, Allan McCollum, and Dara Birnbaum, among others.
The exhibition is made possible by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation and
The Andy Warhol Foundation.
The catalogue is made possible by the Mary C. and James W. Fosburgh Publications Fund
and the Doris Duke Fund for Publications.
Press preview: Monday, April 20, 10:00 a.m.–noon

Roxy Paine on the Roof: Maelstrom
April 28–October 25, 2009 (weather permitting)

American artist Roxy Paine (b. 1966) is creating a 130-foot-long by 45-foot-wide stainless-steel sculpture, Maelstrom (2009), especially for the Museum's Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden. Paine is known for a diverse body of work that includes startlingly realistic, handwrought replicas of botanical forms and fungi, rendered with synthetic materials and featuring various stages of growth and decay; machine-based works that mechanically produce abstract paintings, sculptures, and drawings; and a series of large-scale stainless-steel dendroids, fabricated from industrial components. Maelstrom is one of the artist's dendroids based on systems such as vascular networks, tree roots, industrial piping, and fungal mycelia. Set against, and in dialogue with, the greensward of Central Park and its architectural backdrop, this Roof Garden installation will showcase the work of an artist keenly interested in the interplay between the natural world and the built environment, as well as the human desire for order amid nature's inherently chaotic processes.
Beverage and sandwich service will be available from 10:00 a.m. until closing, including Friday and Saturday evenings.
The exhibition is made possible by Bloomberg.
Additional support is provided by Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon B. Polsky.
Press preview: Monday, April 27, 10:00 a.m.–noon

The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion
May 6–August 9, 2009

Exploring the reciprocal relationship between high fashion and evolving ideals of beauty, The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion will focus on iconic models of the 20th century and their roles in projecting, and sometimes inspiring, the fashion of their respective eras. The exhibition, organized by historical period from the early 1900s to 2000, will feature haute couture and ready-to-wear masterworks accompanied by fashion photography and video footage of models who epitomized their epochs.
The exhibition is made possible by Marc Jacobs.
Additional support is provided by Condé Nast.
Press preview: Monday, May 4, 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective
May 20–August 16, 2009

Francis Bacon (British, 1909–1992) is considered one of the most important painters of the 20th century. This innovative exhibition will herald the celebrations marking the centenary of the artist's birth and will be the first major display of Bacon's work seen in London or New York in more than 20 years. The exhibition will present Bacon's career in its entirety, featuring his most significant works and focusing on the key subjects and themes that run through his extraordinary creative output, as well as offering new and original insights into the work. Bacon's oeuvre was dominated by depictions of the human body, exposed and emotionally charged. These visually arresting works will be interwoven, just as they were when they were first made, with representations of animals and visceral landscapes. The core of the exhibition will consist of some 65 paintings drawn from public and private collections in Europe and the United States. Never-before-seen works and archival material from the Francis Bacon Estate will also be featured, shedding new light on the artist's career and working practices.
The exhibition is made possible in part by The Daniel and Estrellita Brodsky Foundation.
It was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and Tate Britain, London, in partnership with the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
Press preview: Monday, May 18, 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle Ages
June 2–August 23, 2009

For hundreds of years before the Old Masters, artists explored and tested the medium of drawing, producing whimsical sketches, intriguing graphic treatises, and finished drawings of marvelous refinement. Gathering some 60 works from the 9th to the early 14th century, this exhibition will be the first to celebrate the unique role of drawings in the artistic production of the Middle Ages. Early maps, artists' sketchbooks, and masterfully decorated manuscripts—borrowed from European and American libraries and museums—will demonstrate the imagination and innovation of the medieval artists whose presence is so immediately palpable in the works. Showcasing a range of techniques and aesthetics, this exhibition will investigate the critical place of graphic images in the creative and intellectual life of the Middle Ages.
The exhibition is made possible by the Michel David-Weill Fund.
Additional support is provided by Mrs. Alexandre P. Rosenberg.
The catalogue is made possible in part by The Andrew W. Mello
n Foundation. Press preview: Monday, June 1, 10:00 a.m.–noon

African and Oceanic Art from the Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva: A Legacy of Collecting
June 2–September 27, 2009

The collections of African and Oceanic art in the Barbier-Mueller Museum in Geneva, begun in the 1920s by Josef Mueller and continued by Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller, represent the culmination of more than eight decades of wide-ranging collecting of works from both regions. Presenting more than 30 highlights from the Barbier-Mueller's holdings of African and Oceanic sculpture, most never before displayed in the United States, this exhibition will explore a rich legacy of connoisseurship. The African works on view will feature a select group of sculpture and masks from western, eastern, and central Africa. From miniature to monumental, made of wood, ivory, metal, and terracotta, the outstanding African works have been selected to illustrate both the creativity of the continent's artists and the discerning eye of the collectors. The Oceanic works will comprise an array of rare and spectacular objects exemplifying the breadth of achievement by artists from across the Pacific. They will include a striking group of figures, masks, and decorative art from Indonesia, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Easter Island, and other areas.
Accompanied by a catalogue.

Napoleon III and Paris
June 9–September 7, 2009

This dossier photography exhibition will illuminate the changing shape of Paris during the Second Empire, when the city's narrow streets and medieval buildings gave way to the broad boulevards and grand public works that still define the urban landscape of the capital. An introductory section will focus on Napoleon III and his family, and a final section will depict the ruins of Paris in the aftermath of the Commune. Drawn entirely from the Metropolitan's collection, the exhibition will feature portraits of the Imperial family by Gustave Le Gray and Edouard Delessert; views of old Paris by Charles Marville; photographs of the New Louvre by Edouard Baldus and of the Opera by Delmaet and Durandelle; and scenes of the destruction of Paris and Saint-Cloud during the Commune by Alphonse Liebert and Pierre-Ambrose Richebourg. The exhibition will also include works of art in other media from various departments of the Museum.

Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul
June 23–September 20, 2009

Ancient Afghanistan—at the crossroads of major trade routes and the focus of invasions by great powers and nomadic migrations—was home to one of the most complex, rich, and original civilizations on the continent of Asia. This exhibition will celebrate the unique role of Afghanistan as a center for both the reception of diverse cultural elements and the creation of original styles of art—extending from the Bronze Age into the Kushan period. It will also commemorate the heroic rescue of the heritage of one of the world's great civilizations, whose precious treasures were thought to have been destroyed. Among the highlights of the exhibition will be gold vessels from the Khosh Tapa hoard; superb works and architectural elements from Ai Khanoum; extraordinary turquoise-encrusted gold jewelry and ornaments from the tombs at Tillya Tepe; and sculptural masterpieces in ivory, plaster medallions, and Roman glass from Begram.
The exhibition was organized by the National Geographic Society and the National Gallery
of Art, Washington, in association with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
It is supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
Press preview: Tuesday, June 15, 10:00 a.m.–noon

Augustus Saint-Gaudens in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
June 30–October 12, 2009

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has some 45 sculptures by Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907), the American Beaux-Arts sculptor who worked in New York, Paris, and Cornish, New Hampshire. The Museum's collection represents the full range of his oeuvre—from early cameos to innovative painterly bas-reliefs to reductions after stirring public monuments for East Coast cities. Through the lens of the Museum's unparalleled holdings as well as some related loans, this exhibition will offer a reappraisal of Saint-Gaudens's groundbreaking role in the history of late 19th-century American sculpture and the Aesthetic Movement.
Accompanied by a Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin.

Reopening of the Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries for Byzantine Art and the Medieval Europe Gallery
Opening November 18, 2008

Portions of the Medieval Galleries have been renovated thanks to the generous support of Mary and Michael Jaharis. The project required closing sections of the Tapestry Hall and the adjacent apse beneath the Great Hall Stairs. The apse is now part of the Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries for Byzantine Art and features the Museum's newly acquired manuscript, the Jaharis Lectionary, a rare masterpiece of Byzantine art from about the year 1100. The former Tapestry Hall has become a new gallery of Medieval Europe devoted to works of art in all media dating from about 1050 to 1300.
Press preview: Monday, November 17, 10:00 a.m.–noon

American Wing Renovation, Phase II: The Charles Engelhard Court and Second- and Third-Floor Period Rooms
Opening May 19, 2009

A major reordering and upgrading of the American Wing galleries and period rooms has begun, and the final phase is scheduled for completion in early 2011. The Wing will remain open, in part, throughout the three-phase project. In Phase II, The Charles Engelhard Court is being transformed to better showcase the sculptures, windows, and other works on view, and to facilitate public access. Renovations to the balcony include new glass barrier walls and a rethinking of the ceramics, glass, silver, and pewter installations. Many of the 17th- and 18th-century period rooms are being moved or replaced as the Wing's architectural holdings are upgraded. Access to the period rooms is being improved by the installation of a new glass- walled public elevator. The Engelhard Court and the 17th- and 18th-century period rooms are currently closed for construction, as is the corridor connecting The Engelhard Court and The Temple of Dendur. Phase I, New Classical Galleries on the first floor of the American Wing, opened to the public in 2007.
Press preview: Monday, May 18, 10:00 a.m.–noon

Joyce and Robert Menschel Hall for Modern Photography
Opened September 25, 2007

The Joyce and Robert Menschel Hall for Modern Photography is the Metropolitan's first gallery designed specifically for and devoted exclusively to the display of photographs created since 1960. Situated adjacent to the special exhibition galleries for drawings, prints, and photographs and the portion of the Robert Wood Johnson, Jr. Gallery where the earlier history of photography is displayed, the Menschel Hall allows the Department of Photographs to show its contemporary holdings within the broader context of photographic traditions and in an exhibition space with appropriate scale and detail. Installations, which change every six months, are drawn from the department's growing permanent collection.

Reopening of The Wrightsman Galleries for French Decorative Arts
Opened October 30, 2007

The Wrightsman Galleries for French decorative arts recently underwent extensive renovations to improve climate control, introduce new lighting and fire suppression systems, and incorporate numerous decorative changes. The new lighting, in particular, greatly enhances the revised presentation of the Museum's renowned collection of French furniture and related decorative arts. All of the 18th-century boiseries, as well as many objects, have received conservation treatment and a set of seat furniture has been reupholstered with a modern re-creation of the original embroidered show covers. The galleries include a number of artworks previously not on view, such as a late 18th-century carved and gilded state bed.

New Galleries for Oceanic Art
Opened November 14, 2007

The islands of the Pacific Ocean encompass nearly 1,800 distinct cultures and hundreds of artistic traditions in an area that covers about one-third of the earth's surface. The Museum's new permanent galleries for Oceanic art, completely redesigned and reinstalled, present a substantially larger portion of the Museum's Oceanic holdings than was previously on view. Featuring renowned masterworks from the Metropolitan's Oceanic collection as well as recent acquisitions, the installation displays sculpture and decorative arts from the regions of Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Australia. The displays also feature the Museum's first gallery devoted to the arts of the indigenous peoples of Island Southeast Asia.
The new galleries are accompanied by a publication.
The publication is made possible by The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation and
The MCS Endowment Fund.

New Gallery for the Art of Native North America
Opened November 14, 2007

The Museum's renovated gallery devoted to Native North American art displays approximately 90 works made by numerous American peoples. Ranging from the beautifully shaped stone tools known as bannerstones of several millennia B.C. to a mid-1970s tobacco bag, the objects illustrate a wide variety of cultural backgrounds, artistic styles, and functional purposes, all qualities inherent in the art of the peoples of the North American continent. Works include wood sculpture from the Northwest Coast of North America, ivory carvings from the Arctic, wearing blankets from the Southwest, and objects of hide from the Great Plains. Anchored by the Metropolitan's American Indian holdings drawn from the Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, the installation is augmented by loans from the well-known private collections of Ralph T. Coe of Santa Fe and Mr. and Mrs. Charles Diker of New York.

New Galleries for 19th- and Early 20th-Century European Paintings and Sculpture Including the Henry J. Heinz II Galleries
Opened December 4, 2007

The New Galleries for 19th- and Early 20th-Century European Paintings and Sculpture have recently opened to the public with renovated rooms and more than 8,000 square feet of additional gallery space—the Henry J. Heinz II Galleries—to showcase works from 1800 through the early 20th century. The renovated and expanded galleries feature all of the Museum's most loved 19th-century paintings, which have been on permanent display in the past, as well as works by Bonnard, Vuillard, Matisse, Picasso, and other early modern artists. Among the many additions are a full-room assembly of "The Wisteria Dining Room," a French art nouveau interior designed by Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer shortly before World War I that is the only complete example of its kind in the United States; Henry Lerolle's large painting The Organ Rehearsal (a church interior of 1885), recently cleaned; a group of newly acquired 19th-century landscape oil sketches; and a selection of rarely exhibited paintings by an international group of artists.

Shigeyuki Kihara: Living Photographs
October 7, 2008–February 1, 2009

This installation presents photographs by Shigeyuki Kihara, a Samoan-born multimedia and performance artist who uses photography to explore themes of Pacific culture, identity, colonialism, indigenous spirituality, stereotypes, gender roles, and consumerism. The inspiration for her work comes from a variety of sources, including 19th- and early 20th-century photographs that contributed to ideas—some imagined—about life in the Pacific Islands. During the exhibition, Kihara will also perform Taualuga: The Last Dance. The performance combines photography, traditional dance, audio, and historical costume to form a tribute to the many leaders and people of Samoa.
The exhibition is made possible by the Friends of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.

Reality Check: Truth and Illusion in Contemporary Photography
November 4, 2008–March 22, 2009

This installation of works from the permanent collection—the third in the Joyce and Robert Menschel Hall for Modern Photography, the Museum's new gallery for contemporary photographs—surveys the ways in which artists exploit photography's fundamental illusionism to create a sense of ambiguity about what is real and what is not. Among the works featured are photographs of staged scenarios or constructed environments that appear to be real, as well as real scenes or landscapes that appear strangely artificial. Artists include James Casebere, Gregory Crewdson, Robert Gober, David Levinthal, Vik Muniz, Stephen Shore, and Taryn Simon, among others.

Living Line: Selected Indian Drawings from the Subhash Kapoor Gift
March 25–September 6, 2009

This selection of 58 master drawings represents the distillation of the finest works assembled over two generations of collecting by Subhash Kapoor and his late father, Shree Parshotam Ram Kapoor. The exhibition will feature a wide variety of works on paper executed principally in black ink, sometimes enhanced with watercolor, typically on fine laminated papers. It will include a number of exemplary finished drawings, which were generally retained within artist studios as reference works upon which finished paintings were based. They were also enjoyed as connoisseur's objects in their own right, to be viewed by the royal patrons in the privacy of their palaces. Others served as understudies for miniature paintings or for murals. These drawings, principally dating from the 18th century, were produced in the royal ateliers of the courts of Rajasthan and the Pahari hills of the Punjab. The exhibition will provide unfettered insight into the creative process that underlies Indian miniature painting and will signal the importance of the art of drawing in the later court arts of Hindu India.

Provocative Visions: Race and Identity—Selections from the Permanent Collection
Through March 8, 2009

This installation features acquisitions made during the past 16 years (1992–2007), many on view at the Museum for the first time. The 13 sculptures, prints, and drawings by seven contemporary African-American artists—Chakaia Booker, Willie Cole, Glenn Ligon, Whitfield Lovell, Alison Saar, Lorna Simpson, and Kara Walker—confront issues of racial heritage and identity.

Early Buddhist Manuscript Painting: The Palm-Leaf Tradition
Through March 22, 2009

This display of the Museum's rare holdings of Indian illuminated palm-leaf manuscripts focuses on one remarkable Mahayanist Buddhist text, the Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita Sutra (Perfection of Wisdom). In the Buddhist pantheon, this meditation text is also represented in a personified form as the goddess of the same name. These superbly illustrated folios are supported by related illuminated book covers, sculptures, and Tibetan thankas. A vast body of Indian religious texts was recorded and transmitted through the medium of the palm-leaf manuscript. This humble form of the book, at once both fragile and resilient, has provided the vehicle for transmitting Indian religious thought for more than 2,000 years and has been a medium for preserving some of the earliest-known surviving paintings from India.

Tibetan Arms and Armor from the Permanent Collection
Through fall 2009

This installation presents approximately 35 highlights from the Museum's extensive permanent collection of rare and exquisitely decorated armor, weapons, and equestrian equipment from Tibet and related areas of Mongolia and China, dating from the 13th to the 20th century. Included are several recent acquisitions that have never before been exhibited or published.

Classic/Fantastic: Selections from the Modern Design Collection
Opened December 21, 2007

Order and disorder, reason and emotion, restraint and excess—opposing impulses such as these have influenced design since the beginning of civilization. The exhibition juxtaposes these divergent approaches to design in the modern era. Of the approximately 75 works in a wide range of media—including furniture, metalwork, ceramics, glass, textiles, and drawings—half are 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.

American Landscapes
Opened May 20, 2008

The first floor of the newly renovated Robert Lehman Wing displays nine large and superb American landscape paintings from the Metropolitan Museum's collection, enabling visitors to view selected highlights of American art during the major reordering and upgrading of the American Wing galleries and period rooms, scheduled for completion in early 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: These exhibitions originate at The Metropolitan Museum of Art with works of art from the Museum's collections selected and organized by Museum staff members. Please confirm the opening and closing dates with the local exhibiting museums as they may be subject to change.

The Belles Heures of the Duke of Berry
On view is a selection of 90 illuminated pages of the Belles Heures painted by the Limbourg brothers in 1405–1408/09 for Jean, duke of Berry. An expanded version of the exhibition will be presented at the Metropolitan Museum in fall 2009, which will include all of the illuminations along with other works of art that were created for the Valois princes at the time the Belles Heures was in production.
The catalogue is made possible by the Michel David-Weill Fund.
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles November 18, 2008–February 8, 2009

English Embroidery from The Metropolitan Museum of Art 1580–1700: 'Twixt Art and Nature
Using examples from the Museum's extensive collection of English embroidery, this exhibition will explore the context of embroidered objects in English life. On display will be samplers that illustrate the primary role of embroidery in the education of young women, costume accessories for personal use and as gifts, domestic and professional interior furnishings, and portraits of royalty, as well as decorated Bibles and ceremonial objects. This is the third in a series of collaborative exhibitions between The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the December 10, 2008–April 12, 2009 Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, New York

American Impressionism and Realism: A Landmark Exhibition from the Met
This exhibition will explore the American Impressionists' and Realists' responses to modern life, their simultaneous embrace and elision of their era's perplexing novelties. It will feature 71 judiciously selected oil paintings—the "best of the best" of the Metropolitan's collection—which have never before been displayed together and are not likely to be lent again as a group. It will comprise pictures by 34 well-known and less-familiar artists, with leading figures such as Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, and Childe Hassam each represented by several examples.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
The Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia May 30–September 20, 2009

Faces of a New Nation: American Portraits of the 18th and Early 19th Centuries
A select group of early American portraits will be displayed at Winterthur during the period of closure of the galleries for American Paintings and Sculpture. The approximately 40 portraits—including works by Copley, Stuart, Trumbull, Peale, Sully, and Morse—will be accompanied by the "picture book" version of The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin of the same title that was published in summer 2003.
Henry Francis DuPont Winterthur Museum, Delaware July 25, 2009–January 24, 2010

MAIN BUILDING HOURS

Fridays and Saturdays 9:30 a.m.–9:00 p.m.
Sundays, Tuesdays–Thursdays 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Met Holiday Mondays in the Main Building 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
September 1, October 13, and December 29, 2008;
January 19, February 16, and May 25, 2009
Met Holiday Mondays sponsored by CIT
All other Mondays Closed
January 1, Thanksgiving, and December 25 Closed

THE CLOISTERS MUSEUM AND GARDENS HOURS

March–October:

Tuesdays–Sundays 9:30 a.m.–5:15 p.m.
Mondays Closed

November–February:

Tuesdays–Sundays 9:30 a.m.–4:45 p.m.
Mondays Closed

SUGGESTED ADMISSION (INCLUDES MAIN BUILDING AND THE CLOISTERS MUSEUM AND GARDENS ON THE SAME DAY)

Adults $20.00
Seniors (65 and over) $15.00
Students $10.00
Members and children under 12
accompanied by adult Free

Advance tickets available at www.TicketWeb.com or 1-800-965-4827
For more information (212) 535-7710; www.metmuseum.org

No extra charge for any exhibition

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November 10, 2008

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