The directors of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art announced today that their boards of trustees have agreed in principle to a multiple-year collaboration projected to begin in 2015, when the Whitney opens its new museum facility on Gansevoort Street in downtown Manhattan. The Metropolitan Museum plans to present exhibitions and educational programming at the Whitney’s landmark building at 945 Madison Avenue, which was designed by Marcel Breuer, for a period of eight years, with the possibility of extending the agreement for a longer term. The ...
At the March 16, 2010, meeting of the Board of Trustees of the American Federation of Arts (AFA), Thomas P. Campbell was elected a trustee. “The AFA has enjoyed a long and extremely fruitful relationship with The Metropolitan Museum of Art,” said AFA Director George G. King, “and we are delighted that Tom will be carrying on the tradition of representing the Metropolitan on the AFA Board. I know that with his talent and wisdom he will be a great asset in assisting the AFA with carrying out its mission.” The AFA Board is the first board Mr. Campbell has joined since assumi...
Romare Bearden's vibrant mural-size tableau The Block (1971) and related sketches and photographs will be featured at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning January 15, 2010, in a small installation of works from the collection. The Block, an ambitious 18-foot-long collage, celebrates the Harlem neighborhood in New York City that nurtured and inspired so much of the artist's life and work. Romare Bearden (1911–1988) is best known for the colorful cut-paper collages that he began making in the 1960s. Elaborate works such as The Block (1971) elevated this genre to a major art form through ...
In recognition of a generous gift of $10 million from the Istanbul-based Vehbi Koç Foundation, The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today the designation of two new galleries for Ottoman Art as the Koç Family Galleries. To be part of the Museum's galleries for the art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and later South Asia, scheduled to open in 2011, the two galleries will display works created within the borders of the Ottoman Empire between the early 14th and early 20th centuries. "It gives me great pleasure to acknowledge the generosity of the Vehbi Ko...
Watteau, Music, and Theater, the first exhibition of Jean-Antoine Watteau's paintings in the United States in 25 years, will be presented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from September 22 through November 29. The exhibition will demonstrate the place of music and theater in Watteau's art, exploring the tension between an imagery of power, associated with the court of Louis XIV, and a more optimistic and mildly subversive imagery of pleasure that was developed in opera-ballet and theater early in the 18th century. It will demonstrate that the painter's vision was influenced directly by mu...
The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today that a new gallery dedicated to Safavid and Later Persian Art (1500-1924) has been designated the Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Gallery. It is one of a suite of exhibition spaces—the Galleries for the Arts of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia—that are overseen by the Museum's Department of Islamic Art and are scheduled to open in 2011. In addition to funding the gallery naming, Mr. and Mrs. Mossavar-Rahmani's significant grant will fund the publication of a catalogue on the entire collection of the Departmen...
Exhibition dates: June 18 – November 29, 2009 Location: The Sackler Wing Galleries for the Arts of Japan, 2nd Floor An impressive group of Japanese mandalas—graphic depictions of the Buddhist universe and its myriad realms and deities—are featured in an exhibition on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art through November 29. Showcasing more than 60 magnificent works—painting, sculpture, drawing, metalwork, stoneware, textile, and lacquer—drawn from major museums and collections in the United States, Japanese Mandalas: Emanations and Avatars illustrates the exceptional and complex worl...