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Met presents Anxiety and Hope in Japanese Art, starting April 8

Image: Detail of ‘Universal Gateway,’ Chapter 25 of the Lotus Sutra, Japan, Kamakura Period (1185–1333), dated 1257. Handscroll; ink, color, and gold on paper. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, purchase, Louisa Eldridge McBurney gift, 1953.

NEW YORK — Opening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Saturday, April 8, Anxiety and Hope in Japanese Art focuses on the human stories behind art and art-making. Drawn from the Met’s renowned collection of Japanese art, this exhibition explores the twin themes of anxiety and hope through more than 250 works — from ancient religious sculpture and ritual objects to modern woodblock prints and photographs — presented across four display rotations. It will continue through July 14, 2024.

Closing soon: Met’s Chroma, revealing colorful truth of ancient sculpture

Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, reconstruction of marble finial in the form of a sphinx (detail), 2022. 3D print in polymethyl metacrylate, natural pigments in egg tempera, gilded copper, gilded tin, Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung (Liebieghaus Polychromy Research Project), Frankfurt am Main; original: Greece, marble, circa 530 B.C. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

NEW YORK – Ancient Greek and Roman sculpture was once colorful, vibrantly painted, and richly adorned with detailed ornamentation. On view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through March 26, Chroma: Ancient Sculpture in Color reveals the colorful backstory of polychromy — meaning “many colors” in Greek — and presents new discoveries of surviving ancient color on artworks in the Met’s world-class collection. Exploring the artistic practices and materials used in ancient polychromy, the exhibition highlights cutting-edge scientific methods used to identify ancient color and examines how color helped convey meaning in antiquity, and how ancient polychromy has been viewed and understood in later periods.

Ancient Greek sculpture ancient Roman sculpture The Met The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The trees that please: Met devotes show to van Gogh’s Cypresses

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890), ‘Wheat Field with Cypresses,’ June 1889. Oil on canvas, 28 7/8 by 36 3/4in. (73.2 by 93.4cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, purchase, the Annenberg Foundation gift, 1993 (1993.132)

NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Museum of Art has planned a groundbreaking exhibition of some 40 works by Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) that will be on view at the Met Fifth Avenue from May 22 through August 27. Van Gogh’s Cypresses will be the first show to focus on the unique vision the artist brought to bear on the towering trees — among the most famous in the history of art — affording an unprecedented perspective on a motif virtually synonymous with Van Gogh’s fiercely original power of expression.

The Met The Metropolitan Museum of Art Vincent Van Gogh

Met shows how 19th-century stresses sparked Danish Golden Age

Martinus Rorbye (Danish, Drammen 1803–1848 Copenhagen), ‘View from the Citadel Ramparts in Copenhagen by Moonlight, 1839.’ Oil on canvas, 11 3/8 by 9 5/8in. (28.9 by 24.4cm) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Eugene V. Thaw, 2007 (2007.164.7) Image © Metropolitan Museum of Art

NEW YORK – Beyond the Light: Identity and Place in Nineteenth-Century Danish Art explores the period formerly known as the Danish Golden Age, a name that belies the economic and political hardships the dwindling Danish Kingdom experienced in the 19th century. The exhibition is on at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and will run through April 16.

19th-century Danish art The Met The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Met gifted with monumental Salviati oil-on-marble portrait

Portrait of Bindo Altoviti by Francesco Salviati, rendered on marble during the 16th century. The Met announced the receipt of the painting as a gift from the trust of Assadour “Aso” O. Tavitian. Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Museum of Art has received a gift of an exceptional oil painting by celebrated Italian artist Francesco Salviati (1510–1563). Executed on a one-inch thick marble slab, the arresting portrait depicts Bindo Altoviti (1491–1557), a powerful Florentine banker and one of the most significant political opponents to the Medici rulers. The monumental work is the first painting on marble acquired by the Met. It is a gift from the trust of Assadour “Aso” O. Tavitian.

Francesco Salviati The Met The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Met show of Richard Avedon group portraits opens Jan. 19

Richard Avedon (American, 1923–2004). Outtake from ‘Andy Warhol and members of the Factory,’ October 9, 1969. Gelatin silver print, 8 by 10in. (20.3 by 25.4cm). The Richard Avedon Foundation © The Richard Avedon Foundation

NEW YORK – To celebrate the centennial of Richard Avedon’s birth in 1923, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will present a selection of the photographer’s most innovative group portraits in the exhibition Richard Avedon: MURALS, opening Thursday, January 19 and continuing through October 1. Although Avedon first earned his reputation as a fashion photographer in the late 1940s, his greatest achievement was his stunning reinvention of the photographic portrait. Focused on the short period between 1969 and 1971, this exhibition will explore a critical juncture in the artist’s career, when, after a hiatus from portraiture, he began working with a new camera and a new sense of scale. The exhibition will be organized around three monumental photomurals in the Met collection (the largest measures nearly 10 by 35ft) that depict the era’s preeminent artists, activists, and politicians. Uniting the murals with session outtakes and contemporaneous projects, the exhibition will track Avedon’s evolving approach to group portraiture, through which he transformed the conventions of the genre.

Richard Avedon The Met The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Met receives gift of American aviation-themed weathervane

Bleriot Model XI Monoplane weathervane, circa 1909-13, copper with traces of original gilding; airplane: 57 ¼ by 55 by 10in. (145.4 by 139.7 by 25.4cm), directionals: 38 5/8 by 38 ½ by 15 ¾in. (98.1 by 97.8 by 40cm), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of Michael and Patricia Del Castello. Photo credit: Michael Kent Lynberg.

NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced on September 23 that it has received a gift of a rare American weathervane from Michael and Patricia Del Castello. Produced by an unidentified maker between 1909 and 1913, it was likely commissioned for the Poland Spring House in Poland Spring, Maine, where it was installed on its rooftop by 1914 and remained on view until 1973. The commanding and distinctive weathervane joins the Met’s growing collection of American vernacular sculpture and will be on view in Gallery 732 in the American Wing starting September 29.

American weathervane Bleriot Model XI Monoplane weathervane Louis Bleriot The Met The Metropolitan Museum of Art weathervane

Splendors of Tudor-era England come to the Met in October

Hans Holbein the Younger (German, Augsburg 1497-98–1543 London), ‘Henry VIII,’ circa 1537. Oil on wood, 11 by 7 7/8in. (28 by 20cm). Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. Image © Museo Nacional Thyssen- Bornemisza, Madrid

NEW YORK – From King Henry VII’s seizure of the throne in 1485 to the death of his granddaughter Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, England’s Tudor monarchs used art to legitimize and glorify their tumultuous reigns. On view at the Met from October 10 to January 8, 2023, The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England will trace the transformation of the arts under their rule through more than 100 objects — including iconic portraits, spectacular tapestries, manuscripts, sculpture and armor — from both the museum collection and international lenders.

Edward VI Henry VIII King Henry VII Mary I Queen Elizabeth I The Met The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Tudors Tudor monarchs Tudors

Eight film directors contribute to Costume Institute’s Spring 2022 show

Ball gown, Marguery Bolhagen (American, 1920–2021), circa 1961; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Mrs. William Randolph Hearst, Jr., 1966 (2009.300.2556a, b). The Richard and Gloria Manney John Henry Belter Rococo Revival Parlor, circa 1850, Gift of Sirio D. Molteni and Rita M. Pooler, 1965 (Inst.65.4). Photograph © Dario Calmese, 2021.

Ball gown, Marguery Bolhagen (American, 1920–2021), ca. 1961; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Mrs. William Randolph Hearst, Jr., 1966 (2009.300.2556a, b). The Richard and Gloria Manney John Henry Belter Rococo Revival Parlor, ca. 1850, Gift of Sirio D. Molteni and Rita M. Pooler, 1965 (Inst.65.4). Photo © Dario Calmese, 2021. — Ball gown, Marguery Bolhagen (American, 1920–2021), circa 1961; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Mrs. William Randolph Hearst, Jr., 1966 (2009.300.2556a, b). The Richard and Gloria Manney John Henry Belter Rococo Revival Parlor, circa 1850, Gift of Sirio D. Molteni and Rita M. Pooler, 1965 (Inst.65.4). Photograph © Dario Calmese, 2021.

NEW YORK – The Costume Institute’s 2022 spring exhibition, In America: An Anthology of Fashion — the second of a two-part presentation — will explore the foundations of American fashion through a series of sartorial displays featuring individual designers and dressmakers who worked in the United States from the 19th to the mid-late 20th century. In America: An Anthology of Fashion will open on May 7 and close on September 5. In celebration of its debut, The Costume Institute Benefit (also known as The Met Gala™) will coincide with the opening date of the show. The benefit provides The Costume Institute with its primary source of annual funding for exhibitions, publications, acquisitions, operations and capital improvements.

Costume Institute The Costume Institute Benefit The Met The Met Gala The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Met acquires important Cavalli Renaissance bronze relief

Attributed to Gian Marco Cavalli (Italian, ca. 1454–after 1508, activity documented 1475–1508). ‘Mars, Venus and Cupid with Vulcan at his Forge (The Mantuan Roundel),’ ca. 1500. Parcel-gilt bronze with silver inlay. Integrally cast gilt frame with suspension loop. Diameter: 16 9/16in (42cm); Depth: 11/16in (1.7cm); Height with suspension loop: 18 3/8in (46.7cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, The Isaacson-Draper Fund, Florence and Herbert Irving Acquisitions Fund, 2021 Benefit Fund, Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, Walter and Leonore Annenberg Acquisitions Endowment Fund, Alejandro Santo Domingo, Michel David-Weill, David T. Schiff, Annette de la Renta, Mark Fisch, the Hon. Kimba Wood and Frank Richardson, Denise and Andrew Saul, Beatrice Stern, Wrightsman Fellows, and members of the Acquisitions Committee Gifts, 2022 (2022.6)

NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced it has acquired an extremely rare bronze relief attributed to Gian Marco Cavalli, an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, print engraver and medalist who worked for the Gonzaga court in Mantua. Created around 1500, it is both the largest and one of the most technically sophisticated examples of a bronze roundel known from the early Renaissance. Lavishly embellished with gilding and silver inlay, the beautifully rendered configuration shows four figures from Roman mythology and provides new insights into the experimentation and impeccable craftsmanship that are the hallmarks of early north Italian bronzes.

Andrea Mantegna Antico bronze relief Gian Marco Cavalli Gonzaga court Isabella d’Este Renaissance bronze relief Renaissance bronze roundel The Met The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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