Celebrate the new year with a visit to the Museum! In case you missed it, there is still time to see our traditional Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche, which will be on view through Tuesday, January 6. While you're here, be sure to visit the critically praised special exhibition "The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions". This stunning presentation—organized by the Museum's Forum of Curators, Conservators, and Scientists—features transformative works of art from the permanent collection and highlights the Museum's commitment to acquiring masterpieces, which was furthered during Philippe de Montebello's thirty-one-year tenure as director.
See the calendar to find out what's happening at the Museum on a particular day.
Above: Childe Hassam (American, 1859–1935). Winter in Union Square (detail), 1889–90. Oil on canvas; 18 1/4 x 18 in. (46.4 x 45. 7 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Ethelyn McKinney, in memory of her brother, Glenn Ford McKinney, 1943 (43.116.2). See the Collection Database to learn more about this work of art.
Art and Love in Renaissance Italy
Through February 16, 2009
This exhibition explores the various exceptional objects created in the Italian Renaissance to celebrate love and marriage. The approximately 150 objects, which date from about 1400 to the mid-sixteenth century, range from exquisite examples of maiolica and jewelry given as gifts to couples 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 Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End
Through March 22, 2009
This installation features acquisitions made during the past sixteen years (1992–2007), many on view at the Museum for the first time.
Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium
Through March 15, 2009
This exhibition focuses on the extraordinary art created as a result of a sophisticated network of interaction that developed among kings, diplomats, merchants, and others in the Near East during the second millennium B.C. Approximately 350 objects of the highest artistry from royal palaces, temples, and tombs—as well as from a unique shipwreck—provide the visitor with an overview of artistic exchange and international connections throughout the period. Learn more about a special two-day symposium being held in conjunction with this exhibition.
Calder Jewelry
Through March 1, 2009
During his lifetime, the artist Alexander Calder (American, 1898–1976)—best known for his mobiles, stabiles, paintings, and objets d’art—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. This exhibition is the first museum presentation dedicated solely to Calder's extensive output of inventive jewelry, and features approximately ninety works, many of which were made as personal gifts for his family and friends.
Provocative Visions: Race and Identity
Through March 8, 2009
This installation features acquisitions made during the past sixteen years (1992–2007), many on view at the Museum for the first time.
Special exhibitions are free with admission. See all current exhibitions.
Shop at The Met Store online or in person to take advantage of special markdowns on all holiday items, as well as selected jewelry and watches. All permanently reduced merchandise is now 50%–75% off; holiday decor, cards, and ornaments are 50% off; and selected jewelry and watches are 25% off*. Hurry, quantities are limited!
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has been engaged in the sale of art reproductions and publications since its founding in 1870. Your purchase supports the educational mission of the Museum by widening public awareness of art and contributing to basic operating expenses. Remember: A gift from the Met is a gift to the Met.
*Savings off regular, original, and already reduced prices. Interim markdowns may have been taken. Sale ends 1/11/09 except for clearance items.
The Museum's annual Christmas tree and Neapolitan Baroque crèche display are once again on view in the Medieval Sculpture Hall. The brightly lit, twenty-foot blue spruce—decorated with a collection of eighteenth-century Neapolitan angels and cherubs and a baroque crèche at its base—is set in front of the eighteenth-century Spanish choir screen from the Cathedral of Valladolid.
Dramatic tree-lighting ceremonies are scheduled for Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays at 4:30 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays at 4:30, 5:30, and 6:30 p.m., through January 6.
The installation is made possible by The Loretta Hines Howard Trust.
Image: Annual Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Gift of Loretta Hines Howard.
The Cloisters Museum and Gardens—the Metropolitan Museum's branch in Northern Manhattan dedicated to medieval art—offers a variety of weekend programs on an ongoing basis, including Gallery Talks, Gallery Workshops for Families, and programs in Spanish. See Events and Programs at The Cloisters for more information, or see the calendar for information about programs on a particular day.
Image: The Adoration of the Shepherds, 14th century. Bartolo di Fredi (Italian [Sienese], active 1353, died 1410). Tempera on poplar, gilding. The Cloister Collection, 1925 (25.120.288).
Each week, the Museum offers hundreds of events and programs that are free with Museum admission—including lectures, films, tours, family activities, and more. The following featured events are just a few of the free programs scheduled for this month. See the calendar to plan your next visit.
Gallery Talk: The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions
Tuesday, January 6, 11:00 a.m.
The Tisch Galleries, 2nd floor
In conjunction with the special exhibition of the same name, this gallery talk led by Lisa M. Messinger takes a look at Abstract Expressionist art by Pollock, de Kooning, Still, and Rothko. See the online catalogue for more information about the exhibition.
Film
China: West Meets East at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Tuesday, January 6, 2:00 p.m.
Bonnie J. Sacerdote Lecture Hall, Uris Center for Education, ground floor
Produced by Marc Doyle and Chesney Blankenstein Doyle, this 2008 film explores nearly four thousand years of Chinese art in a wide variety of media on display at the Met (57 min.).
See the calendar to see more events listed by date.
Above: Bruce Davidson (American, born 1933). [Gallery Talk, Metropolitan Museum of Art], 1968. Gelatin silver print. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of the Hundredth Anniversary Committee, 1974 (1974.513.38). © Bruce Davidson, Magnum Photos. See the Collection Database to learn more about this artwork.
The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions
Through February 1, 2009
To celebrate Philippe de Montebello’s years as director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum’s Forum of Curators, Conservators, and Scientists has organized an exhibition of approximately three hundred works of art—from a total of more than eighty-four thousand—that were acquired during his tenure. For the first time ever, the Museum has published an online catalogue to accompany the exhibition.
Special exhibitions are free with admission. See all current exhibitions.
College Group at The Met
The College Group at the Met (CGM) is a group of twenty local college students who plan and produce events and programs for other students. The CGM's mission is to enhance Museum programming with regard to local college students, to connect campus communities with the Museum, and to increase student engagement at the Museum. Through programming, the CGM creates opportunities for all students—from all backgrounds and academic majors—to encounter and explore the Met's collection in new ways.
See College Group at The Met for more information.
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Image: Joseph H. Davis (1811–1865). Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Otis and Child (detail), 1834. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1972 (1972.263.6). See the Collection Database to learn more about this work of art.