150 YEARS OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

It’s time to celebrate 150 years of the Met! The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City is America’s largest and most important art museum. It’s also one of the world’s most significant museums

It has a vast, encyclopedic collection, exciting exhibitions, high-level scholarship, and a spacious building on the Upper East Side. According to the museum’s website, you can “experience 5,000 years of art at The Met”, and that’s undoubtedly true. Every art lover will find plenty to enjoy there.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Statement of Mission, adopted in 2015.

THE MET FIFTH AVENUE MAIN ENTRANCE WITH STUDENTS CELEBRATING FLAG DAY ON JUNE 14TH, 1916. IMAGE COPYRIGHT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

OPENING RECEPTION ON FEBRUARY 20TH, 1872, IN THE PICTURE GALLERY IN DODWORTH MANSION (681 FIFTH AVENUE), THE FIRST and Jacob Wrey Mould. This original structure still exists, HOME OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART. WOOD but it’s been absorbed on all sides by later additions. You ENGRAVING FROM “FRANK LESLIE’S ILLUSTRATED NEWSPAPER,” MARCH can see a portion of the old brick facade in one place. Just 9TH, 1872. IMAGE COURTESY OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART enter the Lehman Wing from the medieval galleries and In 2020, the Met celebrates its 150th birthday with a look back the way you came. year of special events. To kick things off, let’s look back at some milestones in the 150 years of the Met. 20TH CENTURY 19TH CENTURY when Richard Morris Hunt’s now-iconic Beaux-Arts facade 4th July 1866 – American lawyer and diplomat John Jay and Great Hall opened to the public. (1817-1894) first proposed founding an art museum in New 1917 – Among the Met’s 1917 acquisitions was a small, York City. He made the suggestion to influential Americans blue faience statuette of a hippopotamus. It was made in attending a Fourth of July party in Paris, and his idea quickly Twelfth-Dynasty Egypt (c. 1961-1878 BCE), buried in a tomb, gained traction. and excavated in 1910. Ancient Egyptian faience animals, 13th April 1870 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art was including hippopotami, are relatively common, but the Met’s officially incorporated with the state of New York. However, it did not yet have art to display The Metropolitan Museum of Art collects, studies, nor a place to display it. conserves and presents significant works of art across all 20th February 1872 – The times and cultures in order to connect people to museum opened to the pub- creativity, knowledge and ideas lic. Its first home was a leased was a Neo-Gothic brick building designed by Calvert Vaux December 1902 – The Met as we see it today took shape space in the Dodworth Building at 681 Fifth Avenue, near version became particularly popular with visitors. Christened the present-day MOMA. William in the 1930s, he is now the Met’s mascot. The Met 1874-6 – The Met acquired the Cesnola Collection of Store sells William the Hippopotamus-themed souvenirs, like ancient art from Cyprus. This was the first of many major socks, flash drives, and Christmas ornaments. To celebrate private collections to find a home in the museum. It also William’s centenary in 2017, Conversation between Two Hiprepresented the Met’s first big step into the world of clas- pos displayed him beside a modern version by Carl Walters. sical art, since the majority of its earlier acquisitions were 10th May 1938 – The Cloisters, the Met’s medieval art Old Masters. Collector Luigi Palma di Cesnola (1832-1904) outpost, opened with an initial collection formed by George became the first director in 150 years of the Met. Grey Barnard (1863-1938). It’s located in Fort Tryon Park, in 30th March 1880 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art northern Manhattan, on land donated by the John D. Rockmoved to its long-term address at the corner of Fifth Av- efeller, Jr. (1874-1960). The medieval-inspired building is a enue and 82nd Street, just inside Central Park. It was on this 20th-century construction, but it contains many real Gothic date that the museum’s first permanent building opened. It and Romanesque elements. These include four medieval

THE MET CLOISTERS. PHOTO BY BRETT BEYER

cloisters and the apse of a 12th-century Spanish church. All were purchased from their original sites in Europe, dismantled, sent to New York, and installed into the fabric of the museum. This makes the Cloisters a rare place where you can THE MET FIFTH AVENUE. PETRIE COURT. PHOTO BY BRETT BEYER experience genuine medieval architecture in North America.

The Cloisters large collection of medieval treasures a long-range master plan and executed a major expansion includes the Unicorn Tapestries, the Cloisters Cross, and by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates. This massive the Belles Heures of Jean, Duc de Berry. Although the Met project created many of the spacious, light-filled galleries Cloisters has never been as well known as the main building we enjoy today, such as the American Wing in 1980 and the on Fifth Avenue, it gained visibility in 2018 when it hosted Michael C. Rockefeller Wing for arts from Africa, Oceania, part of the Costume Institute’s annual exhibition Heavenly and the Americas in 1982. This construction campaign inBodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. cluded new galleries for the next two milestones on this list. 1946 – The Museum of Costume Art joined the Met to 1975 – American banker Robert Lehman (1891-1969) became the Costume Institute, a repository of historical spent decades assembling a world-class art collection that and contemporary fashion. The Costume Institute’s annual he displayed in his New York City townhouse. Upon his death, fashion exhibitions have become much-anticipated events. Lehman left almost 3,000 objects to the Met under the condition that his entire collection be displayed together in a replica

Encouraging and developing the study of fine arts and of his townhouse. Unusually, the the application of the arts to manufacturing and practical life, Met agreed and built the Robert of advancing the general knowledge of kindred subjects, and, Lehman Wing to fulfil these to that end, furnishing popular instruction and recreation wishes. The Lehman Collection includes Old Master paintings, The Met’s 2009 acquisition of the Brooklyn Museum’s vast masterpieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, costume collection has only enhanced them further. The Met early Italian art, Renaissance furniture, and precious objects Gala, a glamorous, celebrity-studded event that opens the of porcelain and metalwork. yearly exhibition, first took place in 1948. 1978 – The Met added a very special object to its 4th February – 4th March 1963 – The most famous painting collections. The Temple of Dendur is a first century BCE in the world came to New York in the winter of 1963. Leonardo temple from Roman-ruled Egypt. When Egypt built the da Vinci’s Mona Lisa appeared in the Met’s medieval hall Aswan Dam in the 1960s, the temple and numerous other for about a month; she also visited the National Gallery of historic sites in the flood zone faced certain annihilation. Art in Washington D.C. Attendance was spectacular. People Through efforts by UNESCO, fifty countries contributed waited in line for hours in the freezing cold to see the Mona money and expertise to record and save as many of these Lisa. Over 60,000 people saw the painting in one day alone.* monuments as possible. The Egyptian government gave 1971-1991 – Under directors Thomas Hoving (1931-2009) the Temple of Dendur to the United States in gratitude and Philippe de Montebello (b. 1936) the Met put together for the country’s major contributions. The Met beat out

THE MET FIFTH AVENUE. GREAT HALL. PHOTO BY BRETT BEYER

THE MET FIFTH AVENUE (NEW YORK, NY). THE TEMPLE OF DENDUR. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MET several other American institutions to get the temple, largely because of an inspired plan to house it.

The Sackler Wing was designed and built specifically for the Temple of Dendur. This massive pavilion has a sloping glass wall so that the temple retains the appearance of being outside while actually enjoying protection from the elements. An artificial waterway runs around it. Visitors can walk through the Temple of Dendur, and I highly recommend the experience. The Sackler Wing also hosts many performances and cultural events set against this unforgettable backdrop. Two U.S. Presidents have held state dinners there.

21ST CENTURY 2000s – The end of the 20th century marked the last major expansions in the 150 years of the Met. Instead, the museum has focused on renovation, giving existing galleries fresh new quarters that have allowed curators to update and re-imagine permanent displays. The Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia (Islamic art) were completely renovated and reinstalled in 2011. The American Wing got a face lift in 2012, and the Costume Institute’s basement galleries were updated in 2014. Continuing this trend, newly refreshed British decorative arts galleries opened on 2nd March 2020. 2011 – The Costume Institute’s summer shows are always well attended, but none before or since has ever taken off quite like Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty. This 2011 exhibition of dramatic couture by the recently-deceased British fashion designer attracted 661,509 people. The museum had to extend both the duration of the exhibition

THE MET FIFTH AVENUE, THE CHARLES ENGELHARD COURT IN THE AMERICAN WING. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MET

and daily museum hours to meet the demand. 2016 – The Met acquired its second outpost in the Breuer building, formerly home to the Whitney Museum of American Art. It is located on Madison Avenue not far from the Met’s main building. When the Whitney moved out in 2014, this iconic building’s future was uncertain until the Met signed an eight-year lease on the space. The Met Breuer, as it’s now called, focuses on modern and contemporary art, which have not traditionally been well-represented in the main building. However, rumour has it that the Met may leave the Breuer building soon. If so, the Frick Collection will likely exhibit there during its upcoming renovation. 2020 – The Met turns 150. The museum is celebrating 150 years of the Met with events all year long, including the special exhibition Making the Met, 1870-2020. There were also three days of festivities from 4th to 6th June.

By Alexandra Kiely/Daily Art Magazine