Xie Zhiliu (1910–1997)

Xie ZhiliuWith more than one hundred works by Xie Zhiliu (pronounced "shay jer-leo"), one of modern China's leading traditional artists, this rare trove of material demonstrates how studying and copying earlier models were as much a part of Chinese artistic tradition as learning from nature. Drawn from a recent gift presented to the Museum by the artist’s daughter, Sarah Shay, the installation commemorates the one-hundredth anniversary of Xie Zhiliu’s birth.

 

Wednesday,May 5-Sunday, August 15

The spring 2010 exhibition organized by The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art will be American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity, the first drawn from the newly established Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Met.  The exhibition will be celebrated at the annual Gala Benefit on May 3 and will be on view from May 5 through August 15, 2010.  It will explore developing perceptions of the modern American woman from 1890 to 1940 and the ways these perceptions continue to affect women today.  Focusing on archetypes of American femininity through dress, the exhibition will reveal how the American woman initiated style revolutions that mirrored her social, political, and sexual emancipation. 

The Museum's Costume Institute Gala Benefit on Monday, May 3 will be Co-Chaired by Oprah Winfrey; Patrick Robinson, designer for Gap; and Anna Wintour, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue. 

The exhibition will feature approximately 80 examples of haute couture and high fashion primarily from the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was transferred to the Met from the Brooklyn Museum in January 2009. 

Visitors will walk through time as they enter circular galleries that reflect the milieu of each feminine archetype.  Period clothing will be brought to life with hand-painted panoramas animated by music, video, and lighting.  The first gallery will evoke the ballroom of the "Heiress" (1890s), filled with ball gowns by Charles Frederick Worth. Scenes of the great outdoors will showcase the athleticism and physical independence of the "Gibson Girl" (1890s) as characterized by bathing costumes, riding ensembles, and cycling suits. An artistic rendering of Louis Comfort Tiffany's studio in New York will provide the backdrop for the "Bohemian" (early 1900s), an archetype represented by Rita Lydig and featuring her signature silk pantaloons by Callot Soeurs.  The "Suffragist" and "Patriot" (1910s) will have backdrops of archival film footage revealing the gradual social and physical emancipation of women around the time of World War I. "Flappers" (1920s) will be evoked through chemise dresses for day by Patou and heavily beaded evening styles by Lanvin and Molyneux.  Cinematic representations of the "Screen Siren" will be presented in a gallery resembling a 1930s cinema, and will showcase body-cleaving, second-skin bias-cut gowns.  In the final gallery, a video installation will explore how today's ideal of American style evolved via each of the exhibition's archetypes. Harold Koda

The exhibition is organized by Andrew Bolton, Curator, with the support of Harold Koda (left), Curator in Charge, both of the Met's Costume Institute.  Nathan Crowley, a production designer of films including The Dark Knight and Public Enemies will serve as the exhibition's creative consultant.

 

Located on Museum Mile, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is an essential destination for any resident or visitor—Indeed it is not an exaggeration to say that hundreds of visits could not exhaust the wealth of beauty, history, and art the museum offers. 

The Museum was founded in 1870 with 174 European paintings and a mission to bring art and art education to the American people. Though collections grew during the 19th century, it was in the 20th that the Museum became one of the world's great art centers.  Today it owns over two million works of art which are curated by 22 departments.

The Metropolitan moved from 681 Fifth Avenue to its current site in 1880 just inside Central Park.  It has expanded in stages since. In 1926 the current Fifth Avenue entrance & facade was finished and other major architectural work was been done as recently as 1991.  In the past decade there have been significant renovations to the Greek & Roman galleries and the American Wing. 

Among the many highlights of the museum are its singular collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art; An extraordinary collection of Old Masters; 5 of the few known Vermeers; The most comprehensive collection of American art, sculpture, and decorative arts in the world; The finest Ancient Egyptian art collection outside Cairo (which includes the Temple of Dendur, a Roman-era Egyptian monument given to the United States by Egypt); The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing showing the arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas; and an extraordinary collection of Medieval artwork shown both in the main museum and at The Cloisters, a branch in upper Manhattan. 

The American Wing

The Charles Engelhard Court—the spectacular, light-filled pavilion along Central Park that has long served as the grand entrance to The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s American Wing,  recently renovated, presents the Museum’s collection of American sculpture and decorative arts.

Centered by Augustus Saint-Gaudens gilded Diana, the space allows in more natural light which is accentuated by the white marble floor.  There is ample room for visitors to wander among and appreciate the superb selection of sculpture and the stunning Louis Comfort Tiffany loggia which he designed for his Long Island residence, Laurelton Hall.  On the upper balconies are collections of American glasswork, pottery, and other crafts.  The final phase of the American Wing renovation, scheduled for completion in 2011, will include the American paintings and sculpture galleries and the addition of eight completely new galleries.


Curator Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, a coordinator for installations within The Charles Engelhard Court and a specialist on Tiffany, here photographed in front of the Tiffany Studio’s window, Autumn Landcape.

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