Celebrating 150 Years of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Left, 19th century visitors view Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851) by Emanuel Leutze; right, 21st- century visitors gaze upon the same work. (Metropolitan Museum Archives / Roderick Aichinger / Composite image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
SMITHSONIANMAG.COM
NOVEMBER 10, 2020
In 1866, a group of businessmen and civic leaders launched the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a concept without a work of art to its name. The New York City cultural institution only acquired its first artifact—a third-century A.D. Roman marble sarcophagus decorated with intricately carved garlands—four years later, in 1870.
From this initial acquisition, the Met’s palatial Fifth Avenue collection grew to house thousands of objects, becoming an internationally renowned trove of cultural heritage that attracts more than seven million visitors each year. Now, an exhibition titled “Making the Met: 1870–2020” commemorates the museum’s 150th birthday by charting its history—and the broader history of Western art collection—from the end of the American Civil War to the present day.
Visitors planning to make the trek in person must purchase timed-entry tickets online. For those hoping to participate from home, the museum is also offering a slate of virtual offerings: Art lovers can listen to an hour-long audio tour of some of the exhibition’s highlights, as narrated by actor Steve Martin; explore an interactive online version of the show; or take a virtual walkthrough courtesy of Google Arts and Culture.
Those interested in the museum’s behind-the-scenes history can also browse seven stories about the conservation of the Met’s most iconic works or watch a short documentary on the museum’s iconic Fifth Avenue architecture. Another option is viewing rarely seen footage from Behind the Scenes: The Working Side of the Museum, a silent 1928 documentary that depicts janitors dusting works and curators arranging exhibitions.
Per a statement, the exhibition’s 250 objects are presented roughly in the order that they entered the museum’s collections. Taken together, the items offer a history of the Met’s collecting habits and values, as well as what the New York Times’ Jason Farago describes as “strange, riveting juxtapositions” of artwork from various time periods and parts of the world.
The show’s ten sections outline moments of great change for the museum, from its earliest decades to its role in World War II and sometimes-reluctant embrace of modernism in the 20th century. Visitor favorites and fragile pieces that can only be displayed on rare occasions number among the featured works, which span all eras, mediums and artistic concerns.
Read more at: www.smithsonianmag.com