Vincent Van Gogh, Installation View, via Art Observed

While the Metropolitan Museum of Art is well-known for its constantly rotating series of special exhibitions, this summer sees a new focus on the museum’s permanent collection. For the first time in over a decade, the Met has united its collection of works by Vincent Van Gogh under one roof, where they will stay for the next six months. Typically scattered across the globe on loans to various museum, the Met’s seventeen paintings by the artist is the largest such collection in North and South America. (more…)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present an exhibition in the fall featuring major cubist works, including pieces by artists such as Georges Braque, Fernand Leger, and Pablo Picasso. The 79 artworks that will be exhibited in the show were donated to the Met last springby Leonard Lauder. The show will be the first time that Lauder’s gift, which is valued at over $1 billion, will be exhibited as a whole; it will run from October 20th to February 16th, 2015.

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After announcing her retirement as President of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Emily Rafferty sat down with the Wall Street Journal for an interview in which she discusses her time at the Met and her future plans. Although Rafferty maintains her decision to retire as President is the right one for both herself and the Met, she also discusses the possibility of a future position in the public eye, saying in the interview “I came to the decision after a lot of thought. I’d like to have another experience in the public sector; I don’t know what it will be yet. My time clock gave me every possible signal”.  (more…)

Emily Rafferty, via NY Press

The New York Times reports that Emily Rafferty will be retiring next spring after ten years as President of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and almost forty at the institution. She first joined the Met in 1976 in the development department before rising through the ranks to become the Met’s first female president in 2004. As president, Rafferty has been in charge of the museum’s administration, working on the financial, legal, and developmental issues that provide the backbone  to the museum’s extensive collection and popular shows.

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Beginning May 1st, The Museum of Modern Art will remain open 7 days a week, following the recent announcement that The Metropolitan Museum of Art would also be opening its doors every day.  MoMA has usually closed on Tuesdays for cleaning and maintenance. (more…)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has been handed a class-action lawsuit, alleging that it has deceived patrons into believing that the admission price for the museum is $25.  While the museum is legally required to offer free admission to the public, it posts a “recommended” admission fee at the front entrance.  “The museum was designed to be open to everyone, without regard to their financial circumstances,” says Arnold Weiss, one of the attorneys in the case.   “But instead, the museum has been converted into an elite tourist attraction.” (more…)

Matisse: In Search of True Painting, (Installation View),via The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City opened the exhibition “Matisse: In Search of True Painting” on December 4th 2012. Dedicated to Henri Matisse’s painting process, and highlighting his tendency to “repeat compositions in order to compare effects,” the exhibition includes forty-nine works, emphasizing the artist’s lifelong work with pairs, trios, and series, and exploring his artistic exercise of variance to discover the true essence of an image.

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Paul Klee, Comedians’ Handbill (1938), via Metropolitan Museum of Art

On view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through February 24, “Late Klee” presents a concentrated survey of the last fifteen years of Paul Klee’s life and career. The one-room exhibition consists largely of small-sized works on paper and cardboard, each representing a facet of the artist’s prolific oeuvre and wide-ranging interests. (more…)

The construction of a new corporate campus for corporate giant LG Electronics is raising concerns from The Metropolitan Museum of Art for its potential to intrude on the scenic view of northern Manhattan’s Cloisters Museum.  The site, which was donated by John D. Rockefeller, is renowned for its pristine views of the Hudson River Palisades, and LG’s proposed construction would obscure a portion of the famous scenery.  “I don’t think they’d been aware of the larger context, the historic context, the geographic context,” said Rockefeller’s grandson, Larry. “I think LG really wants to do the right thing, and I’m hopeful that will lead them to redesign it.”   (more…)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is held a ground breaking ceremony today to launch the renovations on its Fifth Avenue entrance.  The new design will feature new fountains alongside the building and additional trees for shade.  “We wanted to bring in more trees, more shade, and plantings, so that it’s a more friendly place for our visitors.” Says Museum Director and CEO Thomas Campbell. (more…)

All photographs taken by Lisa Marsova for Art Observed

For the past two months, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has housed a sizeable abstract installation by Argentinian artist Tomás Saraceno on its rooftop terrace.  The structure, titled “Cloud City”, is Saraceno’s first site-specific commission in the United States.  With a production spanning only the past decade, Saraceno is a relative newcomer to the art world, but his interdisciplinary investigations in environment have already generated wide attention.  As a complex fusion of architecture, geometry, and the cosmos, “Cloud City” is a continuation in Saraceno’s study of the overlay of art and science.

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‪‬Rembrandt‘s ‘Portrait of the Artist’ on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through this Sunday, having traveled outside of Europe for the first time ever while the work’s London home Kenwood House undergoes renovations

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‪‬Tomás Saraceno‘s rooftop installation at the Met nears completion, the 20-ton geometric “Cloud City” explores space, time, and gravity, “You can have a feeling of weightlessness that’s a bit disorienting,” says the artist

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‪‬Marc Jacobs’ Mercer Street store vandalized with large pink graffitied “ART” last night, possibly in relation to the Fashion Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art the same evening

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‪‬Metropolitan Museum of Art to add to wall text of “The Steins Collect” exhibition, explaining Gertrude Stein’s affiliation with Bernard Fäy the “Vichy collaborator and Nazi agent” which may have “contributed to the protection of Stein and her companion Alice B. Toklas in France during the war.”

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‬Metropolitan Museum of Art security guard shoots himself in the leg while cleaning gun in basement locker room, the 63-year-old man is in stable condition, and “the public and the staff were never in danger”

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‪‬Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art Thomas P. Campbell earned $1.04 million in pay and benefits in 2010, a number comparable among other museum heads as the Met expanded loan and exhibition programs and attendance reached a forty-year peak [AO Newslink]

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‪‬The Metropolitan Museum of Art publishes guidebook of nearly two million works on 449 pages with 600 color illustrations, distributed by Yale University Press

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‪‬Socialite and philanthropist Brooke Astor’s estate has been settled after five years, distributing approximately $100 million to education, culture, and parks, with $20 million to the Metropolitan Museum of Art [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Metropolitan Museum of Art to redesign more “attractive and welcoming” entrance plaza to include new fountains, trees, seating, kiosks, and lighting, designed by Philadelphia-based OLIN architectural firm and funded mainly by David H. Koch [AO Newslink]

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Tate Modern’s Chief Curator Sheena Wagstaff moves to the Metropolitan Museum of Art Museum Board, in anticipation of appropriating the former Whitney Building on Madison Avenue for contemporary art exhibitions in 2015. [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Metropolitan Museum of Art collaborates with Google Goggles to recognize over 76,000 works through mobile app, “yet another milestone in our effort to provide global access to our collections.” [AO Newslink]

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Metropolitan Museum of Art unveils new website with priorities of ‘scholarship and accessibility’ [AO Newslink]

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New York’s Metropolitan Museum announces record attendance (5.6 million), fiscal year includes blockbuster exhibitions “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” and Picasso [AO Newslink]

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