By Maika Pollack 5/14 4:35pm

On View

Facsimile of CBGB bathroom, New York, 1975. (© Metropolitan Museum of Art)

‘Punk: Chaos to Couture’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

It’s too easy to make fun of the Met’s new “Punk: Chaos to Couture” show. There was the chipper press preview at 10 a.m. on a Monday morning bustling with well-groomed junior fashion editors in leather pants and Walter Steiger heels, the facsimile of CBGB’s bathroom circa 1975, complete with graffitied urinals and cigarette butts, and Anne Hathaway and Miley Cyrus playing platinum punk Barbies at the Costume Institute gala—mockable incongruities served up on a silver platter. Read More

By Zoë Lescaze 4/23 5:49pm

Museums

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The Met’s Been Hacked! Tipsy Museum Meet-Ups Attract ‘Girls’ Star Allison Williams, Vimeo Founder Zach Klein

Nick Gray looked sharp as he buzzed around the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Great Hall on a recent Saturday night, greeting members of his tour group and directing them to the coat check. In an immaculate navy blue sweater, striped tie and brown wing tips, the 31-year-old looked like a freshly pressed Ivy Leaguer and exuded a wholesome, open charm.

Once his group of roughly 20 souls had gathered at the base of an Egyptian statue, Mr. Gray asked them to introduce themselves by making a gesture and naming a passion. There were curtsies, twirls and air punches. Passions included Mickey Mouse and Amazon.com. Mr. Gray executed a kung-fu chop and said he was passionate about the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Read More

By Andrew Russeth 3/21 12:49pm

Museums

The Met. (wallyg/Flickr)

Met Will Stay Open Seven Days a Week, Beginning July 1

The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today that, as of Monday, July 1, it will now be open seven days a week. But that’s not at all! It also announced the change would include its beloved uptown museum, the Cloisters, at the northern tip of Manhattan. The only days that the museum will now be closed are Thanksgiving Day, Dec. 25 and Jan. 1. Read More

By Maika Pollack 2/26 4:59pm

On View

Gustave Caillebotte, 'Paris Street; Rainy Day,' 1877. (Art Institute of Chicago/Metropolitan Museum of Art)

‘Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Much as it sounds like the drag pseudonym of an America’s Next Top Model judge, “Miss Satin” was the pen name used by experimental poet Stéphane Mallarmé when writing about women’s clothing. Fancy hats were a favorite topic: “I could go on for hours,” he giddily opined in the pages of The Latest Fashion, the fashion magazine he founded in 1874. Shy young Paul Cézanne painted models copied from the pages of his sister’s fashion magazines. Poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire saw nothing more modern than the ephemeral beauty of a stylish shoe or chic accessory. Read More

By Andrew Russeth 2/01 9:36am

Museums

Paul Gauguin, 'Tahitian Women Bathing,' 1892. (Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Exhibition of Works From Met’s Collection Opens at National Museum of China

Today an exhibition of 130 works from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened at Beijing’s National Museum of China. The show focuses on depictions of nature by artists in Europe, the Near East and America, and its contents range from a Mycenaean vessel dated to around 1200–1100 B.C. (showing a cute, though sort of creepy, little octopus) to two paintings by Vincent van Gogh, including his iconic Cypresses (1889). The exhibition arrives in China after visiting the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. Read More

By Maika Pollack 11/16/12 6:14pm

Review

7 Photos

Unknown, [Man on Rooftop with Eleven Men in Formation on His Shoulders], ca. 1930

Slowstagram: The Met Reminds Us That Photography Has Always Been a Bag of Tricks

It’s easy to think of the ability to alter a photographic image as an achievement of the digital age, but “Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop,” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, proves that recent innovations are only the tip of the iceberg. Tracing the history of doctored images through photography’s century-and-a-half-long history—and using several hundred examples to make her point—the show’s curator, Mia Fineman, argues that photographs and trickery have always gone together. Read More

By Maika Pollack 9/25/12 5:04pm

Review

8 Photos

Installation view of 'Bernadette Corporation: 2000 Wasted Years' at Artists Space

Andy’s Kids: The Met Takes a Scattershot Stab at Establishing Warhol’s Influence, but at Artists Space, the Bernadette Corporation Is the True Heir to His Myth-Making

If you listen carefully, you can hear the howling from curatorial and critical circles about the Metropolitan Museum’s blockbuster, “Regarding Warhol.” Organized by Mark Rosenthal with Marla Prather, Ian Alteveer and Rebecca Lowery, the exhibition is a Trojan horse: under the guise of examining the influential Pop artist, the Met has crept through the gates of contemporary art curation. The haphazard display, which looks cobbled together from auction-house catalogues (rather than from art history books), functions less as a thoughtful exhibition than as a three-dimensional press release for the traditionally more historically focused museum’s plans to expand into new art. It’s a land-grab, a wild claim to exciting territory. Its raison d’être is more institutional positioning than visual persuasion. It is bold, impolitic—and interesting. Read More

By Adam Lindemann 9/25/12 4:55pm

adam lindemann

'Big Campbell’s Soup Can, 19¢ (Beef Noodle)' (1962) by Warhol. (© 2012 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)

Mmm, Meh, Not So Good: The Met’s ‘Regarding Warhol’ May Help Pry Open a Can of Patron Dollars

The Metropolitan Museum’s “Regarding Warhol” exhibition groups artworks by 60 artists around works by Andy Warhol, as an homage to his far-reaching influence in the art world. The result is closer to a mob scene than to any semblance of meaningful dialogue, and it wasn’t hard to predict that critics would slam the show—slamming this show was, from the beginning, an easy layup. By this point, it’s almost de rigueur in New York’s smarty arty circles to wrinkle your nose at “Regarding Warhol,” which, as you can imagine, makes me want to like it. And so I do … but still, I don’t. Read More