Following remarks by museum VIPs, attendees were encouraged to go through the American Wing and see updated galleries and perennial favorites.
Review & Photos by Madelia Hickman Ring
NEW YORK CITY — To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the American Wing, the Metropolitan Museum of Art reinstalled many of its key galleries of Eighteenth, Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century fine and decorative arts. Since its founding in 1924, the curatorial department has expanded its collecting strategy to include a wider array of work from the mid Seventeenth to the mid Twentieth Century, including select contemporary expressions, by makers across North America.
A total of 470 friends of the American Wing gathered in the museum’s Charles Engelhard Court the evening of Monday, November 3. The reception welcomed private collectors, Americana specialists from Christie’s and Sotheby’s, dealers and museum staff, both past and present, who have been a part of the American Wing’s story.
A full bar, passed appetizers and a jazz band playing standards from the 1920s got the crowd into a festive mood. Halfway through the evening, Max Hollein, the museum’s Marina Kellen French director and CEO initiated a few moments of business.
“Over the last 100 years, The Met’s American Wing has continued to evolve and transform, expanding to encompass an ever-broadening concept of American art. The exhibitions and displays offered this year present both a compelling and comprehensive view of the wing’s growth over the past century, and a deep dive into definitions of American art, identity and place.”
The museum’s director and CEO, Max Hollein, initiated brief business. Paula Lobo photo courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Hollein passed the proverbial baton to Sylvia Yount, the Lawrence A. Fleischman curator in charge. “Today, our current installation, ‘The American Wing at 100,’ demonstrates how far we’ve come in a century as a department and as a nation. Featuring some 600 works, both perennial favorites and strategic recent acquisitions by a diversity of makers across North America, the new displays explore a more expansive and inclusive narratives of art, history and identity that both mirror and are indicative of ongoing transformations our own life. On this evening of anxious anticipation, at a critical historical juncture, we’re thrilled to be celebrating with so many friends and supporters, as well as former staff and stewards of the collection, who have been a key part of the department’s consequential evolution into a center for beauty, solace and nuanced truth telling. We’re deeply grateful to everyone at the Met who helped realize this reinstallation project in its many dimensions, from planning, research and design to installation, interpretation to reception, including our generous donors and lenders.”
Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, the Anthony W. and Lulu C. Wang curator of American decorative arts, wrapped up the evening’s remarks.
“For over the past few months, you may have noticed that our courtyard looks a little different, with a curtain behind the loggia from Laurelton Hall, Tiffany’s country estate on Long Island. I’m thrilled that we’ll be opening it in a few minutes to reveal a magnificent leaded glass window of a luxurious garden landscape from the studios of Louis Comfort Tiffany. Truly, one of the most exciting acquisitions of my career, this major acquisition would not have been possible without the enthusiasm and support of Max, the Board of Trustees and so many incredibly generous donors. I’m so eternally grateful to you all. An exceptional work of art in its own right, the window also serves as the springboard for several stories that are critical to its inception and realization, many of which foreground the import but often overlooked role played by women in Tiffany’s art. It was commissioned, conceived and largely crafted by women. This is also something of a New York story. It was designed by Agnes Northrop, Tiffany’s premier woman designer, who was born and lived her entire life in Flushing. The extraordinary glass, some of which is unbelievably experimental, features thousands of individually cut pieces of glass that were selected and cut by skilled craftsmen, largely women. Of course, the entire enterprise was overseen and directed by Louis Tiffany, a truly visionary American artist, whose house is just a little more than 10 blocks from here. The window was commissioned by Sara Cochran, a progressive woman, successful business owner, philanthropist and suffragette for Lyndon Hall, the grand Neo-Tudor mansion she was building outside of Pittsburgh, in Dawson, Penn., and I’m so pleased to see a number of representatives from Dawson here today. The acquisition and its installation was truly a collaboration, something of which I’m so proud of here at the Met, not only for the generous donors — and I regret I don’t have time to say any individual names — the designers, the lighting designers, the project managers, the video camera operators, photographers, contractors and those who oversaw them, our brilliant stained glass conservator, our collections managers and our amazing technicians who did the complicated and microscopic work of installing it. This is a work of art I hope will bring beauty, joy and inspiration to our visitors, especially now in these uncertain and challenging times.”
Following its unveiling, visitors were eager to peruse the museum’s impressive Tiffany acquisition and new installation.
Before she signaled the band to play a drum roll, Freylinghuysen said, “I have envisioned this window here in the American Wing’s Engelhard Court for over 20 years, this is literally a dream come true.”
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is at 1000 Fifth Avenue. For further information, www.metmuseum.org.
