NEW YORK, NY.- Modernism on the Ganges: Raghubir Singh Photographs
The Met Breuer, Floor 2
Closing January 2, 2018
Raghubir Singh (19421999) was a pioneer of color street photography who worked and published prolifically from the late 1960s until his death in 1999 at age 56. Born into an aristocratic family in Rajasthan, he lived in Hong Kong, Paris, London, and New Yorkbut his eye was perpetually drawn back to his native India. Modernism on the Ganges: Raghubir Singh Photographs situates Singh's photographic work at the intersection of Western modernism and traditional South Asian modes of picturing the world. The exhibition features 85 photographs by Singh in counterpoint with works by his contemporariesfriends, collaborators, fellow travelersas well as examples of the Indian court painting styles that inspired him. The exhibition traces the full trajectory of Singh's career from his early work as a photojournalist in the late 1960s through his last unpublished projects of the late 1990s.
Streams and Mountains without End: Landscape Traditions of China
The Met Fifth Avenue, Douglas Dillon Galleries, C. C. Wang Family Gallery, Frances Young Tang Gallery, Galleries 210-216
Closing January 6, 2018
About a thousand years ago, the Chinese landscape painter Guo Xi posed the question, "In what does a gentleman's love of landscape consist?" This question is at the heart of the exhibition, which explores the many uses of landscape in the Chinese visual arts. This exhibition, which showcases more than 120 Chinese landscape paintings in three rotations, offers insights into the tradition and reveals distinctions between types of landscape that might not be obvious at first glance. What initially appears to be a simple mountain dwelling, for example, turns out to be the villa of the painter's friend, encoding a wish for his happy retirement. Similarly, what seems at first to be a simple study in dry brushwork turns out to be an homage to an old master, an expression of reverence for what has come before.
Leonardo to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Robert Lehman Collection
The Met Fifth Avenue, Robert Lehman Collection, Gallery 964
Closing January 7, 2018
The first presentation to highlight the full range of Robert Lehman's vast and distinguished drawings collectionnumbering more than 700 sheetsand to explore his significant activity as a 20th-century collector, this exhibition features 60 masterpieces of European drawing spanning the Renaissance to the Modern age. Leonardo to Matisse: Masterpieces from the Robert Lehman Collection also traces the development of European drawing across five centuries through works by Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer, Rembrandt, Goya, Ingres, Seurat, and Matisse, and presents a dynamic array of styles, techniques, and genres. The selection also illustrates the different facets of the artists' creative processesfrom Leonardo's keen anatomical observation in his Study of a Bear Walking, to Dürer's awakening artistic self-consciousness in his Self-Portrait study, to Rembrandt's re-interpretation of Leonardo's painted masterpiece, The Last Supper.
World War I and the Visual Arts
The Met Fifth Avenue, The Charles Z. Offin Gallery, Karen B. Cohen Gallery, Harriette and Noel Levine Gallery, Galleries 691-693
Closing January 7, 2018
Organized to commemorate the anniversary of World War I, this exhibition focuses on the impact of the war on the visual arts. Moving chronologically from its outbreak to the decade after the armistice, World War I and the Visual Arts highlights the diverse ways artists represented the horrors of modern warfare. The works on view reflect a variety of responses, ranging from nationalist enthusiasm to a more somber reflection on the carnage and mass devastation that resulted. The exhibition, drawn mainly from the collection of The Met and supplemented with select loans, includes prints, drawings, photographs, illustrated books, posters, periodicals, World War I trading cards from the Museum's celebrated Burdick Collection, and other documentary material.