What’s going on at the MET?
Ninja June 9th, 2008
There are 3 great exhibitions currently showing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Jeff Koons on the Roof, Photography on Photography: Reflections on the Medium since 1960, and Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy.
It was a bright, sunny, 95 degree Saturday at the MET, but the Jeff Koons rooftop exhibit was well-worth the wait (long line to the elevator) and the heat. The rooftop garden was quite crowded, but I managed to snap a shot of the balloon dog statue without anyone else in the frame (you can see some of the crowd in the reflection though).
Jeff Koons on the Roof
Exhibit runs until October 26, 2008 (rooftop access ends at 5 PM)
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden (weather permitting)
+ View images from the MET for this exhibition
+ Jeff Koons
+ Balloon Dog (Yellow), 1994–2000
+ High chromium stainless steel with transparent color coating
+ 121 x 143 x 45 in. (307.3 x 363.2 x 114.3 cm)
It’s about celebration and childhood and color and simplicity—but it’s also a Trojan horse. It’s a Trojan horse to the whole body of artwork.
– Jeff Koons, on his Balloon Dog
Photography on Photography
Exhibit runs until October 19, 2008
Joyce and Robert Menschel Hall for Modern Photography, 2nd floor
+ View images from the MET for this exhibition
+ Hiroshi Sugimoto
+ Fidel Castro (Wax Figure, Madame Tussaud’s Museum, London), 2001
+ Gelatin silver print
+ 58 3/4 x 47 in. (149.2 x 119.4 cm)
Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy
Exhibit runs until September 1, 2008
Special Exhibition Galleries, 1st floor
Inspired by Superman’s costume, Rossella Jardini, the creative director of Moschino, substituted Superman’s iconic letter “S” with the letter “M,” for Moschino. For the men’s version, she placed the “M” into a heart-shaped field, a symbol used in Moschino’s branding.
Meet William, the MET hippo
Photo of William from the MET website
+ Statuette of a Hippopotamus, ca. 1981-1885 B.C.E.; Dynasty 12; Middle Kingdom
+ Egyptian; Middle Egypt, Meir
+ Faience
+ H. 4 3/8 in. (11.2 cm), L. 7 7/8 in. (20 cm)
If you have some spare time, you should also visit William, the MET museum’s mascot. You can find William in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Egyptian galleries. He is made of faience and is covered with lotus blossoms, which represent the hippopotamus’s creative forces in nature.
Related postsAn Englishman, Captain H. M. Raleigh, and his family owned a picture of the hippopotamus, which they named William. In 1931 the captain wrote an article for the magazine Punch about his picture of William. The name caught on, and since that time the little blue hippo has been known as William to almost everyone.
