The Metropolitan Museum of Art launches its new dedicated modern and contemporary art
building, the Met Breuer, on March 18 with a special weekend of programming. Located in the landmark building on Madison Avenue and 75th Street, which was designed by Mid-Century Modern master, Marcel Breuer, the Met Breuer was the former home of the Whitney Museum of American Art, which moved downtown last year. The acquisition of the property extends the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Modern and Contemporary arts programs, and will include exhibitions, performances, artist commissions, residencies and educational initiatives within the field of twentieth and twenty-first century art.
Under the watch of director Sheena Wagstaff, a former chief curator at London’s Tate Modern and chairwoman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s department of Modern and Contemporary art, inaugural exhibitions include the largest exhibition to date dedicated to Indian modernist Nasreen Mohamedi and a music installation by resident artist Vijay Iyer in the Met Breuer’s lobby gallery. Later exhibitions include a presentation of early Diane Arbus photographs, a series of commissioned architectural photographs that document four seminal public buildings designed by Marcel Breue and an exhibition of Kerry James Marshall’s work.
This third Met exhibition space will also feature a signature restaurant from acclaimed
restaurateur Thomas Carter and chef Ignacio Mattos of the Manhattan restaurant Estela. Due to open this summer, and a dinner destination in itself, the restaurant will also include a coffee bar that will open during museum hours. Until the restaurant’s open, the Met will offer a pop-up coffee shop.
The Met Breuer opens with three days of special programs and extended hours: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday, March 18, and Saturday, March 19, and a special family day on Sunday, March 20 (10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.).
Linda Clarke is a freelance arts and travel writer whose work has been published in The Village Voice, New York Observer, Boston Globe, and the New York Daily News. When time allows, she blogs as Hotel Junkie.