The Metropolitan Museum of Art Celebrates a Landmark Birthday With a Once-in-a-Lifetime Portfolio
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Celebrates a Landmark Birthday With a Once-in-a-Lifetime Portfolio
Of all the grand things New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art had planned for its 150th birthday last April, just one turned out to be pandemic-proof. In 2019 Met director Max Hollein had approached Sharon Coplan Hurowitz, an independent curator and publisher, with an idea: commission 12 contemporary artists to create original prints for a limited edition portfolio, of which only 60 would be made. (The Met 150 will be released in the fall.) “They pushed the boundaries of the technique," Hurowitz says of the artists, most of whom worked with the renowned workshop Gemini G.E.L. in Los Angeles. "No one treated this like a side project.”
The diverse group of seasoned veterans (Jasper Johns, Richard Serra, Ed Ruscha), contemporary stars (Julie Mehretu, Sarah Sze, Kerry James Marshall), and international talent from China (Xu Bing), Latvia (Vija Celmins), Mexico (Gabriel Orozco), Kenya (Wangechi Mutu), India (Ranjani Shettar), and Iran (Siah Armajani) was given carte blanche, the only parameters being the prints’ size. "Each of the prints are compelling in their own right, and when considered together within the portfolio, the range of perspectives and practices represented by this tremendous group of artists speaks to the power of valuing diversity and difference, in seeking new ways of seeing and understanding the world, and in making connections through art and creative expression," Hollein says.
Below, an exclusive preview of these one-of-a-kind works.
This story appears in the Summer 2021 issue of Town & Country.
T&C gets an exclusive look at the unique prints, each created by 12 of the world's leading artists.