Cindy Sherman (American, born 1954), Untitled #87, 1981, Chromogenic print, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Samuel J. Wagstaff Jr. Bequest, 1995.

Charles Ray (American, born 1953), Untitled, 1973, printed 1989, Gelatin silver print, 27 x 40", Purchase, Robert Shapazian Gift, Samuel J. Wagstaff Jr. Bequest, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift through Joyce and Robert Menschel, and Harriette and Noel Levine Gift, 1995 (1995.474), © Charles Ray.

Thomas Ruff (German, born 1958), jpeg ny02, 2004, Chromogenic print, 8 ft. 10 in. x 11 ft. 11-3/8", Purchase, Denise and Andrew Saul Gift; Marlene Nathan Meyerson Gift, in memory of Andrew H. Golkin; Pamela and Arthur Sanders and The Robert A. and Renée E. Belfer Family Foundation Gifts; Neil C. S. Hirsch Gift; and Marian and James H. Cohen Gift, in memory of their son, Michael Harrison Cohen, 2006 (2006.92).

Thomas Struth (German, born 1954), San Zaccaria, Venice, 1995, detail, Chromogenic print, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, The Howard Gilman Foundation Gift, 1996.

Andreas Gursky (German, born 1955), Schiphol, 1994, Chromogenic print, 73 x 87-1/8", Purchase, The Howard Gilman Foundation Gift, 1995 (1995.191), © Andreas Gursky.

The Metropolitan
Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue
at 82nd Street
212-535-7710
New York
Menschel Hall
Depth of Field:
Modern Photography
at the Metropolitan
September 25, 2007-
March 23, 2008

The opening of the Menschel Hall builds on recent exhibitions at the Met that have brought cutting-edge contemporary photography to the attention of the Museum’s broad audience. One particularly notable milestone was the Met’s 2003 presentation of a major Thomas Struth retrospective. Another landmark was the recent exhibition Closed Circuit: Video and New Media at the Metropolitan, which showcased eight moving-image works acquired by the Department of Photographs over the past five years.

Depth of Field: Modern Photography at the Metropolitan, draws from the Museum’s permanent collection to trace the varied paths of photography since 1960: its role in conceptual art, earth art, and performance art, as seen in works by Dennis Oppenheim, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Gordon Matta-Clark, and Douglas Huebler; the “Dusseldorf School,” featuring works by Bernd and Hilla Becher and their students Thomas Struth, Thomas Ruff, and Andreas Gursky; the “Pictures Generation,” including Cindy Sherman and Laurie Simmons; and other important contemporary artists who use photography, such as Adam Fuss, Rodney Graham, and Charles Ray.

“The inaugural installation will survey some of the key photographs we have acquired over the last 20 years, as well as works that we could not exhibit until now because we did not have a proper space,” said Doug Eklund, Assistant Curator in the Department of Photographs and its specialist in contemporary photography. “Under the leadership of Maria Morris Hambourg, the department acquired stunning masterworks by artists such as Sigmar Polke, Cindy Sherman, and Thomas Struth. Beginning in the late 1990s, Maria and I drew up a ten-year plan for acquisitions of photography since 1960, and since then we have brought in key individual photographs and groups of work by Robert Smithson, Richard Prince, Louise Lawler, Nan Goldin, Jeff Wall, Christopher Williams, and Sharon Lockhart, among others. During the last seven years, we have built up a following — especially among artists — with our rotating installations outside the modern art wing, but many photographs are simply too large to fit there. Now we can really show what we have been collecting,” concluded Mr. Eklund.

Exhibitions in the Menschel Hall will change every six months, and future installations will include thematic selections on topics such as landscape and the built environment, the body, and photography about photography, as well as artists’ projects, and video and new media.

The Menschel Hall brings continuity to the Department of Photographs’ several galleries and its wide range of exhibitions. The new exhibition space is located adjacent to the Robert Wood Johnson, Jr. Gallery, which highlights the earlier history of photography through works from the permanent collection; directly across from the Galleries for Drawings, Prints, and Photographs, where special exhibitions are often presented; and in close proximity to The Howard Gilman Gallery, the site of smaller thematic exhibitions. The wide spectrum of photographs from the collection that will be seen in the Joyce and Robert Menschel Hall and the Museum’s other galleries for photography will bring to life the entire history of the medium, from its earliest beginnings to the present day.

Sharon Lockhart (American, born 1964), Untitled, 1996, Chromogenic print, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Neuberger Berman Foundation Gift and Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 2004.