European Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York to open in Brisbane

Offering a breath-taking journey from the 1420s and emerging Renaissance to conclude at the height of early twentieth century post-impressionism, European Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York will go on display in an exclusive presentation at Brisbane’s Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) this June.

This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity also allows visitors to experience works by painters such as Rembrandt, Rubens, Turner, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, and Monet, direct from The Met’s collection – one of the finest collections of European painting in the world, the majority of which rarely leave permanent display in New York.

Featuring 65 paintings charting Western art history’s most iconic movements, highlights include Fra Angelico’s finely painted altarpiece The Crucifixion c. 1420–23; Titian’s poetic Venus and Adonis of the 1550s; the immediacy and drama of Caravaggio’s The Musicians 1597; Rembrandt’s painterly Flora of c.1654; Vermeer’s beautifully observed Allegory of the Catholic Faith c.1670-72; and van Gogh’s idyllic The Flowering Orchard 1888.

Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Director Chris Saines CNZM said European Masterpieces would begin in the 1420s, with a drama-filled panel painting, The Crucifixion by Fra Angelico, and end in 1919 with one of Monet’s late Water Lilies, a precursor to abstraction.

“The exhibition traces the development of art and artists from a time when creativity was closely controlled through the patronage of church and state, to a period in which our contemporary idea of the independent artist was born,” said Mr Saines.

“As this superbly representative historical account of European painting makes clear, artistic innovation – seen in works of art that have challenged and sometimes changed the world – is far from an invention of our time.”

“It’s a major coup for Brisbane and an extraordinary opportunity for our audiences to experience these important works from one of the finest collections of European painting in the world, the majority of which rarely leave permanent display in New York,” said Mr Saines.

Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art Max Hollein said the exhibition presented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in which The Met – during the renovation of their galleries for European paintings – could share these masterpieces with the people in Australia.

“It brings great joy to see such magnificent paintings, and the many stories they tell, come to Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art,” said Mr Hollein.