Press

ALBANY, NY – The World in Brooklyn: Selections from the Brooklyn Museum opens at the New York State Museum November 19th as part of the Bank of America Great Art Series.

This is the Brooklyn Museum’s first exhibition as part of the State Museum’s newly expanded Great Art Exhibition and Education Program, which brings art from New York’s leading art museums to Albany.

“We are delighted to have this unprecedented opportunity to present for the benefit of the Capitolal region audiences, these exceptional examples from the diverse and vast holdings of the Brooklyn Museum,” said Museum Director Arnold L. Lehman. “This is but a small sampling from one of the largest and most important permanent collections of art in the United States. We hope that it will serve as an introduction to our superb holdings and inspire future visits to the Brooklyn Museum."

“The State Museum is very pleased to welcome the Brooklyn Museum to the Bank of America Great Art Series,” said State Museum Director Dr. Clifford Siegfried. “We are very excited about the opportunity to present this very diverse exhibition, which includes great works of art from ancient times to the present, representing many different cultures from throughout the world.”

Organized by the Brooklyn Museum and curated by Kevin Stayton, the Museum’s chief curator, the exhibition’s theme focuses on the diversity of the Brooklyn community, which is reflected in its collections. The Brooklyn Museum is one of the largest art museums in the country with a permanent collection of more than one million objects, ranging from world-famous holdings of ancient Egyptian art to contemporary art. The items in the collection encompass nearly all of the world’s principal cultures. The World in Brooklyn exhibition, in West Gallery through March 6, 2006, showcases 50 works of art. Winter Scene in Brooklyn, by Francis Guy, is one of the iconic works in the collection. Painted c. 1817-1820 from the artist’s window on Front Street, it depicts his neighbors going about their daily lives feeding chickens, watering horses and chatting with friends in what was then the most important

areas of Brooklyn. A preliminary plate for the Sojourner Truth place setting in The Dinner Party, by

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Judy Chicago, is also included.

Also in the exhibition is a rare mid-18th century Peruvian painting of the legendary Inca ruler Tupac Yupanqui and the famous Emancipation Cane, a work of 19th-century folk art that chronicles one of the most important moments in African-American history. The exhibition also includes works from the Museum’s renowned collection of Egyptian and Islamic art and other objects, such as a papyrus and ink marriage document from Egypt, dating to 449 B.C.E. There also is the Funerary Cartonnage of a Lady of Means from Egypt, dating from the Roman period, 1st century C.E. Also represented in the exhibition are European paintings and artworks from the museum’s Asian, Native American and contemporary collections. Among the contemporary works is Snoop Dogg, a 2002 photograph of the rap performer by Andres Serrano, and Passing/Posing (Fleur de Lis), a 2003 oil on canvas by Kehinde Wiley.

Visitors to the World in Brooklyn exhibition will have the opportunity to pick up a two for one admission ticket to the Brooklyn Museum, available in the exhibition brochure, good through March 6, 2006.

The New York State Museum expresses its gratitude to Bank of America, First Lady Libby
Pataki, the New York State Senate and New York State Assembly for making this exhibition possible.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. Started in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. The state museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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