2018-2019 Met Opera Season Showed Triumph of the Vanities by Cecily Brown

Summary: The 2018-2019 Met Opera season showed Triumph of the Vanities by Cecily Brown as the main hall’s first art exhibit since Chagall’s murals in 1966.

Cecily Brown and “Triumph of the Vanities II,” Dress Circle level, The Metropolitan Opera; photo by Vincent Tullo for The New York Times: The Drawing Center @TheDrawing Center, via Facebook Sep. 20, 2018

The 2018-2019 Met Opera season showed Triumph of the Vanities by Cecily Brown as the first artwork to be exhibited in the opera house’s main hall since Belarusian Jewish-French artist Marc Chagall’s two commissioned murals in 1966.

Dodie Kazanjian, founding director of Gallery Met in 2006, is credited with inviting British-American painter Cecily Brown (born May 1969) to create artwork for exhibition in the Metropolitan Opera’s main hall. In the Metropolitan Opera’s Sept. 20, 2018, press release, she described the painter as “. . . one of the most daring and powerful voices in contemporary art today and one of the great colorists of her generation.” The exhibit, which opened Sept. 24, 2018, with the 2018-2019 Met Opera season, will continue through summer 2019.

Ms. Brown’s two paintings are entitled “Triumph of the Vanities I” and “Triumph of the Vanities II.” They each measure more than 9 feet by 25 feet. The medium is oil on linen.

Deep golds and reds in the paintings harmonize with the colors dominating the design of the Metropolitan Opera’s interior public spaces. From a distance the paintings may appear as colorfully expressive abstractions. Close inspection reveals the canvases as “. . . teeming with figures -- here more than usual,” as described by the painter Sept. 20, 2018, to freelance Arts and Entertainment writer Hilarie M. Sheets in The New York Times.

“Triumph of the Vanities I” is exhibited in the Grand Tier promenade of the opera house’s grand staircase. “Triumph of the Vanities II” is displayed in the above landing, the Metropolitan Opera’s Dress Circle level. The painter’s studies are on view in the Orchestra level’s north and lounge areas and also on the Parterre level.

Cecily Brown’s exhibit inaugurates an annual event curated by Gallery Met. The nonprofit contemporary art space formerly was located in a space off the Metropolitan Opera’s south lobby. Gallery Met’s former site underwent a reconfiguration by New York City-based architectural firm Ennead Architects LLP during the summer and autumn. The opera house’s southeast corner was transformed into the South Entrance as a remedy for increasing congestion at the main entrance just prior to curtain time.

The prominent display of Cecily Brown’s paintings signals the expansion of Gallery Met’s reach into high visibility areas of opera house’s public spaces. Dodie Kazanjian explained in the Metropolitan Opera’s press release of Sept. 20, 2018, that the exhibit of Cecily Brown’s paintings and studies inaugurates “. . . Gallery Met’s new program, expanding from its initial ground floor gallery to all corners of the Met’s grand public spaces.”

Cecily Brown was born May 1969 in London, England. Her parents are Scottish novelist Shena Mackay (born 1944) and British art critic and curator Anthony David Bernard Sylvester (Sept. 21, 1924-June 19, 2001). She received her BA degree in Fine Arts from London’s Slade School of Art in 1993.

The exhibit of the two “Triumph of the Vanities” paintings marked the first display of artwork in the Metropolitan Opera’s main hall in almost 52 years. In 1964, the Metropolitan Opera House commissioned two murals from Marc Chagall (July 7, 1887-March 28, 1985) for permanent display in the lobby of the opera house’s new location in Lincoln Center. The Metropolitan Opera House opened Sept. 16, 1966, at Lincoln Center. The unveiling of Chagall’s two murals took place Sept. 8, 1966.

Chagall’s two murals each measure 30 feet by 36 feet. “The Sources of Music” is placed on the north (right) side of the lobby. “The Triumph of Music” is located on the south (left) side of the lobby.

Dodie Kazanjian has expressed the complementary relationship between the temporary exhibit of Brown’s “Triumph of the Vanities” paintings and the permanent display of Chagall’s “The Sources of Music” and “The Triumph of Music.” Thinking of a conversation among the four paintings, she suggested in Galerie magazine assistant editor Haley Chouinard’s Sept. 25, 2018, article, “They’re having an interesting dialogue.”

The takeaways for the 2018-2019 Met Opera season’s exhibit of “Triumph of the Vanities” by Cecily Brown are that the British-American painter’s artwork inaugurated an annual event and that the exhibit marks the first display of art in the opera house’s main hall since the unveiling of Marc Chagall’s two murals in 1966.

portrait of Cecily Brown, one of 12 Subway Portraits (10 in mosaic; two in ceramic tile) in New York's Second Avenue Station by American artist Charles "Chuck" Thomas Close (born July 5, 1940); mosaic by Mosaika Art; 2nd Avenue & 83rd Street: Isabelle Boulet, via Facebook Jan. 2, 2017

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Cecily Brown and “Triumph of the Vanities II,” Dress Circle level, The Metropolitan Opera; photo by Vincent Tullo for The New York Times: The Drawing Center @TheDrawing Center, via Facebook Sep. 20, 2018, @ https://www.facebook.com/TheDrawingCenter/posts/read-about-artist-cecily-browns-new-project-with-the-met-opera-we-exhibited-ceci/10156896611658487/

portrait of Cecily Brown, one of 12 Subway Portraits (10 in mosaic; two in ceramic tile) by American artist Charles "Chuck" Thomas Close (born July 5, 1940); mosaic by Mosaika Art; 2nd Avenue & 83rd Street: Isabelle Boulet, via Facebook Jan. 2, 2017, @ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10211441072280456

For further information:

Cecily Brown. “Updated their profile picture.” Facebook. Oct. 17, 2012.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/537780302914839/photos/a.537780899581446/537780912914778/

Chouinard, Haley. “The Curator of Gallery Met on the Future of Art in the Opera House.” Galerie Magazine. Sept. 25, 2018.
Available @ http://www.galeriemagazine.com/dodie-kazanjian-gallery-met/

The Drawing Center @TheDrawing Center. “Read about artist Cecily Brown’s new project with the Met Opera. . . .” Facebook. Sept. 20, 2018.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/TheDrawingCenter/posts/read-about-artist-cecily-browns-new-project-with-the-met-opera-we-exhibited-ceci/10156896611658487/

FaceMePLS. “’Cecily Brown’ Gemeentemuseum.” Flickr. April 18, 2012.
Available @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/faceme/7197434386/

Isabelle Boulet. “Added a new photo -- with Mosaika Art at 86 Street & 2nd Avenue Subway.” Facebook. Jan. 2, 2017.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10211441072280456

Marriner, Derdriu. “Metropolitan Opera’s Gallery Met Short for Roméo et Juliette.” Earth and Space News. Monday, Nov. 20, 2017.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/11/metropolitan-operas-gallery-met-short.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Metropolitan Opera’s Gallery Met Short for The Tales of Hoffman.” Earth and Space News. Monday, Sept. 11, 2017.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/09/metropolitan-operas-gallery-met-short.html

MCA Santa Barbara ‏@MCASantaBarbara. “Happy birthday to artist Cecily Brown! In honor of Brown's birthday, check out W magazine's behind the scenes look at her New York studio. Cecily Brown: Rehearsal is on view at Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara through June 3!” Facebook. May 15, 2018.
Available @ https://twitter.com/MCASantaBarbara/status/996527296717770752

The Metropolitan Opera. “Cecily Brown’s Exhibition, Triumph of the Vanities, Opens September 24 at the Met Opera.” The Metropolitan Opera > Press Releases.
Available @ https://www.metopera.org/about/press-releases/cecily-browns-exhibition-triumph-of-the-vanities--opens-september-24-at-the-met-opera/

Sheets, Hilarie M. “Cecily Brown’s Paintings Are at the (Other) Met.” The New York Times > Art & Design. Sept. 20, 2018.
Available @ https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/20/arts/design/cecily-brown-bonfire-of-the-vanities-metropolitan-opera.html

Stark, Erika. “The NYC Met Opera’s 50th Anniversary and Murals of Marc Chagall: Art Imitating Life.” Untapped Cities. June 13, 2017.
Available @ https://untappedcities.com/2017/06/13/the-nyc-met-operas-50th-anniversary-and-murals-of-marc-chagall-art-imitating-life/

W magazine @wmagazine. “Take a tour of the eclectic space: http://wmag.cm/TtAlhBM.” Facebook. Oct. 4, 2016.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/wmagazine/posts/10157419440310004

Walsh, Kevin Jude. “2nd Avenue and its Subway, Part 2.” Forgotten New York > Yearly Archives > 2017. Jan. 29, 2017.
Available @ http://forgotten-ny.com/2017/01/2nd-avenue-subway-part-2/