The Costume Institute Gala (or Costume Institute Ball), known as the Met Ball or Met Gala, is an annual ball that celebrates the annual opening of the Metropolitan Museum's (The Met) fashion exhibit at the Costume Institute.^[1][2] The red carpet evening where celebrities arrive dressed to impress is described as the fashion industry's "Night of Nights".^[3] Fashion industry experts and style magazines consider the event, which is hosted by Vogue, to be the fashion world's best red carpet event.^[2] It is regarded as the top annual social event in New York City.^[4] The event has been an annual affair at the Met since 1948 (the year in which the Costume Institute was founded), but it has been held in different parts of the museum over the years.^[5]

In 2005, individual tickets ranged in price from US$5000 to $15,000, while corporate sponsors paid $150,000 for whole tables.^[5] In 2006, the event raised a total of $4.5million.^[6] In 2010, the price of the top table was $250,000.^[7] Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour oversees both the benefit committee and the guest list, although Vogue staffers help assemble the list of celebrity invitees.^[5] For over 10 years, ending in the late 2000s, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff was the special-events planner at Vogue in charge of seating.^[5][8] Robert Isabell designed the event for over a decade prior to his death in 2009.^[5] Vogue and Chanel have shared the cost of the event.^[5]

Each year the event has a theme,^[7] and the evening includes a cocktail hour and a formal dinner.^[9] The evening rivals the West Coast's Vanity Fair Oscar Party, which is said to have more "star power", but less fashion panache.^[6] The Oscars parties have more Hollywood people and press representatives.^[5]

Notes[link]

v t e The Metropolitan Museum of Art Places The Cloisters (Medieval art) · Astor Court (Chinese garden) · Metropolitan Museum of Art Roof Garden · Temple of Dendur (Egyptian temple)  · Robert Goldwater Library Directors Luigi Palma di Cesnola · Caspar Purdon Clarke · Edward Robinson · Herbert Eustis Winlock · Francis Henry Taylor · James Rorimer · Thomas Hoving · Philippe de Montebello · Thomas P. Campbell Miscellaneous Costume Institute Gala (Met Ball) · Savage Beauty · Museum Mile

Coordinates: 40°46′46″N 73°57′47″W / 40.779447°N 73.96311°W / 40.779447; -73.96311

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Location of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City
Established	1870[1][2]
Location	5th Avenue and 82nd Street, Manhattan, New York
Visitor figures	5.2 million (2008)[1] 4.9 million (2009)[3] 5.24 million (2010) Ranked 1st nationally Ranked 2nd globally
Director	Thomas P. Campbell
Public transit access	Bus: M1, M2, M3, M4, M79, M86 Subway: 86 St
Website	http://www.metmuseum.org/
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Elevation by Simon Fieldhouse
Built:	1874
Architect:	Calvert Vaux; Jacob Wrey Mould
Architectural style:	Beaux-Arts
Governing body:	Local
NRHP Reference#:	86003556
Significant dates
Added to NRHP:	January 29, 1972[4]
Designated NHL:	June 24, 1986[5]

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (colloquially The Met) is an art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided among nineteen curatorial departments.^[6] The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is by area one of the world's largest art galleries. There is also a much smaller second location at "The Cloisters" in Upper Manhattan that features medieval art.^[7]

Represented in the permanent collection are works of art from classical antiquity and Ancient Egypt, paintings and sculptures from nearly all the European masters, and an extensive collection of American and modern art. The Met also maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanic, Byzantine, and Islamic art.^[8] The museum is also home to encyclopedic collections of musical instruments, costumes and accessories, and antique weapons and armor from around the world.^[9] Several notable interiors, ranging from 1st-century Rome through modern American design, are permanently installed in the Met's galleries.^[10]

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 by a group of American citizens. The founders included businessmen and financiers, as well as leading artists and thinkers of the day, who wanted to open a museum to bring art and art education to the American people.^[2] It opened on February 20, 1872, and was originally located at 681 Fifth Avenue.^[11]

As of 2007, the Met measures almost ¹⁄₄-mile (400 m) long and occupies more than 2,000,000 square feet (190,000 m²).^[12]

Collections[link]

The Great Hall

The facade of the Met dominates the city's "Museum Mile".

The Met's permanent collection is cared for and exhibited by seventeen separate curatorial departments, each with a specialized staff of curators and scholars, as well as four dedicated conservation departments and a department of scientific research.^[6]

Represented in the permanent collection are works of art from classical antiquity and Ancient Egypt, paintings and sculptures from nearly all the European masters, and an extensive collection of American and modern art. The Met also maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanic, Byzantine and Islamic art.^[8] The museum is also home to encyclopedic collections of musical instruments, costumes and accessories, and antique weapons and armor from around the world.^[9] A number of notable interiors, ranging from 1st century Rome through modern American design, are permanently installed in the Met's galleries.^[10]

In addition to its permanent exhibitions, the Met organizes and hosts large traveling shows throughout the year.^[13]

The director of the museum is Thomas P. Campbell, a long-time curator, who replaced Philippe de Montebello following his retirement at the end of 2008.^[14][15]

Tiffany glass

Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze

Ancient Near Eastern art[link]

Beginning in the late 19th century, the Met started to acquire ancient art and artifacts from the Near East. From a few cuneiform tablets and seals, the Met's collection of Near Eastern art has grown to more than 7,000^[16] pieces. Representing a history of the region beginning in the Neolithic Period and encompassing the fall of the Sassanian Empire and the end of Late Antiquity, the collection includes works from the Sumerian, Hittite, Sassanian, Assyrian, Babylonian and Elamite cultures (among others), as well as an extensive collection of unique Bronze Age objects. The highlights of the collection include a set of monumental stone lammasu, or guardian figures, from the Northwest Palace of the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II.[21]

Arms and armor[link]

Arms and armor, Middle Ages main hall

The Met's Department of Arms and Armor is one of the museum's most popular collections. The distinctive "parade" of armored figures on horseback installed in the first-floor Arms and Armor gallery is one of the most recognizable images of the museum. The department's focus on "outstanding craftsmanship and decoration", including pieces intended solely for display, means that the collection is strongest in late medieval European pieces and Japanese pieces from the 5th through the 19th centuries. However, these are not the only cultures represented in Arms and Armor; the collection spans more geographic regions than almost any other department, including weapons and armor from dynastic Egypt, ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, the ancient Near East, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, as well as American firearms (especially Colt firearms) from the 19th and 20th centuries. Among the collection's 14,000 objects^[17] are many pieces made for and used by kings and princes, including armor belonging to Henry VIII of England, Henry II of France and Ferdinand I of Germany.

Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas[link]

Though the Met first acquired a group of Peruvian antiquities in 1882, the museum did not begin a concerted effort to collect works from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas until 1969, when American businessman and philanthropist Nelson A. Rockefeller donated his more than 3,000-piece collection to the museum. Today, the Met's collection contains more than 11,000^[18] pieces from sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands and the Americas and is housed in the 40,000-square-foot (4,000 m²) Rockefeller Wing on the south end of the museum. The collection ranges from 40,000-year-old Australian Aboriginal rock paintings, to a group of 15-foot-high (4.6 m) memorial poles carved by the Asmat people of New Guinea, to a priceless collection of ceremonial and personal objects from the Nigerian Court of Benin donated by Klaus Perls.^[19] The range of materials represented in the Africa, Oceania, and Americas collection is undoubtedly the widest of any department at the Met, including everything from precious metals to porcupine quills.

Asian art[link]

Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa

The Met's Asian department holds a collection of Asian art, of more than 35,000 pieces,^[20] that is arguably the most comprehensive in the US. The collection dates back almost to the founding of the museum: many of the philanthropists who made the earliest gifts to the museum included Asian art in their collections. Today, an entire wing of the museum is dedicated to the Asian collection, and spans 4,000 years of Asian art. Every Asian civilization is represented in the Met's Asian department, and the pieces on display include every type of decorative art, from painting and printmaking to sculpture and metalworking. The department is well known for its comprehensive collection of Chinese calligraphy and painting, as well as for its Nepalese and Tibetan works. However, not only "art" and ritual objects are represented in the collection; many of the best-known pieces are functional objects. The Asian wing even contains a complete Ming Dynasty-style garden court, modeled on a courtyard in the Garden of the Master of the Fishing Nets in Suzhou.

The Costume Institute[link]

The Museum of Costume Art was founded by Aline Bernstein and Irene Lewisohn.^[21] In 1937, they merged with the Met and became its Costume Institute department. Today, its collection contains more than 35,000 costumes and accessories.^[22] The Costume Institute used to have a permanent gallery space in what was known as the "Basement" area of the Met because it was downstairs at the bottom of the Met facility. However, due to the fragile nature of the items in the collection, the Costume Institute does not maintain a permanent installation. Instead, every year it holds two separate shows in the Met's galleries using costumes from its collection, with each show centering on a specific designer or theme. In past years, Costume Institute shows organized around famous designers such as Cristóbal Balenciaga, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, and Gianni Versace; and style doyenne like Diana Vreeland, Mona von Bismarck, Babe Paley, Jayne Wrightsman, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Nan Kempner and Iris Apfel have drawn significant crowds to the Met. The Costume Institute's annual Benefit Gala, co-chaired by Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, is an extremely popular, if exclusive, event in the fashion world; in 2007, the 700 available tickets started at $6,500 per person.^[23] Exhibits displayed over the past decade in the Costume Institute include: Rock Style, in 1999, representing the style of more than 40 rock musicians, including Madonna, David Bowie, and The Beatles,^[24] Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed, in 2001, which exposes the transforming ideas of physical beauty over time and the bodily contortion necessary to accommodate such ideals and fashion,^[25] The Chanel Exhibit, displayed in 2005, acknowledging the skilled work of designer Coco Chanel as one of the leading fashion names in history,^[26] Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy, exhibited in 2008, suggesting the metaphorical vision of superheroes as ultimate fashion icons,^[27] and, the 2010 exhibit on the American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity, which exposes the revolutionary styles of the American woman from the years 1890 to 1940, and how such styles reflect the political and social sentiments of the time.^[28] The theme of the 2011 event was "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty". Each of these exhibits explores fashion as a mirror of cultural values and offers a glimpse into historical styles, emphasizing their evolution into today's own fashion world.

Drawings and prints[link]

Melencolia I by Albrecht Dürer

Though other departments contain significant numbers of drawings and prints, the Drawings and Prints department specifically concentrates on North American pieces and western European works produced after the Middle Ages. Currently, the Drawings and Prints collection contains more than 17,000 drawings, 1.5 million prints, and twelve thousand illustrated books.^[29] The collection has been steadily growing ever since the first bequest of 670 drawings donated to the museum by Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1880. The great masters of European painting, who produced many more sketches and drawings than actual paintings, are extensively represented in the Drawing and Prints collection. The department's holdings contain major drawings by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Rembrandt, as well as prints and etchings by Van Dyck, Dürer, and Degas among many others.

Egyptian art[link]

Hippo William is a mascot of the Met

Though the majority of the Met's initial holdings of Egyptian art came from private collections, items uncovered during the museum's own archeological excavations, carried out between 1906 and 1941, constitute almost half of the current collection. More than 26,000^[30] separate pieces of Egyptian art from the Paleolithic era through the Roman era constitute the Met's Egyptian collection, and almost all of them are on display in the museum's massive wing of 40 Egyptian galleries. Among the most valuable pieces in the Met's Egyptian collection are 13 wooden models (of the total 24 models found together, 12 models and 1 offering bearer figure is at the Met, while the remaining 10 models and 1 offering bearer figure are in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo), discovered in a tomb in the Southern Asasif in western Thebes in 1920. These models depict, in unparalleled detail, a cross-section of Egyptian life in the early Middle Kingdom: boats, gardens, and scenes of daily life are represented in miniature. However, the popular centerpiece of the Egyptian Art department continues to be the Temple of Dendur. Dismantled by the Egyptian government to save it from rising waters caused by the building of the Aswan High Dam, the large sandstone temple was given to the United States in 1965 and assembled in the Met's Sackler Wing in 1978. Situated in a large room, partially surrounded by a reflecting pool and illuminated by a wall of windows opening onto Central Park, the Temple of Dendur is one of the Met's most enduring attractions. The oldest items at the Met, a set of Archeulian flints from Deir el-Bahri which date from the Lower Paleolithic period (between 300,000 - 75,000 BC), are part of the Egyptian collection.

European paintings[link]

Young Woman with a Water Pitcher by Johannes Vermeer.

Though the Met's collection of European paintings numbers only around 1,700 pieces,^[31] it contains many of the world's most instantly recognizable paintings.

European sculpture and decorative arts[link]

European sculpture court

The European Sculpture and Decorative Arts collection is one of the largest departments at the Met, holding in excess of 50,000^[32] separate pieces from the 15th through the early 20th centuries. Though the collection is particularly concentrated in Renaissance sculpture—much of which can be seen in situ surrounded by contemporary furnishings and decoration—it also contains comprehensive holdings of furniture, jewelry, glass and ceramic pieces, tapestries, textiles, and timepieces and mathematical instruments. In addition to its outstanding collections of English and French furniture, visitors can enter dozens of completely furnished period rooms, transplanted in their entirety into the Met's galleries. The collection even includes an entire 16th century patio from the Spanish castle of Vélez Blanco, reconstructed in a two-story gallery, and the intarsia studiolo from the ducal palace at Gubbio. Sculptural highlights of the sprawling department include Bernini's Bacchanal, a cast of Rodin's The Burghers of Calais, and several unique pieces by Houdon, including his Bust of Voltaire and his famous portrait of his daughter Sabine.

Greek and Roman art[link]

Greek and Roman gallery

The Amathus sarcophagus, from Amathus, Cyprus, arguably the single most important object in the Cesnola Collection

The Met's collection of Greek and Roman art contains more than 17,000^[33] objects. The Greek and Roman collection dates back to the founding of the museum—in fact, the museum's first accessioned object was a Roman sarcophagus, still currently on display. Though the collection naturally concentrates on items from ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, these historical regions represent a wide range of cultures and artistic styles, from classic Greek black-figure and red-figure vases to carved Roman tunic pins. Highlights of the collection include the monumental Amathus sarcophagus and a magnificently detailed Etruscan chariot known as the "Monteleone chariot". The collection also contains many pieces from far earlier than the Greek or Roman empires—among the most remarkable are a collection of early Cycladic sculptures from the mid-third millennium BC, many so abstract as to seem almost modern. The Greek and Roman galleries also contain several large classical wall paintings and reliefs from different periods, including an entire reconstructed bedroom from a noble villa in Boscoreale, excavated after its entombment by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. In 2007, the Met's Greek and Roman galleries were expanded to approximately 60,000 square feet (6,000 m²), allowing the majority of the collection to be on permanent display.^[34]

Islamic art[link]

The Met's collection of Islamic art is not confined strictly to religious art, though a significant number of the objects in the Islamic collection were originally created for religious use or as decorative elements in mosques. Much of the 12,000^[35] strong collection consists of secular items, including ceramics and textiles, from Islamic cultures ranging from Spain to North Africa to Central Asia. The Islamic Art department's collection of miniature paintings from Iran and Mughal India are a highlight of the collection. Calligraphy both religious and secular is well-represented in the Islamic Art department, from the official decrees of Suleiman the Magnificent to a number of Qur'an manuscripts reflecting different periods and styles of calligraphy. The Islamic Arts galleries had been undergoing refurbishment since 2001 and were reopened on November 1, 2011 as the New Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia.^[36] Until that time, a narrow selection of items from the collection had been on temporary display throughout the museum. As with many other departments at the Met, the Islamic Art galleries contain many interior pieces, including the entire reconstructed Nur Al-Din Room from an early 18th century house in Damascus. However, the museum has confirmed to the New York Post that it has withdrawn from public display all paintings depicting Muhammad and may not rehang those that were displayed in the Islamic gallery before the renovation.^[37]

Robert Lehman Collection[link]

Robert Lehman Wing at the MET.

On the passing of banker Robert Lehman in 1969, his Foundation donated 2,600 works^[38] of art to the museum. Housed in the "Robert Lehman Wing," the museum refers to the collection as "one of the most extraordinary private art collections ever assembled in the United States".^[39] To emphasize the personal nature of the Robert Lehman Collection, the Met housed the collection in a special set of galleries which evoked the interior of Lehman's richly decorated townhouse; this intentional separation of the Collection as a "museum within the museum" met with mixed criticism and approval at the time, though the acquisition of the collection was seen as a coup for the Met.^[40] Unlike other departments at the Met, the Robert Lehman collection does not concentrate on a specific style or period of art; rather, it reflects Lehman's personal interests. Lehman the collector concentrated heavily on paintings of the Italian Renaissance, particularly the Sienese school. Paintings in the collection include masterpieces by Botticelli and Domenico Veneziano, as well as works by a significant number of Spanish painters, El Greco and Goya among them. Lehman's collection of drawings by the Old Masters, featuring works by Rembrandt and Dürer, is particularly valuable for its breadth and quality.^[41] Princeton University Press has documented the massive collection in a multi-volume book series published as The Robert Lehman Collection Catalogues.

Libraries[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The main library at the Met is the Thomas J. Watson Library, named after its benefactor. The Watson Library primarily collects books related to the history of art, including exhibition catalogues and auction sale publications, and generally attempts to reflect the emphasis of the museum's permanent collection. The library has about 690,000 items. Several of the museum's departments have their own specialized libraries relating to their area of expertise. The Watson Library and the individual departments' libraries also hold substantial examples of early or historically important books which are works of art in their own right. Among these are books by Dürer and Athanasius Kircher, as well as editions of the seminal Surrealist magazine VVV and a copy of La Description de l'Egypte, commissioned in 1803 by Napoleon Bonaparte and considered one of the greatest achievements of French publishing.

Several of the departmental libraries are open to members of the public without prior appointment. The Library and Teacher Resource Center, Ruth and Harold Uris Center for Education, is open to visitors of all ages to study art and art history and to learn about the Museum, its exhibitions and permanent collection. The Robert Goldwater Library in the department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas documents the visual arts of sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands, and Native and Precolumbian America. It is open to adult researchers, including college and graduate students. Most of the other departmental libraries are for museum staff only or are open to the general public by appointment only.

Medieval art[link]

The Limbourg brothers' Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry

The Met's collection of medieval art consists of a comprehensive range of Western art from the 4th through the early 16th centuries, as well as Byzantine and pre-medieval European antiquities not included in the Ancient Greek and Roman collection. Like the Islamic collection, the Medieval collection contains a broad range of two- and three-dimensional art, with religious objects heavily represented. In total, the Medieval Art department's permanent collection numbers about 11,000 separate objects, divided between the main museum building on Fifth Avenue and The Cloisters.

Main building[link]

The medieval collection in the main Metropolitan building, centered on the first-floor medieval gallery, contains about six thousand separate objects. While a great deal of European medieval art is on display in these galleries, most of the European pieces are concentrated at the Cloisters (see below). However, this allows the main galleries to display much of the Met's Byzantine art side-by-side with European pieces. The main gallery is host to a wide range of tapestries and church and funerary statuary, while side galleries display smaller works of precious metals and ivory, including reliquary pieces and secular items. The main gallery, with its high arched ceiling, also serves double duty as the annual site of the Met's elaborately decorated Christmas tree.

The Cloisters[link]

The Cloisters

The Cloisters was a principal project of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who was a major benefactor of the Met. Located in Fort Tryon Park and completed in 1938, it is a separate building dedicated solely to medieval art. The Cloisters collection was originally that of a separate museum, assembled by George Grey Barnard and acquired in toto by Rockefeller in 1925 as a gift to the Met.^[42] The Cloisters are so named on account of the five medieval French cloisters whose salvaged structures were incorporated into the modern building, and the five thousand objects at the Cloisters are strictly limited to medieval European works. The collection exhibited here features many items of outstanding beauty and historical importance; among these are the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry illustrated by the Limbourg Brothers in 1409, the Romanesque altar cross known as the "Cloisters Cross" or "Bury Cross," and the seven heroically detailed tapestries depicting the Hunt of the Unicorn.

Modern art[link]

With some 13,000 artworks,^[43] primarily by European and American artists, the modern art collection occupies 60,000 square feet (6,000 m²), of gallery space and contains many iconic modern works. Cornerstones of the collection include Picasso's portrait of Gertrude Stein, Jasper Johns's White Flag, Jackson Pollock's Autumn Rhythm (Number 30), and Max Beckmann's triptych Beginning. Certain artists are represented in remarkable depth, for a museum whose focus is not exclusively on modern art: for example, the collection contains forty paintings by Paul Klee, spanning his entire career. Due to the Met's long history, "contemporary" paintings acquired in years past have often migrated to other collections at the museum, particularly to the American and European Paintings departments.

Musical instruments[link]

The Met's collection of musical instruments, with about 5,000^[44] examples of musical instruments from all over the world, is virtually unique among major museums. The collection began in 1889 with a donation of several hundred instruments by Lucy W. Drexel, but the department's current focus came through donations over the following years by Mary Elizabeth Adams, wife of John Crosby Brown. Instruments were (and continue to be) included in the collection not only on aesthetic grounds, but also insofar as they embodied technical and social aspects of their cultures of origin. The modern Musical Instruments collection is encyclopedic in scope; every continent is represented at virtually every stage of its musical life. Highlights of the department's collection include several Stradivari violins, a collection of Asian instruments made from precious metals, and the oldest surviving piano, a 1720 model by Bartolomeo Cristofori. Many of the instruments in the collection are playable, and the department encourages their use by holding concerts and demonstrations by guest musicians.

Photographs[link]

The Met's collection of photographs, numbering more than 25,000^[45] in total, is centered on five major collections plus additional acquisitions by the museum. Alfred Stieglitz, a famous photographer himself, donated the first major collection of photographs to the museum, which included a comprehensive survey of Photo-Secessionist works, a rich set of master prints by Edward Steichen, and an outstanding collection of Stieglitz's photographs from his own studio. The Met supplemented Stieglitz's gift with the 8,500-piece Gilman Paper Company Collection, the Rubel Collection, and the Ford Motor Company Collection, which respectively provided the collection with early French and American photography, early British photography, and post-WWI American and European photography. The museum also acquired Walker Evans's personal collection of photographs, a particular coup considering the high demand for his works. Though the department gained a permanent gallery in 1997, not all of the department's holdings are on display at any given time, due to the sensitive materials represented in the photography collection. However, the Photographs department has produced some of the best-received temporary exhibits in the Met's recent past, including a Diane Arbus retrospective and an extensive show devoted to spirit photography.

Roof Garden[link]

Memantra by Frank Stella on exhibit in the Roof Garden

The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden is located on the roof towards the southwestern corner of the museum. It offers views of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline, and features an annual summertime single artist sculpture exhibition. The Garden's cafe and bar is a popular museum spot during the mild-weathered months, especially on Friday and Saturday evenings when large crowds can lead to long lines at the elevators.

Special exhibitions[link]

The museum regularly hosts notable special exhibitions, often focusing on the works of one artist that have been loaned out from a variety of other museums and sources for the duration of the exhibition. These exhibitions are part of the attraction that draw people both within and outside Manhattan to explore the Met. Such exhibitions include displays especially designed for the Costume Institute, paintings from artists from across the world, works of art related to specific art movements, and collections of historical artifacts. Exhibitions are commonly located within their specific departments, ranging from American Decorative Arts, Arms and Armor, Drawings and Prints, Egyptian Art, Medieval Art, Musical Instruments, and Photographs. Typical exhibitions run for months at a time and are open to the general public. Each exhibition provides insight into the world of art as a transformative, cultural experience and often includes a historical analysis to demonstrate the profound impact that art has on society and its dramatic transformation over the years.^[46]

Early History[link]

Opening reception in the picture gallery at 681 Fifth Avenue, February 20, 1872. Wood engraving published in Frank Leslie's Weekly, March 9, 1872.

The New York State Legislature granted the Metropolitan Museum of Art an Act of Incorporation on April 13, 1870 "for the purpose of establishing and maintaining in said City a Museum and Library of Art, of encouraging and developing the Study of the Fine Arts, and the application of Art to manufacture and natural life, of advancing the general knowledge of kindred subjects, and to that end of furnishing popular instruction and recreations".^[47]

The museum first opened on February 20, 1872, housed in a building located at 681 Fifth Avenue in New York City. John Taylor Johnston, a railroad executive whose personal art collection seeded the museum, served as its first President, and the publisher George Palmer Putnam came on board as its founding Superintendent. The artist Eastman Johnson acted as Co-Founder of the museum. The former Civil War officer, Luigi Palma di Cesnola, was named as its first director.^[48] He served from 1879 to 1904. Under their guidance, the Met's holdings, initially consisting of a Roman stone sarcophagus and 174 mostly European paintings, quickly outgrew the available space. In 1873, occasioned by the Met's purchase of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriot antiquities, the museum decamped from Fifth Avenue and took up residence at the Mrs. Nicholas Cruger mansion also known as the Douglas Mansion (James Renwick, 1853–54, demolished) at 128 West 14th Street. However, these new accommodations proved temporary, as the growing collection required more space than the mansion could provide.^[49]

The Present Building[link]

After negotiations with the City of New York in 1871, the Met was granted the land between the East Park Drive, Fifth Avenue, and the 79th and 85th Street Transverse Roads in Central Park. A red-brick and stone "mausoleum" was designed by American architect Calvert Vaux and his collaborator Jacob Wrey Mould.^[50] Vaux's ambitious building was not well-received; the building's High Victorian Gothic style being already dated prior to completion, and the president of the Met termed the project "a mistake."^[51] Within 20 years, a new architectural plan engulfing the Vaux building was already being executed. Since that time, many additions have been made including the distinctive Beaux-Arts Fifth Avenue facade, Great Hall, and Grand Stairway. These were designed by architect and Met trustee Richard Morris Hunt, but completed by his son, Richard Howland Hunt in 1902 after his father's death.^[52] The wings that completed the Fifth Avenue facade in the 1910s were designed by the firm of McKim, Mead & White. The modernistic glass sides and rear of the museum are the work of Roche-Dinkeloo. Kevin Roche has been the architect for the master plan and expansion of the museum for the past 42 years. He is responsible for designing all of its new wings and renovations including but not limited to the American Wing, Greek and Roman Court, and recently opened Islamic Wing.^[53]

As of 2010, the Met measures almost ¹⁄₄-mile (400 m) long and with more than 2,000,000 square feet (190,000 m²) of floor space, more than 20 times the size of the original 1880 building.^[12] The museum building is an accretion of over twenty structures, most of which are not visible from the exterior. The City of New York owns the museum building and contributes utilities, heat, and some of the cost of guardianship.

The Museum Corporation[link]

The collections are owned by a private corporation of Fellows and Benefactors which totals about 950 persons. The museum is governed by a Board of Trustees consisting of 41 elected members, several officials of the City of New York, and persons honored as Trustees by the museum. The 2009-10 operating budget is $221 million. The museum's endowment is $2–3 billion and provides much of the income for operations while admissions account for only 15%.^[54]

Acquisitions and deaccessioning[link]

During the 1970s, under the directorship of Thomas Hoving, the Met revised its deaccessioning policy. Under the new policy, the Met set its sights on acquiring "world-class" pieces, regularly funding the purchases by selling mid- to high-value items from its collection.^[40] Though the Met had always sold duplicate or minor items from its collection to fund the acquisition of new pieces, the Met's new policy was significantly more aggressive and wide-ranging than before, and allowed the deaccessioning of items with higher values which would normally have precluded their sale. The new policy provoked a great deal of criticism (in particular, from the New York Times) but had its intended effect.

Many of the items then purchased with funds generated by the more liberal deaccessioning policy are now considered the "stars" of the Met's collection, including Velázquez's Juan de Pareja and the Euphronios krater depicting the death of Sarpedon (which has since been repatriated to the Republic of Italy). In the years since the Met began its new deaccessioning policy, other museums have begun to emulate it with aggressive deaccessioning programs of their own.^[55] The Met has continued the policy in recent years, selling such valuable pieces as Edward Steichen's 1904 photograph The Pond-Moonlight (of which another copy was already in the Met's collection) for a record price of $2.9 million.^[56]

Controversies[link]

The book Rogues' Gallery by the journalist Michael Gross was published in May, 2009 focusing on the personalities behind the museum, showcasing their personal peccadilloes and charting the relationship between the public and private behavior and ambitions of its trustees and benefactors and their cultural philanthropy. A museum spokesman condemned the book as "misleading" and "insensitive",^[57] and the museum bookstore declined to sell it.^[58] The New York Times Book Review noted that the subjects of the book "form a blockbuster exhibition of human achievement and flaws," but ultimately criticized the book's focus on "lurid" matters unrelated to art.^[59]

The museum has been criticized for withdrawing images of Muhammad from public display.^[37][60]

Selected highlights[link]

• 

  Caravaggio, The Musicians, 1595

• 

  El Greco, View of Toledo, 1596

• 

  Diego Velázquez, Portrait of Juan de Pareja, 1650

• 

  Johannes Vermeer, Woman with a Lute, 1662

• 

  Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Socrates, 1787

• 

  Thomas Cole, The Oxbow, 1836

• 

  Édouard Manet, The Dead Christ with Angels, 1864

• 

  John Singer Sargent, Portrait of Madame X, 1884

• 

  Vincent Van Gogh, Self-Portrait with Straw Hat, 1887

• 

  Paul Cézanne, The Card Players, 1890-1892

• 

  Paul Gauguin, The Midday Nap, 1894

• 

  Claude Monet, The Houses of Parliament (Effect of Fog), 1903-1904

References[link]

Notes

This article uses bare URLs for citations. Please consider adding full citations so that the article remains verifiable. Several templates and the Reflinks tool are available to assist in formatting. (Reflinks documentation) (February 2012)

Further reading[link]

• Trask, Jeffrey. Things American: Art Museums and Civic Culture in the Progressive Era (University of Pennsylvania Press; 2012) 320 pages; A history that relates it the political context of the Progressive Era.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Metropolitan Museum of Art

• Official website
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents a Timeline of Art History
• Chronological list of special exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Metropolitan Museum of Art NY
• Watsonline: The Catalog of the Libraries of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Artwork owned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Tom Hoving, obituary from The Daily Telegraph
• For Art's Sake: Inside the Met - slideshow by Life magazine
• Vogel, Carol, "Grand Galleries for National Treasures", January 5; and Holland Cotter, "The Met Reimagines the American Story", review, January 15; two 2012 NY Times articles about American painting and sculpture galleries reopening after four-year renovation.

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Alexander McQueen
Alexander McQueen at his Fall 2009 collection
Born	Lee Alexander McQueen (1969-03-17)17 March 1969 Lewisham, London, United Kingdom
Died	11 February 2010(2010-02-11) (aged 40)[1] Mayfair, London, United Kingdom
Residence	Mayfair London
Nationality	British
Education	Central Saint Martins
Occupation	Fashion designer
Parents	Joyce McQueen (deceased, 1934–2010) Ronald McQueen
Awards	British Fashion Designer of the Year Commander of the Order of the British Empire Council of Fashion Designers of America International Designer of the Year 2003
Labels	Alexander McQueen, McQ

Lee Alexander McQueen, CBE (17 March 1969 – 11 February 2010) was a British fashion designer and couturier best known for his in-depth knowledge of bespoke British tailoring, his tendency to juxtapose strength with fragility in his collections, as well as the emotional power and raw energy of his provocative fashion shows.^[opinion][2] He is also known for having worked as chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001 and for founding his own Alexander McQueen label.^[2] His achievements in fashion earned him four British Designer of the Year awards (1996, 1997, 2001 and 2003), as well as the CFDA's International Designer of the Year award in 2003.^[2]

Early life and education[link]

Born on 17 March 1969 in Lewisham, London, to Scottish^[3] taxi driver Ronald^[4] and social science teacher Joyce, McQueen was the youngest of six children.^[5][6] He grew up in a council flat^[7] in a tower block in Stratford.^[8] He attended Carpenters Road Primary School, started making dresses for his three sisters at a young age, and announced his intention to become a fashion designer.^[9]

McQueen later attended Rokeby School and left aged 16 in 1984 with one O-level in art,^[5] going on to serve an apprenticeship with Savile Row tailors Anderson & Sheppard, before joining Gieves & Hawkes and, later, the theatrical costumiers Angels and Bermans.^[10] The skills he learned as an apprentice on Savile Row helped earn him a reputation in the fashion world as an expert in creating an impeccably tailored look. ^[11]

Career[link]

While on Savile Row, McQueen's clients included Mikhail Gorbachev and Prince Charles. At the age of 20 he spent a period of time working for Koji Tatsuno before travelling to Milan, Italy and working for Romeo Gigli.^[9]

McQueen returned to London in 1994 and applied to Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, to work as a pattern cutter tutor. Because of the strength of his portfolio he was persuaded by the Head of the Masters course to enroll in the course as a student.^[9] He received his masters degree in fashion design and his graduation collection was bought in its entirety by influential fashion stylist Isabella Blow, who was said to have persuaded McQueen to become known as Alexander (his middle name) when he subsequently launched his fashion career.^[6][9] It was shortly after creating his second collection,“McQueen's Theatre of Cruelty", that McQueen met Katy England, his soon to be "right hand woman",^[12] when outside of a "high profile fashion show" trying to "blag her way in".^[13] He promptly asked her to join him for his third collection, "The Birds" at Kings Cross, as "creative director".^[13] Katy England continued to work with McQueen thereafter, greatly influencing his work – his "second opinion".^[12]

Icelandic singer Björk sought McQueen's work for the cover of her album Homogenic in 1997.^[14] McQueen also directed the music video for her song "Alarm Call" from the same album.^[15]

Camilla Belle in a 2009 dress by Alexander McQueen, listed among "100 Best Dresses of the Decade" by InStyle magazine.^[16]

McQueen's early runway collections developed his reputation for controversy and shock tactics (earning the title "l'enfant terrible" and "the hooligan of English fashion"),^[4] with trousers aptly named "bumsters" and a collection titled "Highland Rape".^[5][17][18] In 2004, journalist Caroline Evans also wrote of McQueen's "theatrical staging of cruelty", in 032c magazine, referring to his dark and tortured renderings of Scottish history.^[19] McQueen was known for his lavish, unconventional runway shows: a recreation of a shipwreck for his spring 2003 collection; spring 2005's human chess game; and his fall 2006 show "Widows of Culloden", which featured a life-sized hologram of supermodel Kate Moss dressed in yards of rippling fabric.^[20]

McQueen's "bumsters" spawned a trend in low rise jeans; on their debut they attracted many comments and debate.^[11] Michael Oliveira-Salac, the director of Blow PR and a friend of McQueen's said, "The bumster for me is what defined McQueen."^[11] McQueen also became known for using skulls in his designs. A scarf bearing the motif became a celebrity must-have and was copied around the world.^[11]

McQueen has been credited with bringing drama and extravagance to the catwalk.^[11] He used new technology and innovation to add a different twist to his shows and often shocked and surprised audiences. The silhouettes that he created have been credited for adding a sense of fantasy and rebellion to fashion.^[11] McQueen became one of the first designers to use Indian models in London.^[11]

McQueen also designed a range of dresses under the name of "manta", priced at around £2800. The line, named after the manta ray, was inspired by a holiday McQueen took in the Maldives in 2009. The designs have been worn by various models and celebrities, including Lily Cole.^[21]

VOSS[link]

McQueen's most celebrated and dramatic catwalk show was his 2001 spring/summer collection, named VOSS. The centre piece tableaux that dominated the room was an enormous glass box. But because the room outside the box was lit and the inside of the box was unlit, the glass walls appeared as large mirrors, so that the seated audience saw only their own reflection. Finally, after an hour, and when the show began, lights came on in inside the enormous glass case and revealed the interior to be filled with moths and, at the centre, a naked model on a chaise longue with her face obscured by a gas mask. The glass walls then fell away and smashed on the ground.

The model chosen by McQueen to be the centre of the show was the British writer Michelle Olley. (The show also featured Kate Moss and Erin O'Connor). McQueen said that the tableaux was based on the Joel Peter Witkin image Sanitarium.^[22] The British fashion photographer Nick Knight later said of the VOSS show on his SHOWstudio.com blog:

"The girl in the box was Michelle Olley. She modelled for me in a story I did called Sister Honey... She was a writer and I remember she wrote a great piece on being the Butterfly Girl in the middle of that (McQueen) Glass Box show. I was sat on the front row, inbetween Alexandra Schulman and Gwyneth Paltrow. It was is probably one of the best pieces of Fashion Theatre I have ever witnessed." ^[23]

Alexander McQueen later described his thoughts on the idea used during VOSS of forcing his audience to stare at their own reflection in the mirrored walls for over an hour:

"Ha! I was really pleased about that. I was looking at it on the monitor, watching everyone trying not to look at themselves. It was a great thing to do in the fashion industry—turn it back on them! God, I’ve had some freaky shows.” ^[24]

In spring 2011, Michelle Olley was asked by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to contribute to their Alexander McQueen exhibition, Savage Beauty.^[25] She was interviewed by The Met about VOSS for the audio guide to the show. Olley's detailed diary/journal of modelling for McQueen - written between Sept 18-27 as the show was being planned and staged - was included in the Met Museum website coverage of the Savage Beauty exhibition.^[26] The VOSS diary relates details of the show and encounters with McQueen, ending with how Olley returned home after the show to find:

"...a MASSIVE bouquet of flowers has arrived, with a note [from McQueen] saying, “Thank you for everything – you were beautiful! – Lee xxx” " ^[27]

Givenchy appointment[link]

The president of LVMH, Bernard Arnault, caused a stir when he appointed McQueen head designer at Givenchy in 1996, succeeding John Galliano.^[9] Upon arrival at Givenchy, McQueen insulted the founder by calling him "irrelevant". His first couture collection with Givenchy was unsuccessful, with even McQueen telling Vogue in October 1997 that the collection was "crap". McQueen toned down his designs at Givenchy, but continued to indulge his rebellious streak, causing controversy in autumn 1998 with a show which included spraying paint over white cotton dresses and double amputee model Aimee Mullins striding down the catwalk on intricately carved wooden legs.^[9][18] Givenchy designs released by Vogue Patterns during this period may be credited to the late designer.^[28] McQueen stayed with Givenchy until March 2001, when the contract he said was "constraining his creativity" ended.^[9]

Accomplishments[link]

Some of McQueen's accomplishments included being one of the youngest designers to achieve the title "British Designer of the Year", which he won four times between 1996 and 2003;^[10] he was also awarded the CBE and named International Designer of the Year by the Council of Fashion Designers in 2003.^[29]

December 2000 saw a new partnership for McQueen, with the Gucci Group's acquiring 51% of his company and McQueen's serving as Creative Director.^[5] Plans for expansion included the opening of stores in London, Milan and New York, and the launch of his perfumes Kingdom and, most recently, My Queen. In 2005, McQueen collaborated with Puma to create a special line of trainers for the shoe brand.^[30] In 2006 he launched McQ, a younger, more renegade lower priced line for men and women.

McQueen became the first designer to participate in MAC's promotion of cosmetic releases created by fashion designers. The collection, McQueen, was released on 11 October 2007 and reflected the looks used on the Autumn/Winter McQueen catwalk. The inspiration for the collection was the 1963 Elizabeth Taylor movie Cleopatra, and thus the models sported intense blue, green, and teal eyes with strong black liner extended Egyptian-style. McQueen handpicked the makeup.

Company[link]

By the end of 2007, Alexander McQueen had boutiques in London, New York, Los Angeles, Milan and Las Vegas. Celebrity patrons, including Nicole Kidman, Penélope Cruz, Sarah Jessica Parker and Rihanna, J-pop queens such as Ayumi Hamasaki, Namie Amuro, and Koda Kumi have frequently been spotted wearing Alexander McQueen clothing to events.^[31] Björk, Ayumi Hamasaki and Lady Gaga have often incorporated Alexander McQueen pieces in their music videos.^[32] By wearing his designs, celebrities such as the above mentioned have further increased the notability of the McQueen brand.

Personal life[link]

McQueen was openly gay and said he realized his sexual orientation when he was six years old.^[33] He told his family when he was 18 and, after a rocky period, they accepted his sexuality.^[5] He described coming out at a young age by saying, "I was sure of myself and my sexuality and I've got nothing to hide. I went straight from my mother's womb onto the gay parade".^[34]

In the summer of 2000, McQueen had a marriage ceremony with his partner George Forsyth, a documentary filmmaker, on a yacht in Ibiza.^[35] The marriage was not official, as same-sex marriage in Spain was not legal then. The relationship ended a year later and McQueen and Forsyth maintained a close friendship.^[36]

McQueen received press attention after the May 2007 suicide of international style icon Isabella Blow. Rumours were published that there was a rift between McQueen and Blow at the time of her death, focusing on McQueen's under-appreciation of Blow.^[37] In response to these rumours, McQueen told an interviewer:^[20]

It's so much bollocks. These people just don't know what they're talking about. They don't know me. They don't know my relationship with Isabella. It's complete bullshit. People can talk; you can ask her sisters ... That part of the industry, they should stay away from my life, or mine and Isabella's life. What I had with Isabella was completely dissociated from fashion, beyond fashion.

McQueen was an accomplished scuba diver and used his passion as a source of inspiration in his designs, including spring 2010's "Plato's Atlantis." Much of his diving was done around the Maldives.^[38]

Death and memorial[link]

Wikinews has related news: British fashion designer Alexander McQueen found dead at age 40

McQueen's death was announced on the afternoon of 11 February 2010. In the morning, his housekeeper found him hanging at his home on Green Street, London W1. ^[39] Paramedics were called and they pronounced him dead at the scene.^[1]

McQueen died days before London Fashion Week, though he was not scheduled to show,^[40] and nine days after the death of his mother, Joyce, 75, from cancer.^[41] David LaChapelle, a friend of the designer, said that McQueen "was doing a lot of drugs and was very unhappy" at the time of his death.^[42]

McQueen left a note saying, "Look after my dogs, sorry, I love you, Lee."^[43] The Metropolitan Police stated that the death was not suspicious, but did not confirm that the death was a suicide.^[44] On 17 February 2010, Westminster Coroner's Court was told that a post-mortem examination found that McQueen's death was due to asphyxiation and hanging. The inquest was adjourned until 28 April 2010, where McQueen's death was officially recorded as suicide.^[45][46] McQueen, who had been diagnosed with mixed anxiety and depressive disorder, took an overdose prior to hanging himself. He had taken drug overdoses in May and July 2009.^[47] Prior to hanging himself with his "favourite brown belt", the inquest recorded that he had slashed his wrists with a ceremonial dagger and a meat cleaver.^[48] Coroner Dr Paul Knapman reported finding "a significant level of cocaine, sleeping pills, and tranquilisers in the blood samples taken after the designer's death."^[49]

On behalf of Lee McQueen's family, Alexander McQueen [the company] today announces the tragic news that Lee McQueen, the founder and designer of the Alexander McQueen brand, has been found dead at his home. At this stage it is inappropriate to comment on this tragic news beyond saying that we are devastated and are sharing a sense of shock and grief with Lee's family. Lee's family has asked for privacy in order to come to terms with this terrible news and we hope the media will respect this.

On 3 February 2010, McQueen wrote on his Twitter page that his mother had died the day before, adding: "RIP mumxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx." Four days later, he wrote that he had had an "awful week" but said "friends have been great", adding: "now i have to some how pull myself together".^[50] His mother's funeral took place on 12 February 2010.^[51] McQueen is survived by his father, three sisters, and two brothers.^[52]

McQueen's funeral took place on 25 February 2010 at St. Paul's Church, Knightsbridge, West London.^[53] His ashes were later scattered on the Isle of Skye.^[54]

A memorial was held for McQueen at Saint Paul's Cathedral on 20 September 2010. It was attended by Björk, Kate Moss, Sarah Jessica Parker, Naomi Campbell, Stella McCartney and Anna Wintour^[55] amongst 2,500 other invited guests.^[56] On 18 February 2010, Robert Polet, the president and chief executive of the Gucci Group, announced that the Alexander McQueen business would carry on without its founder and creative director.^[57]

The BBC reported that McQueen had reserved £50,000 ($82,000) of his wealth for his pet dogs so they could live in the lap of luxury for the rest of their lives. He also bequeathed £100,000 ($164,315) each to four different charities; these include the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home in south London, and the Blue Cross animal welfare charity in Burford, Oxfordshire.^[58]

Tributes[link]

A dedication by a fan at an Alexander McQueen store after McQueen's death.

On 16 February 2010, pop musician Lady Gaga performed an acoustic, jazz rendition of her hit single "Telephone" and segued into "Dance in the Dark" at the 2010 Brit Awards. During the performance, Gaga honored McQueen, saying, "this is for Alexander McQueen".^[59] She also commemorated McQueen after accepting her award for Best International Artist, Best International Female, and Best International Album. Gaga dedicated a song to him, titled "Fashion of His Love", on the special edition of her third album, Born This Way.^{[citation needed]}

Björk sang her rendition of "Gloomy Sunday" at the memorial at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. She wore an outfit created by McQueen on which many mourners came to gather.^{[citation needed]} Various other musicians, who were friends and collaborators with McQueen, commentated on his death, including Kanye West, Courtney Love, and Katy Perry.^[60]

In March 2010, a visual tribute to McQueen and his "manta" design was organised featuring Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss and Annabelle Neilson, among others.^[21]

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City hosted a posthumous exhibition of McQueen's work in 2011 titled Savage Beauty. The exhibition’s elaborate staging includes unique architectural finishes and soundtracks for each room.^[61] Despite being open for only three months, it was one of the most popular exhibitions in the museum's history.^[62] The exhibition was so successful that Alexander McQueen fans and industry professionals worldwide began rallying at Change.org to "Please Make Alexander McQueen's Savage Beauty a Traveling Exhibition"^[63] to bring honor to McQueen and see his vision become a reality: to share his work with the entire world.^[64]

The final show[link]

Right before Alexander McQueen's death, he had an eighty percent unfinished autumn/winter collection, 16 pieces, presented during Paris Fashion Week on March 8th 2010, to a select handful of fashion editors in a mirrored, gilded salon at the 18th-century Hôtel de Clermont-Tonnerre.

Fashion editors picked his final designs. Editors said the show was hard to watch because it showed how McQueen was obsessed with the afterlife. The clothes had a medieval and religious look. Basic colours that were repetitively used were red, gold and silver with detailed embroidery. His models were accessorized to show his love for theatrical imagery. "Each piece is unique, as was he", McQueen's fashion house said in a statement that was released with the collection.

After company owner Gucci confirmed that the brand would continue, McQueen's long-term assistant Sarah Burton was named as the new creative director of Alexander McQueen in May 2010.^[65] In September 2010, Burton presented her first womenswear collection in Paris.^[66]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alexander McQueen

• Alexander McQueen's home page
• Alexander McQueen – Daily Telegraph obituary
• In pictures:Alexander McQueen exibition – The BBC – Entertainment and Arts
• Metropolitan Museum of Art retrospective

Jessica Biel
Jessica Biel
Born	Jessica Claire Biel (1982-03-03) March 3, 1982 (age 30) Ely, Minnesota, United States
Occupation	Actress, model, singer
Years active	1996–present
Partner	Justin Timberlake (2007–present; engaged)

Jessica Claire Biel (born March 3, 1982)^[1] is an American actress, model, and singer. Biel is known for her television role as Mary Camden in the long-running family-drama series 7th Heaven.

Early life[link]

Jessica Claire Biel was born in Ely, Minnesota. Her mother, Kimberly (née Conroe), is a homemaker and spiritual healer. Her father, Jonathan Biel, worked for GE and was also an entrepreneur and business consultant.^[2][3][4] She is of German, French, English, and Choctaw ancestry^[5] and has a younger brother, Justin, born in 1985.^[6][7] Biel's family moved frequently during her childhood, living in Texas, Connecticut, and Woodstock, Illinois, before finally settling in Boulder, Colorado. While growing up, Biel played soccer^[8] and also trained as a gymnast.^[4] From 2000 to 2002, she attended Tufts University.^[9]

Early work[link]

Biel initially trained to be a vocalist. At age nine, she appeared in several musical productions in her hometown, playing lead roles in productions such as Annie, The Sound of Music, and Beauty and the Beast.^[10] Biel auditioned for the a cappella choir the Tufts Amalgamates, but was not accepted.^[9]

At twelve, Biel attended The International Modeling and Talent Association conference in Los Angeles where she was discovered and signed by a talent agency. She began modeling for print advertisements, and appeared in commercials for products such as Dulux Paint and Pringles.^[2]

Biel also played the character Regrettal, a lead role in a low-budget musical short titled It's a Digital World. At fourteen, after auditioning for several television pilots, Biel was cast as Mary Camden, the second oldest child in the family drama 7th Heaven.

Career[link]

1997–2002[link]

Biel on board the USS Abraham Lincoln on June 18, 2004

Biel landed her first feature film role as Peter Fonda's granddaughter in the critically acclaimed drama Ulee's Gold, released in 1997. Her performance earned her a Young Artist Award.^{[citation needed]} In spring 1998, during a break from filming 7th Heaven, she starred in I'll Be Home for Christmas, playing the love interest of Jonathan Taylor Thomas.^[10]

When she posed topless in the March 2000 issue of Gear magazine, Biel sparked considerable controversy, as she was still under 18 at the time of the shoot. Producers of 7th Heaven were outraged, and brought legal action against Gear.^[10] She later stated that she regrets the Gear shoot but considers it a learning experience.^[11]

In 2001, Biel played the love interest of Freddie Prinze, Jr. in the baseball-themed film Summer Catch. The next year, she starred as promiscuous college student Lara in the ensemble film The Rules of Attraction, an adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel.

2003–2005[link]

Biel was cast in her first top-billing role in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.^[12] The film met with negative reviews but it was a commercial success, scoring the number-one spot in its opening week and going on to earn more than $80 million in the U.S.^[12][13] In 2003, Biel began work on the third installment of the Blade film series, Blade: Trinity. Almost immediately after finishing it in 2004, she headed to Australia to shoot the action-thriller Stealth.^[14]

Biel also made a cameo appearance in the 2004 film Cellular.

Biel was cast in the role of Ellen Kishmore in the romantic comedy Elizabethtown. She then played the title character in the indie film London.

2006–present[link]

Biel at the 2005 Stealth premiere

Biel's film career blossomed^{[citation needed]} when she played a turn-of-the-century duchess in the period piece The Illusionist, co-starring Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti.

Biel played an Iraq War veteran in the 2006 film Home of the Brave, a drama about soldiers struggling to readjust to society after facing the hardships of war.

In Next, Biel played alongside Nicolas Cage and Julianne Moore. She then played in the summer comedy, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, co-starring Adam Sandler and Kevin James.

In late 2007, Biel signed on to play a stripper in Powder Blue, alongside Forest Whitaker (who also produced the film), Ray Liotta and Patrick Swayze.

Biel with Josh Lucas on the Stealth set.

At the start of 2008, Biel shot Easy Virtue, an adaptation of the play by Noël Coward. Like the play, the film is set in the 1920s and Biel plays young widow Larita, who impulsively marries John Whittaker in France and must face her disapproving in-laws on returning to England. The film premiered in September 2008 at the Toronto International Film Festival.^[15] Critics praised Biel for her performance, with Todd McCarthy of Variety saying Biel "more than kept up" with veterans Kristin Scott Thomas and Colin Firth and praising her "sparkling" performance.^[16][17] The Hollywood Reporter described her performance as "an irresistible force of nature — a kind, witty, supremely intelligent and beautiful woman who ... is capable of rejoinders that thoroughly undercut her opponent's withering criticism."^[18] Biel also performed two songs on the film's soundtrack, "Mad About the Boy" and "When the Going Gets Tough".

In 2009, Biel lent her voice to the animated science fiction film Planet 51.

In April 2008, Biel began working on the political satire Nailed, with Jake Gyllenhaal. The film centers around a woman who accidentally gets a nail lodged in her head, then travels to Washington D.C. to fight for better health care.

Biel performed the role of "Sarah Brown" with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a fully staged concert production of Guys and Dolls during the 2009 season at the Hollywood Bowl.^[19][20] On the last night, she received a rousing standing ovation from 17,000 people.^[4] She subsequently landed a part in Lincoln Center Theater's two-week-long workshop of the musical version of the Pedro Almodóvar classic Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, along with Salma Hayek.^[4]

Personal life[link]

Relationships[link]

Biel began dating singer and actor Justin Timberlake in January 2007.^[21][22] After four years together, the couple announced their split in March 2011.^[23][24] However, by fall 2011 the couple appeared to have reunited, and in late December 2011, Timberlake proposed to Biel in the mountains of Jackson, Wyoming.^[25][26][27]

Charity work[link]

On July 18, 2006, Biel participated in a charity auction to raise medical funds for Colorado teen Molly Bloom, who was injured in a limousine accident.^[28] John Schiffner of Fergus Falls, Minnesota successfully bid $30,000 to have lunch with Biel. "I promise I'm a cheap date," Biel quipped. Biel and Schiffner lunched at The Palm restaurant in Denver, Colorado^[29] on August 18, 2006.^[30]

In early 2007, Jessica co-founded the Make the Difference Network^[31] with her father and another business partner, Kent McBride.

In 2010, Biel climbed to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro with members of the United Nation Foundation to raise awareness of the global water crisis.^[32] That same year, Biel's humanitarian and charity work (as well as her popularity with young people) earned her a nomination for a Do Something Award.^[33]

Honors[link]

Awards[link]

• 1998: Young Artist Award — Best Performance in a Feature Film – Supporting Young Actress in Ulee's Gold
• 2005: ShoWest Award Female Star of Tomorrow — 2005 ShoWest Convention
• 2007: Rising-Star Award — Palm Springs International Film Festival 2007 Gala Awards

[edit] Rankings

• Ranked No.99 in Stuff magazine's "102 Sexiest Women In The World" (2002).
• Ranked No.98 on VH1's "100 Hottest Hotties".(2003)
• Esquire magazine named her the "Sexiest Woman Alive" in a 2005 six-part series, with each month revealing a different body part and clue to the woman's identity.^[2]
• Ranked No.1 in Stuff magazine's "100 Sexiest Women" (2007).^[34]
• Ranked as No.5 on Maxim's Hot 100 for 2007^[35] and No.11 on Maxim's Top 100 for 2009.^[36]
• Ranked No.7 by AskMen.com readers in the list "Top 99 Women 2008."^[10]
• Ranked No.4 by FHM US magazine in their 2009 list of "100 Sexiest Women".^[7]