Andrea Bayer Deputy Director for Collections and Administration | The Metropolitan Museum Of Art
Andrea Bayer Deputy Director for Collections and Administration | The Metropolitan Museum Of Art
South Korean artist Lee Bul has created four new sculptures for the Museum's Fifth Avenue facade, challenging conventional ideas about what sculptures can reveal. The works respond to the facade as a site for statues, combining classical and contemporary elements with mechanical and architectural themes. Lee Bul explores how history can be both admired and destabilized through these pieces.
Lee Bul's career spans four decades, during which she has become known for using both industrial and artisanal materials in her work. This project, titled "The Genesis Facade Commission: Lee Bul, Long Tail Halo," marks her first major undertaking in the United States in over twenty years. It is also the fifth installation in a series of contemporary commissions for The Met Fifth Avenue’s facade niches.
The Genesis Facade Commission is part of an initiative by The Met to invite artists to create new works that engage with The Met collection, its physical space, and its audience.
Support for this project comes from various sources including the Korea Foundation, Janice Lee and Joseph Bae, Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon B. Polsky, the Director’s Fund, the Kahng Foundation, Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins, Helen Lee-Warren and David Warren, as well as Jerry Speyer and Katherine Farley.
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