Joyce and Robert Menschel Hall for Modern Photography

The Metropolitan Museum will inaugurate the Joyce and Robert Menschel Hall for Modern Photography on September 25, 2007, establishing for the first time a gallery dedicated exclusively to photography created since 1960.

With high ceilings, clean detailing, and approximately 2,000 square feet of exhibition space, the Menschel Hall is designed specifically to accommodate the large-scale photographs that are an increasingly important part of contemporary art and the Museum's permanent collection.

Photographers represented in the collection include such modern masters as Thomas Struth, Andreas Gursky, Thomas Ruff, Jeff Wall, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, Doug Aitken, and Sigmar Polke.

Philippe de Montebello, Director of the Metropolitan, commented: "The establishment of this new gallery for modern photography is but the latest example of Museum Trustee Joyce Menschel's dedication to the Metropolitan and of the great generosity with which she and Robert Menschel have enriched the collections and programs of the Department of Photographs and the Museum as a whole over more than two decades.

It is fair to say that without Joyce's leadership as a Trustee and as Chair of the department's Visiting Committee, photography at the Metropolitan would not play the prominent role that it does."