Blockbuster Met masterpieces exhibition opens at NPM

Taipei, June 14 (CNA) A major new exhibition featuring masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York opened Saturday at Taiwan's National Palace Museum (NPM), with over 100,000 advance tickets already sold.

Titled "From Impressionism to Modernism: French Masterpieces from the Robert Lehman Collection at The Met," the exhibition showcases 81 iconic works by 38 celebrated artists, NPM Director Hsiao Tsung-huang (蕭宗煌) said at a press event on Friday.

The collection includes renowned works by Impressionist master Renoir, Post-Impressionist legends van Gogh and Cézanne, and early modernists such as Matisse, Gauguin, Seurat and Pissarro.

The show, which is The Met's first large-scale presentation in Taiwan, runs through Oct. 12 and is the first stop on its Asia tour before heading to the National Museum of Korea.

Organized into five themed sections -- "The Body," "Portraits and Personalities," "In Nature," "From the City to the Country" and "By the Water" -- the exhibition explores how artists responded to a century of social change and artistic evolution.

Highlights include "Two Young Girls at the Piano" by Renoir, celebrated for its luminous brushwork, and a preparatory study by Seurat for "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte," the NPM said.

For ticket details, visit: www.mediasphere.com.tw