Met Museum Acquires Two Sculptures by Wangechi Mutu

THE NEW YORK TIMES 

By Peter Libbey

Wangechi Mutu’s “The Seated I” (2019) is one of two sculptures that the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired from the artist’s series “The NewOnes, will free Us.” Bruce Schwarz, via The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The series of bronze statues by Wangechi Mutu that currently adorns the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s facade is scheduled to be on public display until early November. But two of the four pieces, “The Seated I” and “The Seated III,” will remain at the museum long after the exhibition closes as a part of its collections, the Met announced on Tuesday. “Sometimes when you do a site-specific commission it only works for the specific site or in that particular context,” Max Hollein, the museum’s director, said in an interview. “In regard to Wangechi’s works, it’s clear that on the facade they work as these four sculptures framing the facade, transforming the facade, but they also work as singular objects.” [More]