"What a mess, " I thought, as I stepped off the elevator and entered the roof garden of the Met. "Somebody had better come in and clean up the paint spill." How wrong I was on this warm Tuesday morning, a day to visit the roof top terrace, just opened this season. Little did I know that the exhibit would be the splattered deep red and white-bordered free flowing brush strokes of the Pakistani artist Imran Qureshi. Provocative, lyrical and floral, his patterns spread across the concrete floor and climb the abutting protective barriers. In some cases, they appear to be heavy stains of blood clotting beside delicate petal shapes. Enclosed by the greenery of Central Park and the skyline of New York City, under a silken blue sky, the exhibit suggests mayhem and marvel, destruction and delicacy, imagination and industry. The exhibit's title, "And How Many Rains Must Fall Before the Stains Are Washed Clean," from a poem by the poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, leaves one to ponder violence and beauty in its varied forms.P5210243 P5210229 P5210198 P5210219