Exhibition Tour—Musical Bodies | Met Exhibitions
The Metropolitan Museum’s "Musical Bodies" exhibition examines how musical instruments function as extensions of the human form, weaving together artistry, craftsmanship, and cultural narrative. By juxtaposing ancient artifacts with contemporary designs, the show asks why so many instruments echo bodily shapes and what that reveals about identity. The display features roughly 130 objects sourced from ten curatorial departments and over 30 international lenders, ranging from an Early Cycladic figurine to a 16th‑century Gould violin and a Santal fiddle. Interactive installations like the "Body Music" corridor let visitors generate tones and visuals through movement, while designers Fabiana Weinberg, Greta Skagerlind, and lighting artist Brian Schneider emphasize the seamless merger of body and instrument. Highlights include the lira da braccio, a Renaissance string instrument bearing male and female carvings that embody the divine androgyne, paired with Prince’s Symbol Guitar to illustrate gender fluidity across eras. A custom drum kit for Alejandro González of Maná, adorned with Día de los Muertos skulls, connects modern pop culture to centuries‑old memento mori motifs. By positioning music as a core component of human identity and survival, the exhibition expands the Met’s reach beyond scholars to a broad public, demonstrating how immersive, participatory experiences can deepen appreciation for the intertwined histories of sound, the body, and society.
Inside The Met's Frank Lloyd Wright Room
Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Frank Lloyd Wright Room, curator guides reveal a summer house originally built in Wayzata, Minnesota, between 1912 and 1914 for the Little family. The Met acquired the entire structure in 1971 and installed the reconstructed room...
Debbie Millman and Cy Gavin—Ecologies of Painting
The Metropolitan Museum’s new installation “Ecologies of Painting” re‑examines its European paintings collection, pairing celebrated masterpieces with lesser‑known works dating from roughly 1525 to 1775. Curators David Pullins and Anna‑Claire Stinebring frame the show as an experimental “incubator” space, using...
The Conservator’s Eye: A Close Look at “La Fin Du Monde Filmée Par L’ange N.-D.”
The video examines a 1975 deluxe leather‑bound volume titled “La Fin du monde filmée par l’ange N.-D.” that uniquely houses both the finished printed book and the original maquette used to develop its graphics. The binding, crafted by Leroux, features vivid...
Annual Distinguished Lecture: Gods at the Gate of Modernity—Religious Arts in Colonial Calcutta
The Metropolitan Museum’s Distinguished Lecture, titled “Gods at the Gate of Modernity,” examined the rise of mass‑produced Hindu devotional prints—often called “god prints”—in colonial Calcutta and their display in the new “Household Gods: Hindu Devotional Prints, 1860‑1930” exhibition. Professor Richard Davis...
Women & the Critical Eye 2026: Nicole Eisenman Danielle Mckinney Kay WalkingStick with Jane Panetta
The Met’s annual "Women and the Critical Eye" event returned for its 21st edition, gathering leading women artists—Nicole Eisenman, Danielle McKinney, and Kay WalkingStick—to explore how motherhood intersects with artistic practice. Hosted by director Max Hollein and chaired by trustee...
Painting, Writing, and Exile: Peter Weiss in Sweden
The Leonard A. Lauder Distinguished Scholar Lecture examined the life and work of Peter Weiss, a German‑born novelist, playwright, filmmaker, and painter who fled Nazi persecution in 1934 and spent most of his career in Sweden. Professor Frederic J. Schwartz...
Curator Talk—Emily Sargent: Portrait of a Family
The Metropolitan Museum’s Curator Talk introduced “Emily Sargent: Portrait of a Family,” an exhibition that spotlights the watercolors of Emily Sargent, the younger sister of famed portraitist John Singer Sargent. Running through July 1 to the following Sunday in Gallery 773, the...
Meet Me At The Met: Ana Gasteyer
In a recent interview titled “Meet Me At The Met,” comedian‑actress Ana Gasteyer reflects on how museum visits shaped her artistic journey, from improv stages to Broadway. Gasteyer recounts studying opera at Northwestern while minoring in art history, noting that analyzing...
Olmsted and Central Park, 1983 | From the Vaults
The Met’s “From the Vaults” video revisits the 1983 exhibition that celebrated Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of American landscape architecture, and his seminal work on New York’s Central Park. It recounts how Olmsted, together with English‑born architect Calvert Vaux, won the...
A Celebration of John Wilson
The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted a celebration of John Wilson, a Black American artist whose six‑decade career pursued a "universal humanity" through figurative painting, drawing, and printmaking. Curated jointly with the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the show...
The Secret Life of Flowers: Reimagining the Persian Rose and Nightingale
The Metropolitan Museum hosted the annual Annemarie Schimmel memorial lecture, featuring Dr. Layla Diba’s talk “The Secret Life of Flowers; Re‑Imagining the Persian Rose and Nightingale.” The event highlighted the enduring gul‑u‑bulbul motif, tracing its development from Mongol‑era manuscripts through...
Symposium—Iba Ndiaye: Between Latitude and Longitude
The Metropolitan Museum opened its newly renovated Michael C. Rockefeller Wing with a day‑long symposium centered on Senegalese modernist Iba Ndiaye. The flagship exhibition, “Between Latitude and Longitude,” presents Ndiaye’s seminal work “Tabaski III” alongside European masterpieces—Rembrandt’s “Sacrifice of Isaac,” Soutine’s...
Sunday at The Met—Seeing Silence: The Paintings of Helene Schjerfbeck
The Met’s Sunday at The Met series hosted the opening of “Seeing Silence: The Paintings of Helene Schjerfbeck,” a Finnish‑focused exhibition launched on International Women’s Day and timed with Women’s History Month. Curator Dita Amory introduced the show, highlighting Schjerfbeck’s...
An Afternoon with Lorraine O’Grady
The Metropolitan Museum hosted a conversation with artist Lorraine O’Grady, introduced by curator David Breslin and curator Denise Murrell, to contextualize O’Grady’s work within the Manet/Degas exhibition and the broader history of Black representation in European painting. O’Grady traced her unconventional...