 | | |  |  |  | | JUST OPENED | Through January 19, 2026
The Met Fifth Avenue | In ancient Egypt, images of gods weren’t just images—they brought the gods to life. Egyptians believed that it was through their depictions in tombs, temples, and shrines that the deities could enter sacred spaces and become active participants in rituals, offering a vital connection between the human and divine worlds. Over Egypt’s long history, its belief system grew to include more than 1,500 gods with many overlapping forms and traits. Subtle visual cues like what a figure wore, how they posed, or the symbols they carried helped identify them and their roles.
Divine Egypt brings together almost 250 works of art and objects, many of them on loan from institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Musée du Louvre, Paris, and the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, to examine the imagery associated with the most important deities in ancient Egypt’s massive body of gods. Depictions of the stately falcon-headed Horus, the lion-headed Sakhmet, and the serene, shrouded Osiris reveal the striking ways the kings and people of ancient Egypt recognized and interacted with their gods. | | Learn more → | | |  | | OPENING SOON | October 17, 2025–March 29, 2026
The Met Cloisters | Set in the stunning atmosphere of The Met Cloisters, this exhibition explores the often-overlooked themes of desire, sexuality, and gender in the medieval past, a period of time when most artistic production served religious purposes.
Desire in the Middle Ages was multifaceted. It could be courtly or carnal, sacred or subversive, and expressed as a kind of longing, suffering, or joy. Medieval artists could be both deeply serious and comical in their evocations of these feelings. Drawing on decades of scholarship, Spectrum of Desire opens up new ways of seeing the past through stirring works of art that inspire us to think more expansively about people who lived in the Middle Ages, their relationships, and the artworks they produced. | | Learn more → | | Exhibition Highlights | | | | | | | See more exhibitions → | | Exhibition Catalogue | | | | John Wilson: Witnessing Humanity | | The first major retrospective of the artist's work, Witnessing Humanity sheds light on Wilson's life and artistic evolution. Reproductions of artworks and photographs accompany critical essays and personal reflections, including analyses by art historians, interviews with Wilson's peers, remembrances from fellow Black creatives and a full chronology by the late artist's gallerist. | | Buy now → | | | | For more information on the exhibitions, including sponsorship credits, visit Divine Egypt, Spectrum of Desire: Love, Sex, and Gender in the Middle Ages, The Roof Garden Commission: Jennie C. Jones, Ensemble, P. S. Art 2025: Celebrating the Creative Spirit of New York City Kids, Lorna Simpson: Source Notes, Man Ray: When Objects Dream, Witnessing Humanity: The Art of John Wilson, and The Genesis Facade Commission: Jeffrey Gibson, The Animal That Therefore I Am.
For a full list of education program funders, please visit metmuseum.org/educationfundingsupport.
Images: Triad of Osiris, Horus, and Isis. From Egypt, probably Thebes, Karnak Temple. Third Intermediate Period, Dynasty 22, reign of Osorkon II (about 872–837 BCE). Gold inlaid with lapis lazuli. Acquired in 1872. Paris, Louvre Museum, Department of Egyptian Antiquities (E 6204). © 2025 GrandPalaisRmn (Louvre Museum). Photo: Mathieu Rabea | Aquamanile in the Form of Phyllis and Aristotle, Netherlandish, late 14th or early 15th century. Copper alloy, 12 ¾ x 7 x 15½ in. (32.5 x 17.9 x 39.3 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Robert Lehman Collection, 1975 (1975.1.1416) | Installation view of Ensemble, 2025, by Jennie C. Jones. Powder coated aluminum, stainless steel strings, instrument pins and concrete cast travertine tiles. Courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York © 2025 Jennie C. Jones | Jeshua Carmona (Grade 7), Countryball New York City (detail), 2025. Colored pencil. University Neighborhood Middle School, Manhattan. Teacher: Cynthia Millevoi | Lorna Simpson (American, born 1960). Night Fall (detail), 2023. Ink and screenprint on gessoed fiberglass, 144 x 102 in. (365.8 x 259.1 cm). Private Collection. Photo by James Wang. © Lorna Simpson / Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth | Man Ray (American, 1890–1976). Rayograph, 1922. Gelatin silver print. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bluff Collection, Promised Gift of John A. Pritzker. © Man Ray 2015 Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY / ADAGP, Paris 2025 | John Wilson (American, 1922–2015). My Brother, 1942. Oil on panel, 12 x 10 5/8 in. (30.48 x 26.9875 cm). Smith College Museum of Art, Purchased, (SC 1943.4.1) Courtesy of the Estate of John Wilson | Jeffrey Gibson (a member of the Mississippi band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, born 1972). The Animal That Therefore I Am: they teach us to be sensitive and to trust our instincts, issi / awi / deer (detail), 2025. Patinated bronze. Courtesy the artist | | | | |
