RECENTLY OPENED EXHIBITION
Chinese zodiac figure: Snake (detail), China, Jin (1115–1234) to Yuan dynasty (1279–1368), 13th century. Grey earthenware with pigment. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Charlotte C. and John C. Weber Collection, Gift of Charlotte C. and John C. Weber, 1994 (1994.605.38)
Celebrating the Year of the Snake
Through February 10, 2026
The traditional East Asian lunar calendar consists of a repeating twelve-year cycle, with each year corresponding to one of the twelve animals in the Chinese zodiac. The association of these creatures with the Chinese calendar began in the third century BCE and became firmly established by the first century CE. The twelve animals are, in sequence: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. Each is believed to embody certain traits that are manifested in the personalities of people born in that year. January 29, 2025, marks the beginning of the Year of the Snake, a creature characterized as alert, calm, and smart.
Celebrating the Year of the Snake presents a remarkable selection of works drawn from the Museum’s collection illustrating the significant role that the snake plays in Chinese culture, including a 3,000-year-old bronze ritual vessel with a spout formed by joined snakes’ heads, a 13th-century pottery figure of a mischievously smiling snake, and an 18th-century exquisitely painted porcelain cup portraying a scene from the “Legend of the White Snake,” a popular folktale of love and romance between humans and fantastic creatures.
The exhibition is made possible by the Joseph Hotung Fund. clouds and waves.
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Portrait of Tong Yang-Tze, 2021 © At Ease Studio Limited. Photo by Te-Fan Wang
The Great Hall Commission: Tong Yang-Tze, Dialogue
November 21, 2024 – April 8, 2025
The Great Hall
For the 2024 Great Hall Commission, we are thrilled to invite Taiwanese artist Tong Yang-Tze (born 1942, Shanghai; based in Taipei) to create two monumental Chinese calligraphy works for the Museum’s historic space. Opening on November 21 with an evening talk, this project will be the third in the series of commissions for The Met’s Great Hal and marks the artist’s first major project in the United States.
Taipei-based Tong is one of the most celebrated artists working exclusively in Chinese calligraphy today. Best known for making calligraphy in monumental scale, Tong brings Chinese characters into dialogue with three-dimensional space and pushes the conceptual and compositional boundaries of the art form, while remaining dedicated to calligraphy’s raison d’être as the art of writing. Her commitment to the written characters is rooted in her belief in its centrality in Chinese cultural identity and calligraphy’s capacity for visual, emotional, and social impact beyond linguistic barriers. Working on the floor, she manipulates the movement and tension in the brushstrokes, the foremost quality in calligraphy. The oversized characters pose physical, formal, and conceptual challenges while offering new compositional possibilities and a unique viewing experience.
The Great Hall Commission is part of The Met’s series of contemporary commissions in which the Museum invites artists to create new works of art, establishing a dialogue between the artist’s practice, The Met collection, the physical Museum, and The Met’s audiences.
The exhibition is made possible by the Director’s Fund, Mr. T.H. Tung, Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang, and Jenny Yeh, Winsing Arts Foundation.
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PAST RELATED EVENT
Artist Talk with Tong Yang-Tze
Thursday, November 21 from 6:30-7:30pm
Free with advance registration
The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
Join artist Tong Yang-Tze for a conversation about The Great Hall Commission: Tong Yang-Tze, Dialogue, two monumental works of Chinese calligraphy created for The Met’s historic space that bring Chinese characters into dialogue with the Museum architecture and push the conceptual and compositional boundaries of the art of writing.
The conversation explores Tong’s decades-long career and her commitment to expand calligraphy’s capacity for visual, emotional, and social impact beyond linguistic barriers.
Please note that this program includes interpretation from Mandarin Chinese into English.
Yosa Buson (Japanese, 1716–1783), Hanshan and Shide (detail), Edo period, early 1770s, pair of hanging scrolls, ink and color on paper, 55 × 23 3/16 in (139.7 × 58.9 cm), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection, Gift of Mary and Cheney Cowles, 2022 (2022.432.16a, b)
The Three Perfections: Japanese Poetry, Calligraphy, and Painting from the Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection
August 10, 2024 – August 3, 2025
In East Asian cultures, the arts of poetry, calligraphy, and painting are traditionally referred to as the “Three Perfections.” This exhibition presents over 160 rare and precious works—all created in Japan over the course of nearly a millennium—that showcase the power and complexity of the three forms of art.
Examples include folding screens with poems brushed on sumptuous decorated papers, dynamic calligraphy by Zen monks of medieval Kyoto, hanging scrolls with paintings and inscriptions alluding to Chinese and Japanese literary classics, ceramics used for tea gatherings, and much more.
The majority of the works are among the more than 250 examples of Japanese painting and calligraphy donated or promised to The Met by Mary and Cheney Cowles, whose collection is one of the finest and most comprehensive assemblages of Japanese art outside Japan.
The exhibition is made possible by The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Foundation Fund.
To learn more, click here.
Celebrating the Year of the Dragon
February 3, 2023 – 2025
February 10, 2024, marks the beginning of the Lunar New Year, the Year of the Dragon, the most celebrated animal in Chinese culture. This exhibition assembles a remarkable selection of more than twenty works from the Museum’s permanent collection that depict this imaginary animal in various media, including ceramic, jade, lacquer, metalwork, and textile. Together they illustrate the significant role that the dragon plays as a symbol of imperial authority, a dynamic force to dispel evil influences, and a benevolent deity that brings auspicious rain to all life on earth. Most notable are a third-century BCE jade pendant of a spirited dragon with a sinuous body, a recent acquisition of a seventh-century bronze mirror with symbols of the four cardinal directions, and a massive sixteenth-century jar of blue and white porcelain with vigorous dragons writhing through clouds and waves.
Ink and Ivory: Indian Drawings and Photographs Selected with James Ivory
Through May 4, 2025
This focused exhibition presents a selection of superlative drawings from the courts and centers of India and Pakistan (with a few related Persian works) dating from the late sixteenth to the twentieth century. These works are mainly selected from The Met collection in partnership with film director James Ivory, whose recent gift to the Museum of nineteenth-century photograph albums will also be featured in the exhibition (2021.381.1-16). The drawings will include fresh and informal preparatory exercises for paintings as well as beautifully finished works in their own right. The photographs will present the subject matter and styles that came about in the contexts of royal patronage and ceremony; views of architecture, cities, landscapes, and people, among others. As an artist and filmmaker, James Ivory will help us appreciate this material through his unique gaze. A short film — An Arrested Moment — directed by Dev Benegal, will accompany the show.
The Genesis Facade Commission: Lee Bul, Long Tail Halo
Through May 27, 2025
For the 2024 Genesis Facade Commission, South Korean artist Lee Bul (born 1964, Yeongju, based in Seoul) has created four new sculptures that combine figurative and abstract elements. The Genesis Facade Commission: Lee Bul, Long Tail Halo is the artist’s first major project in the United States in more than twenty years and the fifth in the series of contemporary commissions for The Met Fifth Avenue’s facade niches. With a career that spans four decades, Lee is widely recognized as the preeminent artist from South Korea. She is known for her sophisticated use of both highly industrial and labor-intensive materials, incorporating artisanal practices as well as technological advancements into her work. Her sculptures, often evoking bodily forms that are at once classical and futuristic, address the aspirations and disillusions that come with progress.
Ganesha: Lord of New Beginings
Through June 15, 2025
Ganesha, the son of Shiva and Parvati, is a Brahmanical (Hindu) diety known to clear a path to the gods and remove obstacles in everyday life. He is loved by his devotees (bhakti) for his many traits, including his insatiable appetite for sweet cakes and his role as a dispenser of magic, surprise, and laughter. However, Ganesha is also the lord of ganas (nature deities) and can take on a fearsome aspect in this guise.
The seventh- to twenty-first-century works in this exhibition trace his depiction across the Indian subcontinent, the Himalayas, and Southeast Asia. Featuring 24 works across sculptures, paintings, musical instruments, ritual implements, and photography, the exhibition emphasizes the vitality and exuberance of Ganesha as the bringer of new beginnings.
A Passion for Jade: The Bishop Collection
Through January 4, 2026
More than a hundred remarkable objects from the Heber Bishop collection, including carvings of jade, the most esteemed stone in China, and many other hardstones, are on view in this focused presentation. The refined works represent the sophisticated art of Chinese gemstone carvers during the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) as well as the highly accomplished skills of Mogul Indian (1526–1857) craftsmen, which provided an exotic inspiration to their Chinese counterparts. Also on view are a set of Chinese stone-working tools and illustrations of jade workshops, which will introduce the traditional method of working jade.
Embracing Color: Enamel in Chinese Decorative Arts, 1300-1900
Through January 4, 2026
Enamel decoration is a significant element of Chinese decorative arts that has long been overlooked. This exhibition reveals the aesthetic, technical, and cultural achievement of Chinese enamel wares by demonstrating the transformative role of enamel during the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties. The first transformational moment occurred in the late 14th to 15th century, when the introduction of cloisonné enamel from the West, along with the development of porcelain with overglaze enamels, led to a shift away from a monochromatic palette to colorful works. The second transformation occurred in the late 17th to 18th century, when European enameling materials and techniques were brought to the Qing court and more subtle and varied color tones were developed on enamels applied over porcelain, metal, glass, and other mediums. In both moments, Chinese artists did not simply adopt or copy foreign techniques; they actively created new colors and styles that reflected their own taste. The more than 100 objects on view are drawn mainly from The Met collection.
Rotation 1: July 2, 2022–April 30, 2023
Rotation 2: May 20, 2023–March 24, 2024
Rotation 3: April 13, 2024–Feb 16, 2025
Rotation 4: March 1, 2025–Jan 4, 2026
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