Permanent display
Permanent collection · Dates unconfirmed
The Face of Life: Modern Portraits at The Met
from 18 May 2026 at Metropolitan Museum of Art
· New York City
The Face of Life: Modern Portraits at The Met brings together a rich selection of works from The Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection, tracing the evolution of portraiture through the modern era. From intimate studies to bold, large-scale canvases, the exhibition examines how artists across different movements and traditions have grappled with questions of identity, likeness, and the inner life of their subjects.
Spanning painting, drawing, photography, and sculpture, the show reveals the portrait as one of art's most enduring and contested forms — a mirror held up not only to individual faces, but to the social and cultural forces that shape them.
Spanning painting, drawing, photography, and sculpture, the show reveals the portrait as one of art's most enduring and contested forms — a mirror held up not only to individual faces, but to the social and cultural forces that shape them.
About the venue
Metropolitan Museum of Art
· New York City
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the fourth-largest museum in the world and the largest art museum in the Americas. With 5,727,258 visitors in fiscal year 2025, it was the most-visited museum in…
