The Temple of Dendur will be closed Sunday, April 26, through Friday, May 8. The Met Fifth Avenue will be closed on Monday, May 4.

Plan your visit
Tickets
English
DonateMembership
Tickets

All Essays

African Art in The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing
Series
Sculpted stone head of a woman with almond eyes and scarification marks beside its left eye.
The Soapstone Sculptures of Èṣìẹ
The Èṣìẹ sculptures offer a window into a sophisticated precolonial West African society and maintain an enduring spiritual and historical significance today.
Adekunle Temilade Adeniji
October 24, 2025
Large stone head with bold features, filed teeth, and an elaborate cap or coiffure signifying a high-ranking individual.
Nomoli and Pomdo Stone Figures of Upper Guinea
The stone figures of the Upper Guinea coast speak to the complexity, technical skill, hierarchical societies, and spiritual beliefs of the Sapi world.
Adekunle Temilade Adeniji
October 2, 2025
Stone monolith sculpted with low-relief human facial features
The Akwanshi Stone Monoliths of the Cross River Region in Nigeria and Cameroon
Stone monoliths, sculpted with low-relief human features, populate the lush tropical rainforests of southeastern Nigeria and southwestern Cameroon.
Adekunle Temilade Adeniji
September 25, 2025
Aerial view of a stone wall structure
Great Zimbabwe
Great Zimbabwe’s architectural layout and material culture have been key in understanding the site’s settlement history and economic, social, and political organization.
Tawanda Mukwende
May 27, 2025
Five men posing for a photograph, surrounding a seated central figure
Early Histories of Photography in West Africa (1860–1910)
African patrons and entrepreneurs quickly picked up the new technology, which circulated and flourished through local and global networks of exchange. Photographers, clients, and images moved across the region often traversing both national and ethnic boundaries.
Giulia Paoletti
March 1, 2017
Wooden sculpture of a woman wearing an amulet-laden hat
Antelopes and Queens: Bambara Sculpture from the Western Sudan: A Groundbreaking Exhibition at the Museum of Primitive Art, New York, 1960
The Museum of Primitive Art’s focus on works linked to a single cultural or ethnic group was unprecedented, and it created a standard for exhibitions of African art that endured throughout the twentieth century.
Susan Elizabeth Gagliardi
May 1, 2016
Close up of a healing scroll showing alternating patterns of human faces, abstract designs, eyes, and text
Ethiopian Healing Scrolls
Images on scrolls are nonrepresentational talismanic designs that reveal mysteries and enhance the effectiveness of written prayers.
Kristen Windmuller-Luna
April 1, 2015
Close up of a bronze liturgical trifoliate cross
The Rock-hewn Churches of Lalibela
The Lalibela churches take their form, placement, and orientation from both geological features and structures within the complex.
Kristen Windmuller-Luna
September 1, 2014
Woven screen divided into two vertical fields of black design on a natural golden brown background
Tutsi Basketry
Combining functionality, exacting skills, and visually dazzling graphic elements, the wide range of basketry artifacts created by elite Tutsi women from Rwanda and Burundi represent the apogee of refinement.
Yaëlle Biro
March 1, 2011
Wooden female altar figure
Divination and Senufo Sculpture in West Africa
Diviners invest in the arts to foster personal relationships with the spirit world and enhance communication between nature spirits and humans.
Susan Elizabeth Gagliardi
January 1, 2010