NYC Gazette

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is presenting an exhibition titled "Flight into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876–Now." This exhibition explores the engagement of Black artists and cultural figures with ancient Egyptian themes through various forms of art, literature, music, scholarship, religion, politics, and performance. Spanning nearly 150 years from the 19th century to contemporary times, it showcases approximately 200 artworks across different media.

The exhibition features thematic sections that include works from The Met's collection as well as international loans. These sections examine how Black artists have used ancient Egyptian imagery to forge a unifying identity and highlight the contributions of Black scholars to the study of ancient Egypt. It also looks at how modern and contemporary Egyptian artists engage with their ancient heritage.

For the first time at The Met, performance art will be a central component of an exhibition. In collaboration with MetLiveArts, a dedicated gallery known as the “Performance Pyramid” will document Black performance art incorporating ancient Egyptian themes. It will also host live performances on select days during the exhibition.

This exhibition is supported by several foundations including the Gail and Parker Gilbert Fund, Jane and Robert Carroll Fund, Ford Foundation, Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation, Hayden Family Foundation, Allison and Larry Berg, Holly Peterson Foundation, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, National Endowment for the Arts among others.

The catalogue for this exhibition is funded by Mellon Foundation and Denise Littlefield Sobel. Additional support comes from The Witten Family Foundation, Lonti Ebers, Jeffrey and Leslie Fischer Family Foundation, Kent Kelley along with Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon B. Polsky who are supporting Performance Pyramid performances through Adrienne Arsht Fund for Resilience through Art.