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Here's what's coming to The Met in 2023, including a major Van Gogh exhibit

Plus, photos of NYC in the 1920s, a new installation on the roof garden and a show on Karl Lagerfeld.

Rossilynne Skena Culgan
Things to Do Editor
The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh
The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh. Saint Rémy, June 1889. / © The Museum of Modern Art / Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY
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For the first time in more than a century, two of Van Gogh's most beloved paintings—"Wheat Field with Cypresses" and "The Starry Night"—will be on display together in a new exhibition at The Met in the summer of 2023. 

The show, titled "Van Gogh's Cypresses," will be the first to focus on the artist's fascination with the flamelike trees. Officials from the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced the new exhibit today, along with nine other exhibitions to look forward to in the year ahead. Here's more about the show and what else is coming up:

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Wheat Field with Cypresses by Vincent Van Gogh
Photograph: Wheat Field with Cypresses by Vincent Van Gogh / Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

“Van Gogh’s Cypresses”

May 22-August 27, 2023

Presented on the 170th anniversary of Van Gogh's birth, this show will bring together 40 works by Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890). With a focus on the towering cypress trees featured in Van Gogh's work, the exhibition will explore one of the most famous trees in art history. 

"It will offer an unprecedented look at some of the most iconic works of one the most seminal artists ever," Met Director Max Hollein said. 

In addition to "Wheat Field with Cypresses" and "The Starry Night," the show will also feature "Country Road in Provence by Night" as well as drawings, with a deep focus on how the artist represented cypresses. 

"Few motifs were to his mind more characteristic of Provence or exerted a greater hold on his imagination," Susan Alyson Stein, Engelhard Curator of Nineteenth-Century European Painting at The Met, said.

“Richard Avedon: MURALS”

January 19-November 1, 2023

Rare life-size photomurals, including an image of Andy Warhol’s Factory, will kick off the 2023 season in mid-January. 

View from Kalvebod Strand by Peter Vilhelm Carl Kyhn / Image
Photograph: View from Kalvebod Strand by Peter Vilhelm Carl Kyhn / Image © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, photo by Juan Trujillo

“Beyond the Light: Identity and Place in Nineteenth-Century Danish Art”

January 26-April 16, 2023

See 100 drawings, sketches and paintings from the Danish Golden Age, an era marked with tumult during which artists created outstanding works with romanticism, nature and light.

“Berenice Abbott’s New York Album, 1929”

March 2-September 4, 2023

Photographer Berenice Abbott captured New York in small, black-and-white images, 266 of which will be showcased. The museum describes it as a “kind of photographic sketchbook.”

"It's one of the unique treasures of the Met. It has never been fully exhibited, not been fully conserved, or published in its entirety—until now," Hollein said.

“Rich Man, Poor Man: Art, Class, and Commerce in a Late Medieval Town”

March 6-August 20, 2023 — at The Met Cloisters

This show at The Met Cloisters explores middle-class taste in late Medieval England through a set of sculptures giving insight into the intersection of art and class during this era.  

“Juan de Pareja, Afro-Hispanic Painter”

April 3-July 16, 2023

In what will be the first major exhibition about the life and artistic achievements of 17th-century Afro-Hispanic painter Juan de Pareja, the Met will explore de Pareja’s experience as an enslaved studio assistant in Diego Velázquez's studio before becoming an artist in his own right. 

"Pareja is this important artist we're just only now starting to fully discover with about 40 works—paintings, sculpture and decorative arts," Hollein said. 

Juan de Pareja by Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez
Photograph: Juan de Pareja by Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez / Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

“Cecily Brown: Death and the Maid”

April 4-September 24, 2023

Through this major contemporary art installation, the museum showcase key paintings, notebooks, and works on paper made in collaboration with artist Cecily Brown. Themes explore still life, momento mori and vanitas paintings.

“Anxiety and Hope in Japanese Art”

April 8-July 14, 2024

With 250 works, from ancient sculptures to modern prints and photographs, this exhibit will run through 2024 offering an exploration of Japanese art through the lens of human anxiety.

The Roof Garden Commission: Lauren Halsey

April 18-October 22, 2023

Artist Lauren Halsey will transform the Met’s roof garden with inspiration drawn from Los Angeles. The installation is meant to be inhabited, explored and create a sense of community.

“Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty”

May 5-July 16, 2023

Some 150 objects will explore the designer’s work and creative process with drawing always at the center. The show spans the designer’s his 65-year career at brands such as Chloe, Fendi, Chanel and his own company. It’ll be the Met Costume Institute’s 2023 exhibition and the theme of the next Met Gala.

Sketch of Dress by Karl Lagerfeld
Photograph: Sketch of Dress by Karl Lagerfeld / Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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