MET’s newly redesigned Michael C. Rockefeller Wing
If you’re craving the thrill of great art and expansive thinking, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s newly redesigned Michael C. Rockefeller Wing is a must-see. Reopening after a multi-year renovation, it houses a breathtaking array of works from Africa, the Americas, and Oceania — art that spans millennia, continents, and civilizations.
Gone are the crowded cases and dim corners. The redesigned galleries feel open and immersive, allowing 1,726 objects — from gold-cast deities of Mexico to monumental carved wood figures from Africa — to breathe and command attention as the living, dynamic creations they are.
This reinstallation also marks a shift in how such art is framed. Once relegated to anthropology museums or dismissed as “primitive,” these works are now seen — rightly — as equal to any art from Europe or Asia. It’s a powerful statement about whose stories are told in major institutions and how.
This evolution owes much to Nelson Rockefeller, who, when the Met initially declined his pre-Columbian and African collections, created the Museum of Primitive Art in 1957. That collection, and later acquisitions including works brought back by his son Michael from New Guinea, eventually formed the Rockefeller Wing, which opened in 1982.
The $70 million renovation preserves the original footprint but rearranges its interior flow, connecting it more organically to the rest of the museum. Entering from the Greek and Roman galleries, visitors are now enveloped in Africa, not detoured past it — a meaningful change in narrative and experience.
Inside, the diversity of African art is immediately evident. A towering Dogon figure with arms raised to the heavens greets visitors. Nearby, a contemplative terracotta sculpture from Jenne-Jeno, possibly made by a woman, offers a striking contrast. And in a self-portrait, photographer Seydou Keïta, wristwatch visible, smells a flower — anchoring a modern African presence.
The layout emphasizes depth and variety: clusters of cultural artworks punctuated by signature pieces. Central African galleries include highlights like a fiery Tsesah crest mask and a sensuous Fang reliquary figure once owned by André Derain. In a West African space, a glowing 16th-century ivory pendant of Queen Idia radiates elegance and political weight.
Multimedia and textiles enrich the atmosphere — harp music from Gabon, mask dances on film, and vibrant kente cloths — emphasizing that these works were created for active, lived environments. The African section concludes with a treasury of Ethiopian religious artifacts, seamlessly transitioning visitors to the art of Oceania and the Americas.
Oceania’s towering Asmat poles and fragile bark paintings once basked in light, but concerns about preservation have moved some to interior spaces. In their place, durable Ancient American works now occupy sunlit areas, including an Olmec jade head and a gender-fluid ceramic figure from Colombia or Ecuador, merging the sacred, mythical, and human.
This sense of “in-betweenness” threads through the American section: a Moche ear ornament shaped like a bird-human hybrid, a golden snake lip-plug with a movable tongue, and Toltec reliefs of eagles devouring hearts — all fusing identity, spirit, and power in vivid ways. The iconic 80-foot Kwoma ceiling of painted palm leaves — newly revised in consultation with the originating community — remains a triumph of collaborative cultural storytelling.
Across the reinstallation, the curators — Alisa LaGamma, Joanne Pillsbury, Laura Filloy Nadal, and Maia Nuku — emphasize continuity with the present. Contemporary African art by Iba Ndiaye and Samuel Fosso bridges tradition and modern politics, while transparent texts confront slavery, gender, authorship, and colonial legacies with honesty and nuance.
This is not just a rehang — it’s a rethinking of art history. No longer “anonymous,” creators from Olowe of Ise to the women of Jenne-Jeno are recognized. In every room, the message is clear: these works are part of a global, living dialogue. Come to the Met and witness art that’s not only visually stunning but historically and spiritually profound.
