The Met’s Musical Bodies Exhibition Brings Refreshing Diversity to Music History

With narratives of music history often being heavily Eurocentric, non-Western musical traditions have been marginalized and largely ignored. Many conservatories, for example, still emphasize and prioritize Western music theory education, and the works of Western composers are favored by most top orchestras. With such a historically single-narrative story of music, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new Musical Bodies exhibition is a surprisingly refreshing and informative collection of pieces spanning across centuries and continents.

The goal of Musical Bodies is to showcase the unique relationship between musical instruments and the human body and attempt to answer the question of why so many musical instruments resemble the human form. The exhibition centers around gender, death, and family, with additional themes of sex, fertility, and human invention. Both contemporary works made in the last decade and older works from 3000 BCE are showcased, and the collection is around 130 pieces in total, ranging from instruments and sculptures to CDs and tap shoes. The pieces hail from the United States, Italy, Japan, Egypt, Gabon, Vanuatu, and a host of other countries.

Among the most interesting and numerous pieces relate to the physical resemblance between stringed instruments and the female body. Observed to be similar in shape and proportion, violins and female anatomy are the focus of many Musical Bodies pieces. One such piece is Le Violon d’Ingres, a 1924 photograph by American artist Man Ray of model Kiki de Montparnasse. De Montparnasse is photographed from behind, with two violin f-holes placed on her back, undoubtedly meant to liken her body to the instrument. The effect is suggestive and thought-provoking, as De Montparnasse is depicted topless while the f-holes are bold and overt. Another artwork in Musical Bodies that superimposes a violin onto a woman’s body is The White Violin, an illustration by Brazilian Gabriel Bá from the well-loved graphic novel The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite, written by American Gerard Way in 2019. The sketch depicts character Vanya Hargreeves transforming into her powerful alter ego, the White Violin. She holds a violin while strings, a bridge, a tailpiece, and two f-holes appear on her torso. Interestingly, while art featuring male anatomy is present in the exhibition, Musical Bodies has a disproportionately large number of pieces depicting female nudity and sexualization. While this imbalance has historical roots, its presence indicates that these biases are still present in art culture today, and that there is always more work to be done to create and present more representative art.

Another fascinating chain of artwork centers around the synchronicity of life and death. One of the many instruments on display is a ngombi from Gabon. The ngombi is a traditional harp that is used in Bwiti rituals. When played, it is said to allow for divine communication between the living and the dead, with its strings being plucked simultaneously by both. The Atingting kon from Vanuatu, a type of slit gong also on display in Musical Bodies, is carved with the face of a village ancestor. These massive instruments are played at all major social gatherings, and serve as a way of including the dead in the events of the living. Finally, Hairwork Wreath in the Form of a Lyre, an American artwork from ca. 1870, is made from the hair of multiple generations of a family, including both living and dead relatives. Made as a lyre, a harp-like instrument from Ancient Greece, it symbolically portrays the ability of music to connect the living and dead.

The final major theme in Musical Bodies is the idea of music bringing comfort to death, and many diverse pieces in the exhibition showcase loss in very different ways. One of the largest and most hard-to-miss pieces on display is the For a Musician casket, made by Ghanaian sculptor Paa Joe in 2025. This scaled-up guitar takes up the larger part of the exhibition’s central room and serves as a coffin for a musician. Musicians often spend a lifetime with their instruments, so this instrument-shaped casket reflects how music can bring comfort and familiarity to the unknown of death. Another modern piece that explores loss is a Gaita de boto by Spanish instrument-maker Jordi Aixalà Basora. A gaita de boto is an Aragonese bagpipe rooted in a traditional folktale of a man mourning his daughter by dressing his gaita in his daughter’s dress. Every time he played his instrument, he would be reminded of her and comforted, a reminder that music can be a powerful source of solace to those grieving a loss.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Musical Bodies exhibition is not just catered to musicians and artists. It is an opportunity for ordinary people to experience and appreciate art while learning about human history and the human experience. It explores how art is present in and applicable to all aspects of life, whether it be a childhood comic book or deeper existential discussions about death and morality. Open through September 27, the exhibition has the unique ability to connect artists, musicians, and art consumers through time and space while embracing diversity and uplifting unique voices in music history. By shining a spotlight on underrepresented artists exploring the intersection of two distinct art forms, music and visual arts, the exhibition sends a powerful message to all consumers of art: art has never been and never will be single-origin.