Met Museum Exhibition Explores Musical Instruments as Human Body Extensions

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has opened 'Musical Bodies,' an exhibition examining how musical instruments from around the world are shaped and decorated like the human body. Curated by Bradley Strauchen-Scherer, the show features roughly 130 works spanning 4,000 years, including a pair of hippopotamus ivory clappers from ancient Egypt, a brass bell from the Lower Niger River region with a carved human face, a percussion instrument from the Democratic Republic of the Congo with breasts and a belly, and a 19th-century dhodro banam from eastern India shaped like a smiling person. The exhibition also includes Prince's purple Love Symbol guitar and a PianoArc circular piano used at Lady Gaga concerts. A 19th-century Japanese woodblock print by Utagawa Kunisada depicting a woman playing a shakuhachi flute is noted for its erotic subtext. 'Musical Bodies' runs through September 27, 2026.