Image: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has listed the exhibition ‘The Face of Life: Modern Portraits at The Met’ at The Met Cloisters in New York, where it is scheduled to remain on view through October 18, 2026. The announcement, included in the museum’s August 2026 exhibition newsletter, does not provide an opening date, a list of artists, or further curatorial details.
The exhibition is presented at The Met Cloisters, the museum’s location in Fort Tryon Park. The branch is listed at 99 Margaret Corbin Drive, New York, NY 10040, separate from The Met Fifth Avenue at 1000 Fifth Avenue. The newsletter identifies The Face of Life as one of the exhibitions currently on view across the museum’s locations.
Although the announcement is brief, its title places the project within the history of modern portraiture. The supplied exhibition image is accompanied by a credit for Henri Matisse’s ‘Young Sailor II’ (1906), an oil painting from The Met’s Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. The source material does not state whether the work is included in the exhibition, however, so no broader list of works or artists can be confirmed from the announcement.
The listing appears alongside several other exhibitions at The Met Fifth Avenue, including ‘Ecologies of Painting,’ ‘Musical Bodies,’ ‘Costume Art,’ and ‘Creatures of Myth and Imagination: Europe and the Americas.’ Those projects are separate from ‘The Face of Life,’ which the newsletter specifically assigns to The Met Cloisters. The same mailing also lists exhibitions scheduled to open later in 2026, including ‘The Genesis Facade Commission: Liu Wei, Speculation’ and ‘Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous.’
The Met describes its overall programme in the newsletter as part of its work to collect, conserve, and present 5,000 years of world art. Within that institutional context, ‘The Face of Life’ is identified specifically as a modern-portrait exhibition, but the available notice does not state its scope, number of works, organizing themes, lenders, or participating artists.
Visitors can find the exhibition at The Met Cloisters through October 18, 2026. The museum’s notice directs audiences to its website for exhibition information and current opening days and hours for each location.
