Apollo's Muse: The Moon in the Age of Photography
At The Met Fifth Avenue
July 3–September 22, 2019
With a delightful intro by Tom Hanks, star of Apollo 13, this captivating volume explores our complex relationship with the cosmos since the invention of photography.
Buy NowOn July 20, 1969, half a billion viewers around the world watched as the first images of American astronauts on the moon were beamed back to the earth. The result of decades of technical innovation, this thrilling moment in the history of images radically expanded the limits of human vision.
Celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, Apollo's Muse: The Moon in the Age of Photography surveys visual representations of the moon from the dawn of photography through the present. In addition to photographs, the show features a selection of related drawings, prints, paintings, films, astronomical instruments, and cameras used by Apollo astronauts.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
"Beautifully installed revelation. . . . a trailblazing marriage of science and art. . . . the images collected here read like a love letter from all [the moon's] ardent suitors."—New York Times
"A superb exhibition"—New York Review of Books
"The blockbuster show of the summer"—New York Post
"Ambitious, provocative and lively show"—Wall Street Journal
"Shockingly beautiful"—New Republic
The exhibition is made possible by OMEGA.
Additional support is provided by the Enterprise Holdings Endowment and The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation.
The catalogue is made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Neil Armstrong (American, 1930–2012), NASA Apollo 11. Buzz Aldrin Walking on the Surface of the Moon Near a Leg of the Lunar Module (detail), 1969. Dye transfer print, 16 1/8 x 16 3/8 in. (41 x 41.6 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2017 (2017.421)
