In the early 20th century, when Alberto Giacometti (1901–1966) was still a student, the treasures of Pharaoh Akhenaton were unearthed. The discovery prompted news headlines and the ancients were suddenly in the spotlight. In 1920, Giacometti attended an exhibition in Florence and became enthralled with Egypt. He began visiting the Egyptian wings at the Louvre, sketching antiquities, and thumbing through history books on Ancient Egypt. Like Egyptian statues, Giacometti’s gaunt figures stride forward, representing motion, the essence of life. This exhibition brings the work of Giacometti into dialogue with the Met’s Temple of Dendur. Co-organized with the Fondation Giacometti, it features 17 sculptures—14 figures in bronze and plaster on loan from the Fondation, including rarely seen painted plasters, and three from the Met collection. As the curators write, “Long preoccupied with how sculpture might convey solitude, vulnerability, and the persistence of the human figure, Giacometti found in ancient Egyptian art a model of formal restraint and spiritual intensity that would shape his mature work.” —Elena Clavarino