The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present two concurrent exhibitions featuring recent work by the renowned American artist Frank Stella (born 1936) in spring 2007.

Bringing together masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection with important loans from private collections, Brush and Ink: The Chinese Art of Writing explores the 1,600-year history of calligraphy from its genesis as a fine art in the fourth century A.D. The exhibition will be on view through January 21, 2007.

An exhibition of some 60 powerful and graphically elaborate sculptures and 30 rare historical photographs from the Papuan Gulf area of the island of New Guinea will go on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, on view through September 2, 2007.

The studio craft movement, characterized by one-of-a-kind decorative art objects, began in the U.S. after World War II and has flourished internationally over the past 40 years. During this period, craft artists have experimented with new materials and non-traditional techniques, producing bold, abstract, and sculptural art.

An exhibition of exquisite Asian lacquer decorated with mother-of-pearl will be open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art through April 1, 2007. Featuring some 50 works dating from the eighth to the 19th century, Mother-of-Pearl: A Tradition in Asian Lacquer will illustrate the remarkable variety of effects found in the use of minute pieces of mother-of-pearl to create mosaic-like patterns and dazzling scenes.

Political, economic, and social turmoil shaped Germany's short-lived Weimar Republic (1919-1933). These pivotal years also became a most creative period of 20th-century German culture, generating innovation in literature, music, film, theater, and architecture.

More than 80 medieval sculpted heads - half from the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and half selected loans from American and European collections - are the focus of the upcoming exhibition Set in Stone: The Face in Medieval Sculpture, on view through February 18, 2007.

The first multi-artist exhibition of video art and new media at The Metropolitan Museum of Art will be presented from February 23 to April 29, 2007. Drawn entirely from the collection of the Museum's Department of Photographs, Closed Circuit: Video and New Media at the Metropolitan features video and new media works made between 1994 and 2004 by eight American and international artists: Darren Almond, Lutz Bacher, Jim Campbell, Omer Fast, Ann Hamilton, David Hammons, Maria Marshall, and Wolfgang Staehle.

A Taste for Opulence: Sèvres Porcelain from the Collection presents a selection of objects such as vases, dinner and tea services, furniture decorated with porcelain plaques, and other luxurious wares produced in the 18th century by the Sèvres porcelain factory.

Medieval Art and The CloistersThe Middle Ages, the period between ancient and modern times in Western civilization, extends from the fourth to the early 16th century - that is, roughly from the Fall of Rome to the beginning of the Renaissance in Northern Europe.

The American Wing houses one of the finest and most comprehensive collections of American art in existence - more than 15,000 paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts objects - all of which are accessible to the public on four floors of gallery and study areas. It also features one of the Museum's loveliest and most popular spaces, The Charles Engelhard Court, a glassed-in garden featuring large-scale American sculptures, leaded-glass windows, and other architectural elements.

Established as an independent curatorial department in 1992, the Metropolitan Museum's Department of Photographs houses a collection of more than 15,000 works acquired by the Museum over more than 70 years.