Charles Ray: Figure Ground will be the artist’s first significant New York exhibition in over two decades. It will present Ray’s work not all together in a dedicated gallery, but interspersed throughout the museum, literally in the “space between” the works of the permanent collection. Often described as an artist’s artist, Charles Ray’s work resists simple characterization; it is not always obvious, for example, how much it exists in dialogue with artistic traditions of the past. The Met can illuminate this aspect of Ray’s work by providing an art historical context that few other museums around the world could. And it can provide an unparalleled opportunity for the artist to work in direct dialogue with his sources of inspiration and identification.