In the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), Suzhou was a center of beauty, thought, and culture. Many of the period's greatest minds eschewed civil service in favor of a life of refinement in China’s garden city, where they composed poems, wrote calligraphy, and produced paintings of great...
Samuel Pepys, the famous British diarist who often ended his daily entries with "and so to bed," wrote in 1663, "...bought my wife a chintz, that is, a painted Indian callico, for to line her new study, which is very pretty." During the later part of the seventeenth century,...
Widely known for her public monuments, including Water Tower (1998) in New York (now in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art) and Holocaust Memorial (1995/2000) in Vienna, Rachel Whiteread considers the scale and structure of familiar forms through the overlooked spaces essential to their...
From the thirteenth through the fifteen centuries Zen monasteries were important centers of religious and cultural learning, but as a spiritual malaise gradually set in the painting and calligraphy traditions became formulaic. Through the leadership of monks such as Hakuin Ekaku (1685–1768...
In celebration of the 100th birthday of renowned photographer Yousuf Karsh (1908–2002), the MFA hosts an exhibition of the great portraitist’s work, offering a visual biography of this twentieth-century legend. Born in Armenia, settling first in Canada and eventually in the United...
From the ninth to the seventh centuries BC, the Assyrians emerged as the dominant power in the Near East, controlling all of present-day Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, and Egypt, as well as large parts of Turkey and Iran. It was the largest empire known until that time. In their homeland...
Boston’s sister city for the past fifty years, Kyoto was the capital of Japan for over a thousand years, from its founding in 794 until the emperor moved to Tokyo in 1868. Today, the city’s many temples and palaces, and some of its older residential areas, still look much as they did...
Discussion with FBCG guild members: Aug 9: 11 am and 2 pm Aug 10: Noon and 2:30 pm From 1937 to 1968, General Motors Corporation conducted a student model "dream car" competition and "auto styling" talent search; college scholarships were awarded for the scale models...
This exhibition includes about 120 works by the leading designers and fabricators of late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century Art Nouveau jewelry. Although many of these artists acquired their skills in traditional, high-style jewelry houses, they found inspiration in the work of the Pre-...
This select installation in the Lower Rotunda features masterpieces of twentieth-century modernism from the Lane Collection, including the lyrical Dancing Willows by Arthur G. Dove, shown above. Also on view are works by Stuart Davis, John Marin, Charles Sheeler, and Georgia O’Keeffe.
At the heart of the second floor of the Evans Wing, at the top of the great staircase that opens from the new State Street Corporation Fenway Entrance, enjoy a special installation of some of the MFA's greatest European portraits. Paintings and sculpture span the Renaissance to the twentieth...
As part of celebrating the renovation and re-opening of the State Street Corporation Fenway Entrance, this exhibition tells the story of the Museum's history, its architecture, and its vital role as a community resource and partner. Rarely seen historic photographs, paintings, sculpture,...
Selections from the Museum's rich collection of works by Winslow Homer (1836–1910) are on view in the Lee Gallery, just inside the newly opened State Street Corporation Fenway Entrance. From a childhood drawing through his late seascapes in oil, the exhibition includes designs for...
This groundbreaking exhibition examines a fascinating period (1598–1621) bracketed by the two giants of Spanish painting, El Greco and Velázquez. Discover the masterpieces of Philip III’s court and the artists who flourished during his reign. To separate themselves from Philip...
It is impossible to describe Antonio López García simply as a painter in the “realist” school. His masterful paintings of the prosaic, familiar places of his world and of the family and friends comprising it reveal an unusual sensitivity to his subject. Through...
In honor of the second Red Sox World Series Championship in four seasons and opening day in Japan and Boston, the MFA proudly presents "Rockwell and the Shinjin: Celebrating Baseball and the Red Sox." The exhibition, on view in the Upper Rotunda, features The Rookie by beloved American...
This select installation in the Lower Rotunda features masterpieces of twentieth-century modernism from the Lane Collection, including the iconic That Red One by Arthur G. Dove. Also on view are works by Stuart Davis, Charles Sheeler, and Georgia O’Keeffe.
"Kufic Korans," on display in the Islamic Corridor, features a broad range of visual cultures, from Egypt to Iran, united by an appreciation for beautiful Arabic text. Calligraphy serves many purposes in Islamic art, from conveying meaning to acting as decoration, and its importance...
The annual exhibition of work by recipients of the prestigious Traveling Scholarship Awards—three Museum School alumni and three Fifth Year students—is always an intriguing selection of challenging, original work by emerging contemporary artists. Modes of communication, intersection...
Featuring approximately one hundred lithographs, etchings, woodcuts and color linocuts by fourteen artists, “Rhythms of Modern Life: British Prints 1914-1939” examines the impact of Futurism and Cubism on British Modernist printmaking from the beginning of World War I to the beginning...
Throughout Asia birds and flowers have been cherished for their beauty, but they have carried rich symbolic messages as well. For example, the lotus—a delicate bloom born of the muck of a pond—was adopted early in India as a Buddhist metaphor for the beauty of the soul that can emerge...
Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) casts a long shadow over the modern history of Chinese painting. As a painter, he was known for his singular ability to mix traditional techniques and styles with contemporary ideas and currents. As a collector, he accumulated important examples from all genres of Chinese...
Scottish artist Jim Lambie is the third artist to participate in the series RSVPmfa, in which the Museum invites artists to consider the extraordinary collections, architecture, and grounds that comprise the Museum of Fine Arts as a background for the installation of their work. Lambie...
From its legendary prehistoric beginnings until the present day, sumô wrestling has dominated the world of traditional Japanese sport. Like Kabuki actors and noted courtesans, wrestlers were idols of the urban popular culture of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and so appeared...
"Drawing: A Broader Definition" brings together sixty-six objects from across the Museum’s collections to show various approaches to drawing on both paper and non-paper surfaces (for example, Mayan, Greek, Asian, and European ceramics; Etruscan bronze mirror backs; Egyptian...
Named for the Napoleonic Empire at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Empire style is one of the grandest and most opulent in the history of decorative arts. Designs inspired by Greco-Roman antiquity were enlivened with bold colors, costly and elaborately worked materials, a massive...
The MFA celebrates its acquisition of a rare album of 264 cyanotypes by New Englander Arthur Wesley Dow with an installation of the blue-toned photographs alongside the artist’s color woodcuts. Inspired in the 1890s by the MFA's outstanding Japanese collection, the artist and educator...
While shoes serve a practical function by protecting our soles from the elements and hazards underfoot, they have also become highly ornamented objects of obsession. Whatever the materials or the cost, however, shoes always reflect the time and place in which they were made and worn and the...
One of the finest private holdings of Japanese art outside Japan, Dr. John C. Weber's collection has been formed over the last decade, a period during which the bursting of the economic bubble has forced several private museums and collectors to part with some of their most treasured...
This select installation in the Lower Rotunda features iconic paintings by Winslow Homer from the permanent collection, including Boys in a Pasture, The Lookout—“All’s Well,” and Driftwood. These are joined by the oil sketch The Dinner Horn and its related print as well as...
Encompassing works of art in a variety of media, this exhibition features nearly 120 highlights from the distinguished collection of Ronald C. and Anita L. Wornick of California. Beginning in 1985, the Wornicks assembled a major collection of contemporary decorative arts, primarily by American...
With the establishment of Edo (modern-day Tokyo) as the major political and commercial center of Japan in the seventeenth century, artists developed a new imagery, known as ukiyo-e. Masters of the genre explored the daily activities of the city's inhabitants and detailed the stylish...