UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS AND NEW GALLERIES |
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October 3, 2013–May 26, 2014 |
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October 13, 2013–January 20, 2014 |
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October 26, 2013–April 13, 2014 |
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Fired Earth, Woven Bamboo: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics and Bamboo Art |
November 12, 2013–September 8, 2014 |
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November 23, 2013–March 30, 2014 |
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December 21, 2013–August 17, 2014 |
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January 18–October 19, 2014 |
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March 16–October 12, 2014 |
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Permission to be Global: Latin American Art from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection |
March 19–July 13, 2014 |
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March 22–November 30, 2014 |
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People and Places: Genre Drawings from the Maida and George Abrams Collection (title tbd) |
March 28–July 6, 2014 |
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April 6–July 27, 2014 |
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April 19, 2014–February 16, 2015 |
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April 19, 2014–March 15, 2015 |
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Opens June 3, 2014 |
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Opens June 3, 2014 |
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July 8, 2014–March 5, 2015 |
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July 8–December 28, 2014 (exact dates tbd) |
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July 19, 2014–May, 14, 2017 |
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August 26, 2014–January 11, 2015 |
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Opens September 2014 |
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September 9, 2014–March 8, 2015 |
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September 13, 2014–May 10, 2015 |
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October 12, 2014–January 19, 2015 |
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December 20, 2014–July 19, 2015 |
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS |
DATES |
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through October 14, 2013 |
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through October 27, 2013 |
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through November 11, 2013 |
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through December 1, 2013 |
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| through January 6, 2014 | |
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She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World |
through January 12, 2014 |
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through February 17, 2014 |
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through February 23, 2014 |
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through February 23, 2014 |
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through March 30, 2014 |
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through March 30, 2014 |
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through May 11, 2014 |
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| through June 1, 2014 | |
| opened September 24, 2013 | |
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Art of the English Regency Gallery (Susan Morse Hilles Gallery) |
opened September 24, 2013 |
Ann and Graham Gund Gallery exhibitions are in bold. Please contact Public Relations to verify titles and dates before publication: pr@mfa.org.
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS AND NEW GALLERIES
Rosemary Merrill Loring and Caleb Loring Jr. Gallery
October 3, 2013–May 26, 2014
The color pink came into fashion for both men and women during the 17th century and has remained popular ever since, although its symbolic meaning has changed over time. This exhibition explores the history and changing significance of the color pink in fashion and visual culture from the 18th century to the present. It will shed light on changes in style, the evolution of gender associations (pink for girls, blue for boys), and advances in color technology. Dresses, jewelry and accessories by designers such as Christian Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Christian Louboutin, and Oscar de la Renta are complemented with graphic illustrations and paintings. The exhibition will include a selection of dresses and accessories from the collection of the late Evelyn Lauder, who was instrumental in creating awareness of breast cancer by choosing the color as a visual reference. On October 2, the MFA will host an Illumination Ceremony, lighting the Museum pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Ann and Graham Gund Gallery
October 13, 2013–January 20, 2014
This exhibition, co-organized by the Brooklyn Museum and the MFA, will combine for the first time the two most significant collections of watercolor paintings by John Singer Sargent (1856–1925). Celebrating a century of Sargent watercolors, the exhibition will offer visitors an unprecedented opportunity to view more than 90 of the watercolors Sargent produced between 1905 and 1911, when he was at the height of his artistic powers and internationally recognized as the greatest American painter of his age. His bold and experimental approach to the medium caused a sensation in Britain and great excitement in America. The Brooklyn and Boston works were purchased by the two museums straight from Sargent’s only American watercolor exhibitions, held at Knoedler Gallery in New York (Brooklyn acquired its collection in 1909; the MFA in 1912). These daringly conceived compositions beautifully illustrate the artist’s travels through Spain and Portugal, Greece, Switzerland and the Alps, regions of Italy, Syria and modern-day Israel, Palestine and Jordan. They will be organized to illustrate Sargent’s favored themes, such as reclining human figures, abstract landscapes, and sunlight on stone. This exhibition will feature a video in the gallery as well as a special edition MFA Guide Tour, available to all guests at the Sharf Visitor Center. The exhibition is accompanied by a publication exploring Sargent’s relationship to watercolor painting and examining the technical brilliance of his work. John Singer Sargent Watercolors is sponsored by Bank of America. Media sponsor is The Boston Globe. Additional support provided by the Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Generous support for the publication that accompanies the exhibition was provided by the Vance Wall Foundation, with additional support from the Ann and William Elfers Publications Fund.
Edward H. Linde Gallery
October 26, 2013–April 13, 2014
Dawit L. Petros is a graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA), where he received his Master of Fine Arts degree in 2007. His careful observations of sites across the globe inspire his photographs, video art and sculptural installations, which strive to capture each city’s essence—their sense of place. Petros was born in 1972 in the east African nation of Eritrea; his father’s activism led the family to move internationally several times. Petros’s experiences as an immigrant, vagabond, intrepid explorer, and an outsider inform his practice. One way he comes to understand new locations is by taking walks within or along their borders. The patterns and pops of color he has documented from Harlem to Addis Ababa and beyond become his medium. Back in the studio, Petros prints these abstract images to form mural‐scaled photo installations. He also creates sculptures based on simple carts used in Africa, which are featured prominently in the landscapes Petros photographs and videotapes. The artist himself also often appears in his photographs. This exhibition will premiere several new works, including photographs and a video made in four Boston neighborhoods. The exhibition continues an annual series of MFA shows that focus on SMFA graduates of the past decade whose work has achieved international acclaim. With generous support from The Contemporaries and the Callaghan Family Fund for Contemporary Exhibitions.
Japanese Decorative Arts Gallery
November 12, 2013–September 8, 2014
During the last decade, contemporary ceramics and baskets have attracted new audiences for Japanese art. Western enthusiasts have been fascinated by the traditions that have informed these two media with their respect for materials and meticulous craftsmanship, as well by the invention of highly creative sculptural forms. This exhibition celebrates the recent gift of more than 90 works spanning this revolutionary period from Mary Ann and Stanley Snider, and showcases the MFA as a center for contemporary Japanese decorative arts. More than 60 works from the Snider collection, dating to the late 20th and early 21st centuries, on view in this gallery will be complemented by contemporary textiles from the Museum’s collection. An illustrated publication will accompany the exhibition. This exhibition is generously supported by the Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Exhibition Fund.
Maud Morgan Prize 2013
Eunice and Julian Cohen Galleria
November 23, 2013–March 30, 2014
This exhibition debuts new sculpture, painting, and video by the MFA’s 2013 Maud Morgan Prize recipient. Established in 1993 in recognition of artist Maud Morgan (1903–1999), the Prize honors a Massachusetts woman artist whose creativity and vision has made significant contributions to the contemporary arts in the Commonwealth and beyond. In the past decade Braman has become known for painted sculptural structures which breathe new energy into humble artifacts from life at home and on the road––used furniture, car hoods, and wooden doors––with rich colors of spray paint or planes of cut Plexiglas. Her newest works bring to life her interest in cycles and passage of winter to spring, stillness to motion, and life to death—specifically by capturing shifting light in video, paint and sculpture. For the MFA, she has designed works in dynamically leaning cubes of colored glass that will respond directly to the natural glow emanating through the vaulted glass ceiling in the Linde Family wing for Contemporary Art.
Japanese Print Gallery
December 21, 2013–August 17, 2014
In the 20th century printmaking in Japan became not just a way of producing popular images but a fine art form. No longer constrained by the requirements of commercial publishing, artists were able to exploit the color woodblock process as far as their imaginations could take them, and to experiment with new, Western media as well. This exhibition showcases some of the MFA’s more unusual holdings in the area of 20th–century Japanese prints, including both shin hanga made by the traditional collaborative method and sōsaku hanga produced by a single artist working alone. Prints will be shown together with preliminary drawings, woodblocks, artists’ proofs, and variant versions printed from the same blocks, highlighting the interplay of creativity and technique in printmaking. The centerpiece of the exhibition will be the MFA’s complete set of six large prints entitled Sailboats (1926) by Yoshida Hiroshi (1876-1950). This iconic work, probably the single-best example of shin hanga, uses the same woodblocks printed in six different color schemes, illustrating the boats at different times of day. The printing is so skillful that works from this series are sometimes mistaken for watercolors.
Bernard and Barbara Stern Shapiro Gallery
January 18–October 19, 2014
For the first time the MFA will present a selection of works by 20th-century Brazilian artists of African descent. Rarely studied in the United States, these painters and sculptors drew on indigenous, European, and African traditions, and found inspiration in all aspects of Brazilian life—religious rituals, urban and rural life, music, and dance. Each artist has a distinct approach to subject, style, and iconography creating a lively range of imagery. The exhibition features key works by Heitor dos Prazeres, Maria Auxiliadoro da Silva, and Waldemiro de Deus. All are recent acquisitions from the collection of John Axelrod.
Mary Stamas Gallery
March 16–October, 12, 2014
Photographers working in Europe during the period between the two World Wars made some of the most memorable images in the medium’s history. Their goal was to infuse their medium with a fresh and distinctly “modern” style. Avant-Garde Photography in Europe will chart this shift through the work of artists such as Constantin Brancusi, Ilse Bing, André Kertész, Man Ray, László Moholy-Nagy, and Josef Sudek. Their contributions and those of their peers were central to a transformation in photographic expression in the 20th century. This exhibition will include a number of important new acquisitions, along with select loans.
Henry and Lois Foster Gallery
March 19–July 13, 2014
Permission to Be Global debuts in New England approximately 50 contemporary Latin American works from the collection of Ella Fontanals-Cisneros, founder of the CIFO Art Foundation in Miami. Featuring sculpture, painting, photography, video, installation and performance art from 1960 to the present, the exhibition explores how avant-garde artists from the Caribbean, Central and South America have become integral to discourses on "international" contemporary art after years of exclusion from institutions at home and abroad. Four thematic sections-Power Parodied, Borders Redefined, Occupied Geometries and Absence Accumulated-consider artists' distinct aesthetic strategies that resonate within their cultural contexts and beyond. Their unique visual languages subvert status quo, defy boundaries, humanize art's abstractions and revisit forgotten histories. Together they offer critical and alternate understandings of what it means "to be global" today. Developed in collaboration with CIFO, the exhibition will be shown in both Boston and Miami (opens December 4, 2013 for Art Basel Miami Beach) with specially commissioned performances and related installations by internationally acclaimed artists.
Asian Paintings Gallery
March 22–November 30, 2014
Paintings made for followers of Jainism, a religion that emerged alongside Buddhism in the sixth century B.C., are among the most visually striking of all Indian art. They include large and colorful maps of the cosmos, depictions of the lives of Jain saints, and images of sacred Sanskrit syllables used for meditation. This exhibition presents a group of Jain paintings that have rarely been exhibited at the MFA—early illustrated manuscripts and newly restored cloth paintings—together with embroidered book covers and select sculptures. Together, these objects illuminate the potent sacred world of the Jain religion.
Frances Vrachos Gallery
March 28–July 6, 2014
Some 50 lively drawings and watercolors by leading 17th-century Dutch artists from the superb Maida and George Abrams collection bring to life the faces, figures, pleasures, pastimes, and labors of Dutch people. Works by Barent Avercamp, Cornelis Bloemaert, Jacob De Gheyn, Jan Josephsz Van Goyen, the Ostades, along with a host of others, bring the century to life and highlight the prominence of drawing during the era.
Ann and Graham Gund Gallery
April 6–July 27, 2014
Quilts & Color celebrates the vibrant color palette and inventive design of the acclaimed Pilgrim/Roy Quilt Collection. The exhibition features 60 distinctive quilts from the renowned collection and is the first to explore its development over five decades. Both trained artists, Paul Pilgrim and Gerald Roy acquired quilts with bold and eye-popping designs that echoed the work of mid-20th century Abstract Expressionist and Op Artists. The exhibition opens with the vividly colored quilts that first drew the collectors’ attention and began their life-long passion. Exploring sophisticated principles of color theory, the exhibition’s opening sections display color vibrations, mixtures, gradations, and harmonies in the design of the quilts ranging from the 19th to early 20th century. As their collection grew, Pilgrim and Roy turned their interest to the history of quilting and added more traditional pieced designs such as the log cabin and split-nine patch and their many variations, all of which they selected for their use of color. Many of these incorporated the color white to create high contrast, an effect that also plays an important role in the visual power of pieced quilts and the organization of their blocks or patterns. The exhibition’s sections—“Warm & Cool” and “Optical Illusions”—examine this aspect of quilting in the dramatic color choices and innovative effects created within the established patterns. The exhibition concludes with a final nod to the artistic vision of quilt makers and highlights artists who worked outside of standard patterns and design.
Clementine Brown Gallery
April 19, 2014–February 16, 2015
Design drawings, hidden treasures of the MFA’s collection, are the subject of this exhibition of 26 works on paper. Each letter of the alphabet represents a different artist, architect or designer. The surprising juxtaposition of unrelated but visually compelling works—many of which are rarely, if ever, on view—presents an unusual opportunity for visitors to engage with questions surrounding design. On view will be works from the 19th and 20th centuries, a reflection of the collection’s current strengths, along with earlier material such as an 18th-century textile design. Highlights of the exhibition include a design for a ring by the Arts and Crafts designer and social reformer C. R. Ashbee (representing the letter A), a design for stained glass by the artist and designer John LaFarge (representing L), and an architectural model by the renowned 20th-century Italian architect Aldo Rossi (representing R).
Herb Ritts Gallery
April 19, 2014–February 16, 2015
Photographers known as the Pictorialists, who worked around 1900, were part of the first international movement in the history of the medium. Their mission was to prove the artistic merit of photography by strengthening its connections with the fine arts. Figures such as Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Frederick H. Evans, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Gertrude Käsebier, and Clarence H. White made spectacular images influenced by current art trends, including Impressionism, Symbolism, and the Arts and Crafts movement. This exhibition celebrates the MFA’s recent acquisition of four major works related to the Boston leader of the movement, F. Holland Day. His Seven Last Words of Christ (1898), purchased in 2013, is one of the most important images of the time, and will be prominently featured. A number of significant loans from private collections will also be on view.
Opens June 4, 2014
The MFA’s new Kunstkammer Gallery will be an intimate space devoted to precious works of art primarily from the 16th and 17th centuries. The term “Kunstkammer” refers to cabinets, or small rooms, that came into fashion across Europe in the 17th century. These princely “art-rooms” typically contained a variety of both man-made and natural wonders. Conceived as microcosms of the world, they were intended to impress visitors with the owner’s command of art and nature—and collecting prowess. The MFA’s Kunstkammer will feature objects made of exotic materials such as amber, ivory, nautilus, and coconut shells; paintings on copper and hardstone; and virtuoso metalwork, such as clocks and automata. This is the first opportunity for the MFA to gather and display such an alluring concentration of exceptional works.
Opening June 4, 2014
A newly renovated gallery dedicated to Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings and sculpture will provide an in-depth look at renowned masters including Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh. Devoted to avant-garde artists working in France between 1870 and 1900, the gallery will feature landscapes including Van Gogh’s Houses at Auvers (1890), still lifes such as Gustave Caillebotte’s Fruit Displayed on a Stand (about 1881–82), and portraits like Cézanne’s Madame Cézanne in a Red Armchair (about 1877) and Edgar Degas’ Duchessa di Montejasi with Her Daughters, Elena and Camilla (about 1876). It will juxtapose major works in bronze and marble by Auguste Rodin with a selection of Monet paintings. The renovated gallery, featuring new casework, fabric-covered walls and refinished flooring, will highlight the breadth and depth of Boston’s world-class collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art.
Robert and Jane Burke Gallery
July 8, 2014–March 15, 2015
One of the greatest American draftsman and creative printmakers from the 1960s to the present, Jasper Johns introduced new conceptual ideas about representation into American art by focusing on signs and symbols that were inherently flat (numbers, flags, targets). His works often involve a playful dialogue between art and illusion, between three dimensional and flatness, between images and words. His prints are highly sophisticated variations on his paintings, and the idea of serial repetition with variation also plays a prominent role in his work. The exhibition will consist of 25 works by Johns, including drawings, prints, and relief sculpture from both the MFA and private collections.
Lois and Michael Torf Gallery
July 8–December 28, 2014 (exact dates tbd)
The first retrospective of artist Jamie Wyeth (born 1946) will examine his distinctive approach to realism over the course of six decades, from his earliest childhood drawings through various recurring themes inspired by the people, places, and objects that populate his world. A member of a family of artists, including his grandfather, Newell Convers, “N.C.” Wyeth (1882–1945), his father, Andrew Wyeth (1917–2009), and his aunt, Carolyn Wyeth (1909–1994), Jamie has followed a unique path, training with his aunt Carolyn after leaving school at age 11, studying in the New York City morgue and at Andy Warhol’s New York studio, The Factory. Jamie Wyeth will include approximately 100 paintings and works on paper created by Wyeth, many in combined mediums, the artist’s preferred term for his distinctive technique. The exhibition will feature Wyeth’s portraits of subjects such as his wife, Phyllis Wyeth; John F. Kennedy (commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis after his death); and Rudolph Nureyev and Andy Warhol; and places such as landscapes in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania and Tenants Harbor and Monhegan Island, Maine; as well as still lifes such as pumpkins (a fascination from his youth), and the many animals and birds that populate his home and surroundings. Organized by the MFA, and accompanied by a publication, the exhibition will travel to several venues. Jamie Wyeth is sponsored by Bank of America.
Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation Gallery
July 19, 2014–May, 14, 2017
The Museum’s world-class collection of jewelry from Ancient Nubia will be the focus of this dazzling exhibition. The MFA’s collection of Nubian adornments is the most comprehensive outside Khartoum, a result of an early 20th-century expedition by the Museum with Harvard University. Jewels of Ancient Nubia will illustrate the complex relationship which Ancient Nubia, now known as Sudan, had with its neighbors. As the conduit between the Mediterranean world and lands south of the Nile Valley, Nubia was known for its exotic luxury goods—especially gold. The exhibition will focus on excavated ornaments, dating from 2500 B.C. to the third century A.D., which are both uniquely Nubian and foreign imports, prized for their craftsmanship, exotic symbology, and rarity. Jewels of Ancient Nubia will exhibit some 60 objects, including a gilt-silver mummy mask of Queen Malakaye and the famous Hathor-headed crystal pendant. The MFA is the only U.S. museum able to mount an exhibition devoted solely to Nubian adornment.
The Henry and Lois Foster Gallery
August 26, 2014–January 11, 2015
Isabel Toledo designs clothing. Ruben Toledo illustrates fashion. Husband and wife, they support and inspire each other. Isabel is well known for her technical skill, extraordinary cuts, and architectural designs. She thinks in three dimensions. Ruben translates three dimensions into two and brings a contemporary, playful edge to his work. While both artists are extremely talented individuals, together they inspire and challenge each other. This exhibition explores the unique creative universe in which the two artists live and work, one filled with imagination, intelligence, and whimsy.
(Homer Gallery, Ancient Greek Theater, and Dionysos and the Greek Symposium)
Opening September 2014
Homer Gallery
This gallery will present the MFA’s world-renowned collection of works of art illustrating scenes from the Homeric epics, The Iliad and The Odyssey. One of the most striking marble portraits of Homer, the blind Greek poet of the eighth century B.C., will preside over a group of objects depicting scenes from the Iliad such as the Judgment of Paris, the Dragging of Hektor, the Fall of Troy and the Murder of Agamemnon, as well as scenes not told in the epic, such as Ajax and Achilles playing a board game. A marble head of the monster Cyclops will be the centerpiece of the Odyssey grouping, with vases illustrating the escape of Odysseus from the monster’s cave, Circe magically changing the hero’s men into swine, and his descent into the Underworld to speak to Elpenor.
Ancient Greek Theater
This gallery will feature objects related to the Greek theater, including masks, dance and music. The earliest representations include examples of a choral dance with hoplites (citizens and soldiers) riding dolphins, chorus men putting on female costumes, and a satyr chorus with men wearing their characteristic horse’s ears and tails. Athenian plays were performed in the grand theaters of South Italy, which inspired local painters to capture the ephemera of spectacle on their vases. Many of the MFA’s notable collection of fourth-century B.C. vases produced by wealthy Greek colonies of Sicily and South Italy feature scenes from performed dramas and comedies by Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles.
Dionysos and the Greek Symposium
Dionysos, god of wine, presides over this gallery, which will introduce the significance of wine in Greek culture, religion, and symposium activities. These activities include philosophical discourse (as represented by a bust of Socrates), the performance of poetry and music, drinking games, and the role of courtesans. Music was a key element in the symposium and it is where the works of famous poets and singers were performed, some of whom are portrayed singing and playing lyres and flutes. Images of Dionysos and his retinue of satyrs and maenads animate all types of drinking and serving vessels, with several depicting sacred festivals dedicated to drinking the first wines of the vintage.
Rosemary Merrill Loring and Caleb Loring, Jr., Gallery
September 9, 2014–March 8, 2015
Fashion and Jewelry from Hollywood’s Golden Age will present designer gowns and exquisite jewelry from the 1930s and 1940s—the most glamorous years of Hollywood film. The exhibition will focus on several major starlets of the period, including Gloria Swanson, Anna May Wong, Ginger Rogers, Claudette Colbert, Mae West, and Joan Crawford, to explore how the interplay between their jewelry and clothing contributed to their iconic style. It will also examine the differences between fashion and Hollywood “costume” by contrasting the off-screen clothing with more dramatic costumes created for the screen by famous designers such as Adrian and Travis Banton. Among the 50 works on view will be a dress designed for Wong by Travis Banton, and an aquamarine and diamond suite designed for Crawford. Also featured will be clothing by Adrian, Banton, and Chanel; jewelry by Trabert & Hoeffer-Mauboussin and Paul Flato; and photography by Edward Steichen and Elmer Fryer. Complementing these will be additional period photographs, film stills, and film clips. These pieces will be drawn from the MFA’s holdings as well as from private collections.
Japanese Print Gallery
September 13, 2014–May 10, 2015
By the middle of the 19th century, color woodblock printing in Japan was so widespread and inexpensive that it could profitably be used to make toys for children - which were no doubt enjoyed by many adults as well. This exhibition will feature "toy prints" (asobi-e or omocha-e) such as colorful board games, paper dolls, cutout dioramas and pictorial riddles, as well as scenes showing how the toys and games were enjoyed. Thanks largely to the eclectic taste of William Sturgis Bigelow, the donor of over half of the Museum’s collection, the MFA has a fine assortment of these intriguing and unusual materials. In particular, a group of large paper board games by major 19th-century artists will be presented in pristine condition. One of the first exhibitions of its kind outside Japan, this little-known part of the Museum’s collection will provide pleasure and amusement for viewers of all ages.
Ann and Graham Gund Gallery
October 12, 2014–January 19, 2015
One of the creative titans of European art, Spanish master Francisco Goya (1746–1828) was a perceptive witness to the human condition at a time of revolution and radical transformation in thought and behavior. As 18th-century culture gave way to the modern world, little escaped Goya’s penetrating gaze. This exhibition, built upon the MFA’s deep collection of works by the artist, examines Goya’s powers of observation and invention across the full range of his art. Goya: Order and Disorder will be composed of more than 160 of his most significant paintings, prints and drawings from the 1770s through the 1820s, arranged by themes and compositional devices to which he returned throughout his career. Some 60 works from the MFA, including rare drawings and working proofs that have not been on view in Boston since 1989, will form the core of the exhibition. These will be supplemented by important loans of paintings and drawings from institutions such as the Museo del Prado, the Musée du Louvre, the Galleria degli Uffizi, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art (Washington), as well as numerous private collections in Europe and the U.S. The largest Goya exhibition in North America in a quarter century, Goya: Order and Disorder will only be shown in Boston. The full range of Goya’s creativity will be on display, from glamorous full-length portraits of Spanish aristocrats that first brought the painter fame, to prints and drawings of beggars and grotesque witches. The exhibition will be organized to explore crucial themes in Goya’s work, including portraits and self-portraits; realistic and satirical depictions of stages of life from infancy to old age; tension and occasional comedy of sport and games; harmony versus discord; spirituality and superstition; and the tragic events of his times. From the precarious to the chaotic, Goya’s art made life and conflicting motives of the human mind comprehensible to the viewer—and to himself.
Asian Paintings Gallery
December 20, 2014–July 19, 2015
Across all cultures, physical allure has been a central focus of depicting women in art. In China, the rich visual cultures of the region have produced many different images of women in accordance with the fashions, styles, aesthetics, and concepts of beauty. Works that today seem to be modest depictions of beautiful women may have been considered highly suggestive when first created. This exhibition will include paintings, prints, posters, and photographs of women by Chinese artists from the 11th through the 20th century, several of which have recently been reinterpreted as erotic, leaving other works open to reconsideration. On view will be one of the MFA’s great masterpieces of Chinese paintings, Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk (1082-1135), as well as turn-of-the century hand-colored photographs of courtesans, 1930s cigarette advertisement posters, and other 20th-century propaganda posters of female agriculture workers.
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Bernard and Barbara Stern Shapiro Gallery
through October 14, 2013
The MFA pays tribute to the career of artist and teacher Loïs Mailou Jones (1905–1998) in this exhibition, which showcases approximately 10 paintings and 11 works on paper from the MFA’s collection, in addition to five works on paper lent by the National Center for Afro American Artists. Born in Boston and a graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA), Jones made significant contributions to 20th-century American art. Her innovative creations and distinguished teaching career transcended boundaries delineated by her African American background and gender. The exhibition is divided into four main sections highlighting Jones’s early design work at the SMFA, her seminal sabbatical study in Paris at the Académie Julian, her teaching career at Howard University, and her culminating Africa series. This chronological presentation allows visitors to examine Jones’s ability to reinvent her artwork in terms of medium, style, and subject matter over the course of her career. The installation also explores her wide range of artistic influences including Japanese ukiyo-e prints, Chinese textiles, Greek pottery, Post-Impressionism, American regionalism, and African art. Loïs Mailou Jones is the first focused retrospective dedicated to an American artist to appear in the Art of the Americas Wing since its opening in November 2010. Most of the works on view are drawn from the 2005 and 2006 gifts to the Museum from the Loïs Mailou Jones / Pierre-Noel Trust. (The exhibition also includes a painting by Jones acquired through the MFA’s acquisition of the Axelrod Collection of American Art by African American Artists in 2011.) Presented with generous support from the Eugenie Prendergast Memorial Fund, made possible by a grant from Jan and Warren Adelson, and the Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Exhibition Fund.
Eunice and Julian Cohen Galleria
through October 27, 2013
Since graduating from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) in 1999 with a Master of Fine Arts degree, Ridley Howard (b. 1973) has explored how 21st-century painting might capture intense yet veiled emotion. He pares down color and geometry into delicately composed portraits, landscapes, and abstractions that recall the cool psychology of paintings by Edward Hopper or Ed Ruscha. Yet their soft-edged finish knowingly hints that romanticism is at the core of his work. In 2011, the SMFA awarded Howard a prestigious Traveling Fellowship, which since 1894 has provided funds to support artists’ careers through independent work and travel. As a fellow, Howard toured Italy to consider early Renaissance paintings by Piero della Francesca, and ranging styles explored by Italian modernists and futurists. Howard fuses these art-historical and pop cultural influences with diverse subjects—a portrait of his wife, a sweater pattern viewed online, a scene glimpsed across the street—to combine the lovingly intimate and deliberately undefined. For the MFA, Howard debuts new paintings: Bright stripes contour a bodice, yet also optically flatten the image; a couple’s caress balances atop a diamond-shaped color field; grey tones assume an intensity while vibrant hues are held mute. Assembled in the vaulting concrete architecture of the Museum’s I. M. Pei-designed contemporary wing, their condensed scale compresses sentiment into subtle, yet powerfully public, displays of aesthetic affection. This is the first solo presentation of an SMFA Traveling Fellow at the MFA, and the artist’s first solo museum exhibition.
Lois B. and Michael K. Torf Gallery
through November 11, 2013
The end of the 1960s and early 1970s was a period of increased social and political unrest, yet it was also an exciting time for fashion as global challenges to authority expressed themselves in new ways of thinking about dress. The emerging hippie culture in these years rejected the dictates of Paris haute couture, adopting instead an eclectic, highly individual look mixing vintage and ethnic clothing with fashions inspired by contemporary psychedelic pop art, nature, fantasy, and ethnographic art. For the first time, many new trends percolated up from the streets to affect ready-to-wear and even haute couture. This exhibition celebrates the works of young designers and innovative boutiques in the late 1960s and early 1970s, exploring the counter-culture looks that inspired “hippie chic” fashions. Hippie Chic showcases 54 ensembles, including new acquisitions, and loans from other museums and private collections. The publication Hippie Chic (MFA Publications, 2013) accompanies the exhibition. Presented with generous support from The Coby Foundation, Ltd. Additional support from the David and Roberta Logie Fund for Textile and Fashion Arts, and the Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Exhibition Fund.
Japanese Print Gallery
through December 1, 2013
The highest level of accomplishment in 19th-century Japanese color printing is seen in the small, exquisite works known as surimono, which were produced on commission for private customers to commemorate theatrical events or to serve as New Year’s gifts exchanged by affluent members of amateur literary clubs. Printed on high-quality paper, they often included special features such as metallic pigments and embossing. Drawing from the MFA’s collection of more than 1,000 such works, the exhibition features about 30 examples grouped by subject, such as the kabuki theater, beautiful women, literary and historical references, and animals. Presented with generous support from the Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Exhibition Fund and the Dr. Robert A. and Dr. Veronica Petersen Fund for Exhibitions. Sponsored by Sheraton Boston Hotel.
Visiting Masterpiece: Piero della Francesca’s Senigallia Madonna, An Italian Treasure, Stolen and Recovered
Lee Gallery
through January 6, 2014
This visiting masterpiece comes to the MFA in September as part of the 2013 Year of Italian Culture. Piero della Francesca’s 15th-century tempera and oil on panel, the Senigallia Madonna (1470s) is normally on view in the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, in the Ducal Palace of Urbino. This exceptional work by one of the masters of the Renaissance was one of three paintings stolen in 1975 and recovered in 1976 by Italy’s famed Carabinieri Cultural Heritage Protection Command (CCHPC), specializing in protection of Italy’s cultural heritage on a national and international level. Supporting sponsorship from Friends of the Italian Cultural Center of Boston. Presented with additional support from the Cordover Exhibition Fund and the MFA Associates/MFA Senior Associates Exhibition Endowment Fund. Lent by the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche/Soprintendenza per i Beni Storici, Artistici ed Etnoantropologici delle Marche/Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo. In cooperation with the Comando Carabinieri per la Tutela del Patrimonio Culturale. Presented under the auspices of the President of the Italian Republic’s 2013, Year of Italian Culture in the United States, designed to enhance the close bonds between Italy and the United States.
Henry and Lois Foster Gallery
through January 12, 2014
This exhibition celebrates the work of 12 contemporary Arab and Iranian women photographers, highlighting the rich artistic expression of the region. The work of these pioneering photographers, including Iranian-born Shirin Neshat, Yemeni Boushra Almutawakel, and Iranian Shadi Ghadirian, questions tradition and challenges perceptions of Middle Eastern identity. Their provocative images range from fine art to photojournalism and provide insights into political and social issues, including questions of national and personal identities. This array of work is almost entirely from the past decade, with the exception of key pieces from the 1990s that provide a historical context including Women of Allah by Neshat and Untitled I and II by Iraqi-born Jananne Al-Ani. The exhibition is divided into three categories: “Deconstructing Orientalism,” “Constructing Identities,” and “New Documentary.” Within these categories, visual narratives reveal the individuality of each artist’s work while allowing for extended glimpses into the region’s diverse social and political landscapes. This collection of poignant stories reveals the artists’ reflections on the power of politics and the legacy of war as in Palestinian Rula Halawani’s Negative Incursions, Iranian Gohar Dashti’s Today’s Life and War, and Iraqi-born Al-Ani’s The Aesthetics of Disappearance: A Land without People: Shadow Sites II. The artists elaborate visions of layered, constructed, fragmented and staged identities as in the work by Egyptian photographers Nermine Hammam and Rana El Nemr. She Who Tells a Story is the first major exhibition in North America to bring together this vital and moving work. This exhibition is generously supported by the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Additional support from the Barbara Jane Anderson Fund.
Frances Vrachos Gallery
through February 17, 2014
Etching as a printmaking medium emerged in the early 16th century in Germany and Italy, but its full creative potential only was realized with Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn’s activity as an etcher from 1630 to 1661. The exhibition of 65 works, drawn primarily from the MFA’s collection, explores the unprecedented range of subject matter, format, and graphic vocabulary in the nearly 300 etchings that Rembrandt made during his career. He was the first etcher to seriously exploit the expressive effect of printing on different papers (the first Western artist to use Japanese paper, for example) to make radically different inkings of the same plate, and to dramatically alter the image on the plate. Rembrandt the Etcher examines how the artist’s etched images can be deliberately pale and delicate or consist of dense webs of profound darkness. They also can be rough sketches or highly finished, meticulously detailed compositions. Among the works on view are Old and New Testaments narratives—some of the most insightful Biblical illustrations ever conceived—as well as self-portraits, landscapes, nudes, and scenes of everyday life. Presented with support from The Bruce and Laura Monrad Fund for Exhibitions.
Mary Stamas Gallery
through February 23, 2014
In the era of Art Nouveau, from the 1890s through the turn of the century, there was a flourishing of new, imaginative art and craft throughout Europe. Holland also saw an explosion of inventive art and design in this period, including many expressive works on paper—posters, decorative calendars, illustrated books, as well as prints and drawings. The MFA has been actively collecting these Dutch works for the last 25 years, and this exhibition highlights some 45 early drawings by well-known artists Piet Mondrian and Bart van der Leck, as well as works by Jan Toorop, Theo Nieuwenhuis, Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita, Theo Hoytema, G. W. Dijsselhof, and C. A. Lion Cachet. Presented with support from the Patricia B. Jacoby Exhibition Fund.
Asian Paintings Gallery
through February 23, 2014
Drawing upon the MFA’s rich collection of loose pages from Qur’ans dating from ancient to modern times, this exhibition showcases 25 examples illustrating their significance as masterful and sacred works of art and exploring how these objects are understood by individual followers of Islam living in the Boston area. These beautiful works of Arabic calligraphy, made as early as the eighth and as recently as the 20th century, were created in Egypt, Morocco, Iran, and Turkey. The diversity of time and place of production are mirrored in the manner in which they are displayed, as the exhibition pairs conventional curatorial interpretation about key developments in Islamic art with personal statements by members of Boston’s Islamic community who have been invited to share their comments and reactions to the pages. Sacred Pages offers visitors a way to broaden their understanding of the Qur’an, Islam, and Islamic art. Presented with generous support from the Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Exhibition Fund and the Dr. Robert A. and Dr. Veronica Petersen Fund for Exhibitions.
Herb Ritts Gallery
through March 30, 2014
This exhibition of approximately 50 photographs draws from The Lane Collection of early 20th-century American works. It was assembled by William H. and Saundra B. Lane in the 1960s and 1970s and given to the MFA in 2012 by Saundra Lane. This world-class collection is renowned for its deep holdings of the work of major American modernist photographers, including Charles Sheeler, Edward Weston, and Ansel Adams. It also includes a wide range of photographs Mrs. Lane collected since her husband’s death in 1995, such as those by early European masters Charles Negre and William Henry Fox Talbot, the 19th-century inventor of positive-negative photography, all the way up to contemporary artists, among them Irving Penn, Francesca Woodman, Kenro Izu and Adam Fuss. Works by Talbot and Fuss are included in the exhibition’s second rotation.
An Enduring Vision features both sides of the collection, shown thematically. Some of the greatest of the modernist photographs by Sheeler, Weston, Adams, and others will be grouped with notable early 19th-century European images, stunning turn-of-the-century examples of Pictorialism, and strong contemporary work. These illustrate what makes the “core” Lane pictures so innovative and modern, and the ways in which someone whose eye has been trained to admire these qualities might seek out those same characteristics in work from a variety of different cultures and periods. The catalogue An Enduring Vision: Photographs from the Lane Collection (MFA Publications, 2011) complements the exhibition, highlighting images personally acquired by Mrs. Lane, as well as those previously collected by the Lanes together.
Clementine Brown Gallery
through March 30, 2014
The High Renaissance of the early 16th century, a brief moment of serene balance and rational space and proportion, was followed by the international movement known as Mannerism. A self-consciously “stylish” style, Mannerism was an art of extremes: elongated proportions, exaggerated postures, ultra-gracefulness, and titillating eroticism. This sophisticated and courtly style transformed printmaking as well as painting. Through the display of some 50 works from the MFA’s collection and select loans, the exhibition focuses on Italian printmakers, such as Giorgio Ghisi; the French (and Italian) school of Fontainebleau; and Dutch engravers, such as Hendrik Goltzius, as well as the ultimate Mannerist printmaker, Jacques Bellange of Lorraine. Presented with support from the Benjamin A. Trustman and Julia M. Trustman Fund.
Edward and Nancy Roberts Family Gallery
through May 11, 2014
As author and illustrator of The Birds of America, John James Audubon (1785–1851) traveled thousands of miles throughout the eastern United States and Canada to seek out and draw North American birds in their natural habitats. This monumental work by the naturalist and painter includes more than 700 species and features more than 400 hand-colored prints, often showing the birds at life size. Produced in England and issued in a limited edition between 1827 and 1838 (sold in installments by subscription), only about 120 complete copies exist today. In the book’s enormous pages—each more than three feet high—Audubon captured the full range of avian life in North America, including many exotic creatures. This exhibition features some 30 works, including prints from the MFA’s copy of The Birds of America and some smaller books by Audubon, to show the range of his birds. The remarkably lifelike and animated poses of Audubon’s subjects have become famous, but the pictures are only half the story. The artist was also a gifted writer, and the exhibition will pair his birds with his words, which offer insight into Audubon’s methods, obsessions, and the trials associated with his giant project. Audubon’s Birds, Audubon’s Words is sponsored by Northern Trust. Presented with support from the Eugenie Prendergast Memorial Fund, made possible by a grant from Jan and Warren Adelson.
Robert and Jane Burke Gallery
through June 1, 2014
American art of the 1940s and 1950s was dominated by the gestural style known as Abstract Expressionism. Animated by spontaneity and happy accidents, and favoring inspiration from the subconscious, artists invented a highly original American art language that triumphed internationally. American Gestures features 30 drawings, prints, paintings, and sculpture from the late 1940s to the 1970s by Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, David Smith, Mark Tobey, Alfred Leslie, Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, and a number of others. Many of these works are relatively recent acquisitions, some shown at the MFA for the first time.
Opened September 24, 2013
A new collection gallery will showcase 34 exquisite works in bronze and ivory from the ancient African kingdom of Benin (present-day Nigeria) and two late 15th and early 16th century ivory salt cellars from today’s Sierra Leone and Guinea. These works – a magnificent gift by Robert Owen Lehman – have transformed the MFA’s collection of African art and places the Museum among the few American institutions with Benin holdings of the highest quality. A commemorative head of an early king, which is among the best of its kind, a horseman, and 15 relief plaques depicting rulers, dignitaries and narrative scenes, are among the works in bronze, most dating from the late 16th to the 17th century. The display will include historical background about the kingdom and demonstrate how Africans participated in a global economy as early as the 16th century. The renovation of this gallery was made possible with support from the Robert Lehman Foundation and the Vance Wall Foundation.
Susan Morse Hilles Gallery
Opened September 24, 2013
The Art of the English Regency Gallery houses a collection of English decorative arts from 1795 to 1830, donated to the Museum by Horace Wood Brock. Inspired by interior designs of the early 19th century, the gallery will feature a tented fabric ceiling and approximately 50 objects, many of which have never been on public display. A focal point in the room is a gilt bronze and jewel-encrusted bust of George IV, presented by the royal family to the king’s physician. Rare furniture, an ornamental wall plaque, and a pair of wall lights by collector and designer Thomas Hope, who helped define the Regency style, are included. This represents the largest collection of his work in an American museum. Also on view are objects by George Bullock, who specialized in brass and tortoiseshell marquetry. Additional works by Bullock’s brother, William, and by the father-son team of Benjamin Vulliamy and Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy are on display in the gallery. This outstanding group represents the best of the English Regency style and constitutes a gallery installation that is unique in any art museum.
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Contact:
Amelia Kantrovitz
617.369.3447