Past Exhibitions

Celebrating Kyoto
Modern Arts from Boston's Sister City

December 10, 2008–September 7, 2009

Celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Boston-Kyoto Sister City relationship at this vibrant exhibition focusing on contemporary ceramics and...

Photographic Figures

November 19, 2008–May 10, 2009

Artists have long taken advantage of the camera’s ability to capture expressive images of the human form—from gesture or body language, to...

Gentlemen of Suzhou

November 8, 2008–July 13, 2009

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...

“And so to Bed”
Indian Bed Curtains from a Stately English Home

November 5, 2008–June 21, 2009

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...

Rachel Whiteread

October 15, 2008–January 25, 2009

"Village...simultaneously encourages and thwarts voyeurism, inviting viewers to peer into one empty room after another. Eventually it turns the tables: the illuminated windows become hundreds of Lilliputian eyes." —The New York Times

Zen Mind/Zen Brush
Japanese Ink Paintings from the Gitter-Yelen Collection

October 1, 2008–January 4, 2009

From the thirteenth through the fifteen centuries Zen monasteries were important centers of religious and cultural learning, but as a spiritual...

Karsh 100
A Biography in Images

September 23, 2008–January 19, 2009

"The legacy of Yousuf Karsh—the man behind the lens of some of the 20th century’s most famous photographic portraits—is illuminated." —artdaily.org

Art and Empire
Treasures from Assyria in the British Museum

September 21, 2008–January 4, 2009

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...

Visions of Kyoto
Scenes from Japan's Ancient Capital

September 20, 2008–May 31, 2009

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...

1950s and 1960s "Dream Car" Model-rama

August 9, 2008

From 1937 to 1968, General Motors Corporation conducted a student model "dream car" competition and "auto styling" talent search; college scholarships...