Works in the Exhibition

In place of traditional gallery labels, explore the different thematic sections of “Tender Loving Care” below. Read more about each work of art by clicking on its title.

Exhibition Areas

Introduction
A. Welcome
B. Threads
C. Vibrant Matter
D. Thresholds
E. Rest
F. Adoration

Introduction

Care structures our day-to-day lives. We care for and receive care from other people, places—even things. But what it looks like for each of us can differ in surprising and sometimes conflicting ways. This exhibition explores the complex roots of care through works from our collection made by contemporary artists as diverse in their choice of media as they are in their interpretations of care.

To care can mean to have a fondness or attachment for someone or something; to preserve or to comfort; to feel interest or concern; as well as to sorrow or mourn. Look around you at these artworks that unearth evidence of care of all kinds and scales. Carefully constructed assemblages and objects invest often humble materials with vibrancy and encourage our reverence and attention, another form of care. Here, artists’ explorations inspire new models for living, feeling, and making, now and in the future.

Creating art is an act of care. It requires motivation, intention, time, and energy. Sometimes creating with care calls for radical honesty, engaging with subject matter that may be violent, taboo, or uncomfortable. Through their work, artists help us contend with difference, confront injustice, and seek out beauty, plenitude, and abundance.

For museums to be places of care, they can’t just be where artworks come for safekeeping. They must also be where people and ideas of many kinds are tended to as well. This means embracing and constantly expanding our expectations of contemporary art, acknowledging that it takes many forms and deepens in meaning when you are here in the galleries, too now and in the future.

Welcome

Care can mean many things, depending on our interpretation and our own experiences. In this gallery, artists help us tease out some of these different associations, with small, intimate works that require close attention; a tender portrait of a mother by her daughter; a bench that offers a moment of respite; and a tapestry that, through intricate woven strands, posits destruction as an act of creation. What does care look like to you?

A1

Gisela Charfauros McDaniel, Tiningo’ si Sirena, 2021

A2

Finnegan Shannon, Do you want us here or not, 2020

A3

Joan Nelson, Untitled, 1993

A4

Morgan Bulkeley, Blue-Wing Warbler, 1991

A5

Diedrick Brackens, shadow raze, 2022

A6

Hank Gilpin, Bench, 1999

Threads

Threads offer literal and metaphorical forms of care. Sometimes they’re part of fabric that keep us warm or cool, clean and comfortable. Textiles also express concepts, ideals, or aesthetics people care about, like beauty, community ties and cultural affiliations, or selfhood. Artists here use threads to elevate often commonplace materials, transforming them into markers of people, places, time, and ideas.

B1

Virginia Jacobs, Celebration, 1979

B2

Katherine Westphal, Heavenly Fish, 1988

Katherine Westphal, Juggling Benches, 1989

Katherine Westphal, Vermillion Cliffs, 1989

Katherine Westphal, Wesing in Guilin, Guilin, 1989

Katherine Westphal, Midnight, 1992

Katherine Westphal, Runner, 1993

Katherine Westphal, Lift Off, 1993

Katherine Westphal, Orbit, 1994

B3

Alphonse Mattia, Architect’s Valet, 1989

B4

Jo Ann Rothschild, In Franklin Field (for Kimberly Rae Harbour), 1990

B5

Kerby Jean-Raymond, Rollneck sweater from the Ready-To-Wear Collection, Look 39, Spring 2019 Collection 2, part of the “American, Also” series, “Lesson 2 - Normal”

B6

Kerby Jean-Raymond, Overalls from the Ready-To-Wear Collection, Look 46, Spring 2019 Collection 2, part of the “American, Also” series, “Lesson 2 - Normal”

B7

Kerby Jean-Raymond, Pyer Moss x Reebok DMX Fusion Men’s Sneakers, 2018

B8

Jane Sauer, Vermillion, 1996

B9

Em Kettner, The Wheelchair, 2022

B10

Daisy Brand, Final Descent, 1989

B11

Jennie Alexander, Side chair (one of a pair), 1982

B12

Kathy Butterly, Soft, 1995

Kathy Butterly, Fling, 2004

Kathy Butterly, Leviathon, 1999

Kathy Butterly, Ra Ra Bonsai, 1999

Kathy Butterly, Swizzler, 2001

Kathy Butterly, Call Me Mary, 1993

Kathy Butterly, A Breeze, 2001

Kathy Butterly, Then, Now, Before, After, 1994

Kathy Butterly, Hoola, 1995

B13

Ferne Jacobs, Red Figure Column, 1986

B14

Designed by Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons, Ltd., Tartan red plaid jacket and short padded bloomers with dropped crotch, Autumn/Winter 2010–2011

B15

Karen Searle, Here I Come To Save the Day 1, 2021—22

B16

Sam Maloof, Settee, 1975

Vibrant Matter

We often think about things through a binary lens as either living or nonliving. We understand people, plants, and animals to be alive. However, the works here offer the provocation that it is a type of care to acknowledge everything is imbued with its own liveliness—even things like clothes, drawings, shoes, or ceramics. We recognize that even artificial and seemingly inert forms vibrate and flicker with life.

C1

Sneha Shrestha, Home416, 2020

C2

Louise Bourgeois, Crochet V, 1997

C3

Viola Frey, Face Plate, 1983

C4

Viola Frey, Big Eyes, 1983

C8

Renie Breskin Adams, Repetitions of Sylvia, 1981

C9

Susan B. Roth, Love Behavior, 2003

C10

Anina Major, Through and Through, 2021

C11

Betty Woodman, Ambiguous (Vase & Shadow), 1987

C12

Betty Woodman, Pillow Pitcher, 1980

C13

Whittier Decoys, Walleye, 2023

Whittier Decoys, Pumpkinseed Sunfish, 2023

C14

Tanya Crane, Miguel’s Story, 2023

C15

Paul Briggs, Gust, from the series Windflower Vase Gust, 2022

C16

Bony Ramírez, MACHETAZO!, 2021

C17

Wife of Chi Family (given name unknown), Child’s vest, Early 2000s

C18

Gabriel de la Mora, 1,156 III - 2,121 I, from the Neornithes/Hair series, 2018–2019

C19

Helmut Lang, Woman’s ensemble in five parts (bracelet), Autumn/Winter 2004–2005

Helmut Lang, Shoes with horsehair tassel, Autumn/Winter 2004–2005

C20

Ed Rossbach, Rag Tassel, 1970

C21

Venetia Dale, Keep From Falling, 2021

C22

Rachel Shimpock, Baked Potato Teapot, 2011

C23

Kathy Butterly, Cherry, 2000

C24

C25

Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, Cake Dress, Fall 2017

C26

Wendy Maruyama, Untitled table lamp, 1976

C27

Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt, Sunrise in Venice, 1985

C28

Linda Dolack, Ritz Crackers, 2003

C29

Linda Dolack, Velveeta, 2003

C30

Minju Kim, Pair of Shoes, 2013

C31

Vivian Suter, Untitled, 2017

Vivian Suter, Untitled, 2018

Vivian Suter, Untitled, 2017

C32

Yvette Mayorga, Surveillance Locket 2, 2021

C33

Amy Bennett, Delivery, 2019

C34

Martin B. Simpson, Three’s Company, 1994

C35

Timothy Philbrock, Settee, 1982

Thresholds

We experience thresholds every day. Sometimes they mark being inside or outside a place, like standing in a doorway, sitting on a window ledge, or passing through a gate. A threshold can also be a feeling, like when we hold back tears, burst into laughter, or reach our “breaking point.” These spatial and emotional experiences help us discern the presence or absence of care. The artworks gathered here help us explore the sensations they provoke. Do thresholds protect us or form unforgiving boundaries?

D1

Lucia Hierro, MamaEdita, 2017

D2

Rashid Johnson, Bruise Painting “Lakefront Blues,” 2023

D3

Rosemarie Trockel, Ohne Titel, 1991

D4

Beth Lo and Adam John Manley, To Go, 2020

D5

Mishima Kimiyo, Pineapple Box-S, 1986

D6

Shan Goshorn, Foundation, 2015

D7

Lia Cook, Net Series #1, 1984

D8

Wei Cuilian, Bed Cover, Late 1960s

D9

Page Hazelgrove, Branching Bowl, 1996

D10

Kiliii Yuyan, Grief Mask (Unguarded Moment), BK, 2018

D11

Kiliii Yuyan, Joy Mask, IK, 2018

D12

Therman Statom, Cast Glass House/Blue/With Self Portrait in Hat and Ladder, 1997

D13

Tom Loeser, Dig 23, 2015

Rest

Imagine settling somewhere to read a book, curling up like a cat for forty winks, or stopping for a moment in a place that has special meaning for you. We invite you to pause for a while with the artworks here that allow us to consider how rest affords privacy, intimacy, softness—and, sometimes, brings us back to ourselves.

E1

Chris Ofili, Afro Lunar Lovers II, 2005

E2

Becky Suss, WT, TJ, and Blinky, 2020

E3

Lauren Halsey, Untitled, 2021

E4

Noda Tetsuya, Diary: February 11th, 1995 (b); Sleeping Man and Newspaper, 1995 (Heisei 7)

E5

Joanne Leonard, Couple Watching TV in Bedroom, about 1975

E6

Joan Cassis, Woman with mural, 1985

E7

Lucy Kim, Longing Pairs (Sketch), 2019

E8

Judith Black, August 23, 1974

Men’s hands and eyes have historically framed depictions of birth in art. Here, Boston-based artist Judith Black photographs the birth of her fourth child during her own labor, her hands on the camera and her eye framing the shot. The power of this image comes not only from a deeply personal moment, but also its innovative composition where we see birth from the point of view of a person in the throes of it.

In the 1970s when this self-portrait was made, Black was also engaged in health education, capturing and sharing images of birth in classrooms with audiences of all ages. Her goal was to combat social taboos around birth, filling in knowledge gaps about this experience that each one of us goes through at least once in our lives.

E9

Kerry James Marshall, Supermodel, 1994

E10

Jean Tarantino, Bend Bench #4, 1991

E11

Barbara Gallucci, Topia Chairs, 2008

Adoration

Some care is divine, manifesting as a deep and abiding love, respect, or worship. For many people, such devotion structures their daily rituals, whether as prayer, meditation, or caretaking. We elevate loved ones, like friends and family members, or cultural figures and celebrities, into the realm of mythology, assigning sacred qualities to their possessions or likenesses. Such tending can also transform grief into an act of repair or remembrance. Here, artists explore such reverence.

F1

Yoshitomo Nara, Peculiar, 1991

F2

Maryam Safajoo, Repetitious Insecurity, 2022

F2

Wasmaa Chorbachi, Small Plaque Tile with the Inscription Barakah, 2007

F4

Waldomiro de Deus, Boizebú, 1981

F5

Howard Kottler, Pope Ware, about 1968

F6

Howard Kottler, Pope Ware, about 1968

F7

Carrie Mae Weems, Commemorating Blues, Jazz, Collard Greens & Thelonious Monk, 1992

F8

Clementine Hunter, The Annunciation and the Adoration of the Wise Men, 1957

F9

Catherine McCarthy, The Dowery, 1994

F10

Deborah Kass, Double Blue Barbra (The Jewish Jackie Series), 1992

F11

Belkis Ramirez, Parriba y pabajo, about 2010

This double-headed portrait can be hung in this orientation or the opposite (the title translates to “up and down”). The striking directness of its depiction of a woman and the thorny, barbed, flowing hair functions like a religious icon that commands our attention and respect.

Trained as an architect, Belkis Ramirez’s early artistic explorations centered on printmaking and engraving. However, while making woodblock prints, the artist became deeply interested in the matrix (the piece of wood into which a print pattern is carved) and began to leave the ink on it and view it as a sculptural work.

F12

Alice Neel, Dr. James Dineen, 1984

Artist Alice Neel met Dr. James Dineen, an internist at Mass General Hospital (MGH), in the late 1970s. She had begun to have significant issues with her health— mental disturbances and physical pain. In despair at the lack of progress with doctors in her home city of New York, her son Hartley—a radiology fellow also at MGH—asked his senior colleague, Dr. Dineen, if he would review his mother’s case. Dr. Dineen successfully treated the artist and she trusted him henceforth.

In the last year of her life, she invited him to her summer home in New Jersey where, on a hot day in May 1984, five months before her eventual death, he sat outside in her garden while she painted him. His portrait captures someone who was an everyday acquaintance. It is, however, also a record of a man who took the time to look at her whole person and treat her with care—as she did to him, in turn, while making this work.

F13

Jimmy DeSana, Untitled (Green male nude), 1987

F14

Jo Sandman, #26 (hand x-rays), 1998–1999

F15

Sigmund Abeles, The Max Drawings: 8-12-83 (Nr. 13) 1983

In this drawing, part of a series that traces his son Max’s premature birth, the artist keeps vigil. Look closely at the bottom edge of the drawing, and you will see Abeles’ own notes about his son’s condition while in the neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU. He records the date and time of his drawing shortly after a successful heart operation, that his son is a “fighter,” and includes a wish for him to “hang on.” Over time, the artist drew his son’s eventual recovery—from hospital to home—using his skills as an artist to record his parental hopes, fears, and devotion.

F16

Sovereign Series Royal Wedding, 1981

The late British royal, Princess Diana (1961–97), is pictured here in a series of widely-published collectible postcards related to her wedding and honeymoon. An estimated 750 million people around the world watched her wedding on television. Diana was routinely scrutinized by the press and public alike for what she wore and expected simply to fulfill public and dynastic expectations to produce heirs and undertake charity work. Many admired her for how she pushed back against such restrictive parameters and instead carved her own path through royal life. The widespread public reverence she inspired could not prevent the rabid attentions of the tabloid press which ultimately caused her death in a car accident in 1997, turning her into an immortal icon.

F17

Rahim Fortune, Praise Dancers, Edna TX, 2020

F18

Rahim Fortune, Fence Post, 2020

F19

Antonio López García, The Apparition of Little Brother (La aparición del hermanito), 1959, fabricated 1988

F20

Antonio López García, Head of Carmen (Carmen Sleeping), 1999–2000

F21

Madeline Donahue, Birth, 2020

F22

Camille Billops, The Baby Jesus, Oh See Him, 1973

F23

Kaneshige Kōsuke, Saint’s Garments, 2004

F24

Doris Salcedo, Untitled, 1988

F25

Anna Silver, Reliquary Box, 1980

F26

Beatrice Wood, Chalice, 1965

F27

Joseph van Benten, Settee, 1982

F28

Rosanne Somerson, Bench, 1986

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