Current

This survey features a selection of over 600 objects drawn from the collections of the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Arthur M. Sackler museums that reflects the diversity and richness of the Harvard Art Museums' holdings. Well-known objects are included alongside rarely displayed works in thematic gallery spaces: European and American art since 1900 is on the first floor, Islamic and Asian art is on the second floor, and the fourth floor features Western art from antiquity to the turn of the last century. Re-View represents a powerful distillation of the collection, fulfilling a wish to make available important works—some of them familiar highlights and many of them integral to the Art Museums' core mission of teaching and research.

Re-View is on long-term display at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at 485 Broadway while the Art Museums' building at 32 Quincy Street—the former home of the Fogg and Busch-Reisinger—is closed for renovation. This major renovation and expansion project, designed by architect Renzo Piano, with completion anticipated in 2013, will unite the three museums in a single state-of-the-art facility.

Re-View has been made possible by a generous grant from the NBT Charitable Trust, as well as the Art Museums’ Alexander S., Robert L., and Bruce A. Beal Exhibition Fund; Anthony and Celeste Meier Exhibitions Fund; and Charlotte F. and Irving W. Rabb Exhibition Fund.

Temporary Installations

A limited number of objects in Re-View are rotated periodically. On the second floor, in the Islamic and Later Indian gallery and the Asian galleries, thematic installations typically highlight paintings, drawings, calligraphy, and photographs. Two niches on the fourth floor feature works on paper, recent acquisitions, and installations tied to university courses.

Around Antique: Prints, Drawings, and Photographs
May 14–September 4, 2010
Floor 4
Highlighting the strengths of the Harvard Art Museums′ collections of works on paper, this installation explores objects associated with the antique, including drawings after classical sculptures, photographs of temple ruins, and prints of mythological figures such as Hercules and Bacchus. These objects complement displays in the adjacent gallery, part of the ongoing exhibition Re-View, which address more broadly the Western tradition of themes and styles derived from Greek, Roman, and Egyptian antiquity. Curated by Emily Hankle, Cunningham Curatorial Assistant, Division of European and American Art; Michelle Lamunière, John R. and Barbara Robinson Family Assistant Curator of Photography, Division of Modern and Contemporary Art; and Miriam Stewart, Curator of the Collection, Division of European and American Art.

Related Event: Around Antique: Works on Paper. Gallery talk, August 14.

Peter Blume, Passage to Aetna
June 4–September 4, 2010
Floor 4
This small installation focuses on Peter Blume’s striking painting Passage to Aetna (1956). The Harvard Art Museums own over 50 preparatory drawings for this canvas; seven of them are also on display. Throughout his life Peter Blume produced visually arresting paintings that often treated the theme of decay and rebirth. Passage to Aetna is his response to what he called the “various layers of civilization” that he found in obscure corners of Sicily. In the painting, the legendary volcano Mount Aetna is suggested, but not seen. It is invoked in the tumbled columns in the foreground, which rise from a subterranean stream that flows from the depths of the volcano; the pitched roofs and receding laundry; and the smoking chimney. Blume evokes the stratified proximity of past and present: skeletons from the catacombs juxtaposed with living figures and their vital, fluttering clothing, and ruined fragments supporting genial houses brimming with activity. Curated by Miriam Stewart, Curator of the Collection, Division of European and American Art, Harvard Art Museums.

Heroic Gestes: Epic Tales from Firdawsi’s Shahnama
June 18–November 27, 2010
Floor 2
Featuring the gestes, or deeds, of great heroes and kings, the Shahnama is the most important work of epic poetry in the Persian language. As it chronicles the reigns of 50 monarchs, Firdawsi’s text is interwoven with a cycle of heroic tales. Rich in action, pathos, and horror, these tales have inspired many of the greatest paintings in the history of Islamic manuscript illustration. The nine works of art in this installation explore major themes in the text: the struggle between Iran and Turan; the element of fantasy in many of the tales; and Firdawsi’s dark view of fate. Curated by Mary McWilliams, Norma Jean Calderwood Curator of Islamic and Later Indian Art, Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art, Harvard Art Museums; and Sunil Sharma, Assistant Professor of Persianate and Comparative Literature, Boston University.

The installation is made possible by funding from the Arthur Urbane Dilley and Theron Johnson Damon Fund for Islamic Art and Culture.

Two complementary Boston-area exhibitions also celebrating the millennium of Firdawsi’s Shahnama are on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (April 24, 2010–January 16, 2011) and the Houghton Library, Harvard University (July 6–November 24, 2010).

Related Event: Reading, Listening, and Viewing: Three Ways of Experiencing the Shahnama. Gallery talk, September 23.
Related Event: Sizing Up the Shahnama in Medieval and Later Persian Art. Lecture, October 6.
Related Event: Xanthe Gresham. Stories: The Epic Tradition - After-school session, October 13.
Related Event: Xanthe Gresham. Stories: The Epic Tradition - Evening session, October 13.

The Art of Deceit: Looking at French Trompe l’Oeil
September 10–December 4, 2010
Floor 4
Since antiquity, artists have made illusionistic works that force viewers to marvel at their craft. In 18th-century France many artists produced works that “trick the eye” (trompe l’oeil). This installation looks at three masterful examples of this genre, by Jean-Pierre-Xavier Bidauld, Louis-Léopold Boilly, and Jacques-Charles Oudry, that illustrate the humorous and intellectual nature of these pictures. Curated by Stephan Wolohojian, Landon and Lavinia Clay Curator, and Head, Division of European and American Art, Harvard Art Museums.

Brush and Ink Reconsidered: Contemporary Chinese Landscapes
November 23, 2010–May 14, 2011
Floor 2
This installation offers highlights from the Harvard Art Museums’ growing collection of recent Chinese ink paintings, which invite us to examine the meaning of “contemporary” in non-Western contexts. While using traditional materials, formats, and subjects, the artists represented employ new techniques and work in styles that draw on both Western and Chinese sources. Curated by Robert D. Mowry, Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art, Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art, Harvard Art Museums.

A complementary exhibition, Fresh Ink: Ten Takes on Chinese Tradition, is on view November 20, 2010–February 13, 2011 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

I Was Not Waving but Drowning
December 3, 2010–April 2, 2011
Floor 2
This sequence of 14 photographs captures contemporary Indian artist Atul Bhalla’s act of submergence in the Yamuna River. In these contemplative images, the artist and river have equal prominence. Bhalla engages with water as a medium, exploring contemporary political and environmental issues and drawing on cultural and religious associations with water as a life source. Curated by Maliha Noorani, 2009–11 Norma Jean Calderwood Curatorial Fellow, Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art, Harvard Art Museums.

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