Re-View, is an on-going exhibition displaying the most significant works from all three Harvard Art Museums in one space. It is being hosted at the Arthur M. Sackler while the Fogg Art Museum at 32 Quincy Street undergoes renovations, scheduled to be completed in 2013.
The intent of the visit was to find out how the museum deals with object rotation in an on-going exhibition, to attract first-time visitors, and more importantly encourage repeat visits.
Re-View is divided into three main exhibit areas each on a separate floor of the museum; Western Tradition: Antiquity to 1900, Asian and Islamic Art: 5000 BC to Present, and European and American Art since 1900.
The European and American Art section explores early 20th century European landscape works (e.g. Gustav Klimt’s Pear Tree, 1903), and cubism (Pablo Picasso’s analytic cubism in the form of The Pomegranate), in addition to American modernism from artists such as Kerry James Marshal, and works of non-traditional media.
The Western Tradition: Antiquity to 1900, includes Ancient and Byzantine Art, with coins and seals from the Greek and Roman empires, and the Renaissance and Western Art from 1560 to 1900. Noteworthy here is the Fogg’s self-portrait of Van Gogh, dedicated to Gauguin in 1888, one of about 37 self-portraits of the artist available worldwide.
Interestingly, in the Western Art section, one can find a theme of the nineteenth century response to “Oriental” culture; this includes among others Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ Odalisque with a Slave and Delacroix’s Turk Surrendering to a Greek Horseman, which portray the western exoticization of the Orient. A 16th century Safavid brass torch stand “mash’all” is displayed in close proximity to William Michael Harnett’s Still Life with Bric-a-Brac (1878), an oil painting featuring the same torch stand as a centerpiece.
The Asian gallery contains both religious and secular objects primarily from East Asia with some examples from South and South East Asia. Some areas explored include Chinese and Korean Ceramics; blue and white porcelains, bronze, and other ornaments.
Aside from being the temporary host to this assorted exhibition, the Sackler’s main focus is Islamic and Later Indian Art. It holds a small but focused Islamic art collection with its strength mostly in paintings, drawings, and artifacts representing the Mongol, Timurid, Safavid, Qajar periods in Persia, and the Ottoman dynasty, while it evidently lacks Mamluk pieces from Egypt and Syria.
The introductory panel to the Islamic Art gallery attempts to explain the elusiveness of the term “Islamic Art.” It states that “here, it designates works of art produced in lands where the rulers or the majority of the population followed or follow the faith of Islam. The panel echoes the dilemma that often haunts Islamic art scholars. Since Islamic art is a result of the synergy of ethnic, geographic, local and pan-Islamic artistic expressions, it should be defined as a cultural aspect not a religious one. The gallery explores calligraphy and the reverence of Islamic text in this form of art. Overall, it succeeds in demonstrating how migrations across Islamic lands transferred the aesthetics different parts of the Islamic world.
The south wall of the gallery, reserved for temporary installations of light-sensitive objects displays the temporary exhibition: Strolling Through Isfahan: Seventeenth Century Paintings from Safavid Iran (reviewed separately).
It maybe worth asking; how does a museum host an exhibition of a somewhat “foreign” nature, without the threat of overshadowing its own core collection, and losing its own identity in the process?
It is perhaps for that same reason that Re-View makes it rather difficult for a visitor to know which object came from which of the three museums. It seems like a rather intentional approach; to integrate the collection into one entity. Other than sparse clues hidden in the labels, a first-time visitor has no way of recognizing that the Fogg is an American, modern and contemporary art museum, that the Busch-Reisinger is devoted to Euro-Germanic art, while all the Byzantine, Islamic, Asian and Later Indian pieces come from the host museum- the Sackler.
It is important to note that the mission of the Harvard University Art Museums, as a collective identity, is to collect, teach and preserve in order to enhance research and scholarship in the history of art, particularly within the Harvard community. The nature of the Sackler makes the target audience mostly students and scholars, which in turn also allows for the use of a sophisticated label language, a benefit that other museums may not share, and one that was fully demonstrated in the labels of Re-View.
The accompanying brochure provides adequate information about the galleries as well as the pieces highlighted within. It does however lack information about future plans of changes to the displays to entice visitors to come back when new objects are highlighted. The exhibition provides cellphone audio tours as an innovative means of interpretation.
All in all, it is impressive how new objects were introduced, some layouts have changed, and new juxtapositions were created, while still keeping in line with the essence of the exhibition.
Even for those who have seen Re-View before, a repeat visit will be quite a new experience.
In the end, I am glad I went to see....Re-View.
Eurpean and American Art since 1900 Gallery
Gustav Klimt, Pear Tree, 1903, oil and casein on canvas
Pablo Picasso, The Pomegranate (1911-12), oil on canvas
Kerry James Marshall, untitled (2008), acrylic on PVC panel
The intent of the visit was to find out how the museum deals with object rotation in an on-going exhibition, to attract first-time visitors, and more importantly encourage repeat visits.
Re-View is divided into three main exhibit areas each on a separate floor of the museum; Western Tradition: Antiquity to 1900, Asian and Islamic Art: 5000 BC to Present, and European and American Art since 1900.
The European and American Art section explores early 20th century European landscape works (e.g. Gustav Klimt’s Pear Tree, 1903), and cubism (Pablo Picasso’s analytic cubism in the form of The Pomegranate), in addition to American modernism from artists such as Kerry James Marshal, and works of non-traditional media.
The Western Tradition: Antiquity to 1900, includes Ancient and Byzantine Art, with coins and seals from the Greek and Roman empires, and the Renaissance and Western Art from 1560 to 1900. Noteworthy here is the Fogg’s self-portrait of Van Gogh, dedicated to Gauguin in 1888, one of about 37 self-portraits of the artist available worldwide.
Interestingly, in the Western Art section, one can find a theme of the nineteenth century response to “Oriental” culture; this includes among others Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ Odalisque with a Slave and Delacroix’s Turk Surrendering to a Greek Horseman, which portray the western exoticization of the Orient. A 16th century Safavid brass torch stand “mash’all” is displayed in close proximity to William Michael Harnett’s Still Life with Bric-a-Brac (1878), an oil painting featuring the same torch stand as a centerpiece.
The Asian gallery contains both religious and secular objects primarily from East Asia with some examples from South and South East Asia. Some areas explored include Chinese and Korean Ceramics; blue and white porcelains, bronze, and other ornaments.
Aside from being the temporary host to this assorted exhibition, the Sackler’s main focus is Islamic and Later Indian Art. It holds a small but focused Islamic art collection with its strength mostly in paintings, drawings, and artifacts representing the Mongol, Timurid, Safavid, Qajar periods in Persia, and the Ottoman dynasty, while it evidently lacks Mamluk pieces from Egypt and Syria.
The introductory panel to the Islamic Art gallery attempts to explain the elusiveness of the term “Islamic Art.” It states that “here, it designates works of art produced in lands where the rulers or the majority of the population followed or follow the faith of Islam. The panel echoes the dilemma that often haunts Islamic art scholars. Since Islamic art is a result of the synergy of ethnic, geographic, local and pan-Islamic artistic expressions, it should be defined as a cultural aspect not a religious one. The gallery explores calligraphy and the reverence of Islamic text in this form of art. Overall, it succeeds in demonstrating how migrations across Islamic lands transferred the aesthetics different parts of the Islamic world.
The south wall of the gallery, reserved for temporary installations of light-sensitive objects displays the temporary exhibition: Strolling Through Isfahan: Seventeenth Century Paintings from Safavid Iran (reviewed separately).
It maybe worth asking; how does a museum host an exhibition of a somewhat “foreign” nature, without the threat of overshadowing its own core collection, and losing its own identity in the process?
It is perhaps for that same reason that Re-View makes it rather difficult for a visitor to know which object came from which of the three museums. It seems like a rather intentional approach; to integrate the collection into one entity. Other than sparse clues hidden in the labels, a first-time visitor has no way of recognizing that the Fogg is an American, modern and contemporary art museum, that the Busch-Reisinger is devoted to Euro-Germanic art, while all the Byzantine, Islamic, Asian and Later Indian pieces come from the host museum- the Sackler.
It is important to note that the mission of the Harvard University Art Museums, as a collective identity, is to collect, teach and preserve in order to enhance research and scholarship in the history of art, particularly within the Harvard community. The nature of the Sackler makes the target audience mostly students and scholars, which in turn also allows for the use of a sophisticated label language, a benefit that other museums may not share, and one that was fully demonstrated in the labels of Re-View.
The accompanying brochure provides adequate information about the galleries as well as the pieces highlighted within. It does however lack information about future plans of changes to the displays to entice visitors to come back when new objects are highlighted. The exhibition provides cellphone audio tours as an innovative means of interpretation.
All in all, it is impressive how new objects were introduced, some layouts have changed, and new juxtapositions were created, while still keeping in line with the essence of the exhibition.
Even for those who have seen Re-View before, a repeat visit will be quite a new experience.
In the end, I am glad I went to see....Re-View.
Eurpean and American Art since 1900 GalleryGustav Klimt, Pear Tree, 1903, oil and casein on canvas
Pablo Picasso, The Pomegranate (1911-12), oil on canvas
Kerry James Marshall, untitled (2008), acrylic on PVC panel
Western Tradition; Antiquity to 1900
Van Gogh, Self Portrait, dedicated to Gaugin (1888)
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Odalisque with a Slave (1839-40), oil on canvas
Eugene Delacroix, Turk Surrendering to a Greek Horseman (1856), oil on canvas
Torch Stand (Mash'al), Iran, Safavid, late 16th century, brass
William Michael Harnett, Still Life with Bric-a-Brac (1878), oil on canvas
Asian Gallery
Islamic Art Gallery
Gallery entrance and introductory panel
Vase with Inscription Bands and Arabesque, Mamluk, Egypt or Syria, mid 14th century, brass incised with silver inlay
One of the very few Mamluk pieces in the Sackler's collection.
Tombstone of Muhammed ibn al-Hassan ibn Muhammed, Iran, Saljuk,
12th century
