Current

This survey of approximately 600 works from the Harvard Art Museum’s three museums — the Fogg, the Busch-Reisinger, and the Arthur M. Sackler — is a unique installation of objects that have historically been exhibited in separate facilities. The Art Museum has one of the country's preeminent art collections, and Re-View reflects the diversity and richness of these holdings, including Western art from antiquity to the present, Asian art, and Islamic and Later Indian art.

Re-View is on long-term display at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum while the Art Museum's building at 32 Quincy Street — the former home of the Fogg and Busch-Reisinger — is closed for renovation. The exhibition has been made possible by a generous grant from the NBT Charitable Trust, as well as the Art Museum's 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.

Rotating Installations

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

Strolling through Isfahan: Seventeenth-Century Paintings from Safavid Iran
January 8–June 13, 2010
Floor 2
With its great public square, majestic avenues, and noble gardens, Isfahan, the capital city of Safavid Iran in the 17th century, afforded endless opportunities for court ceremony, promenades, and people-watching. Stylish or eccentric, the Isfahanis captured the attention of writers and artists alike, providing colorful subject matter for the growing genre of single-page paintings. Organized by Sussan Babaie, independent scholar and 2009–10 Fulbright Scholar, Middle East and North Africa Regional Research Program.

Related Event: Constructing Miniatures: A Painter’s Perspective. Gallery talk, March 27.

Heroic Gestes: Epic Tales from Firdawsi’s Shahnama
June 18–November 27, 2010
Floor 2
One of three Boston-area exhibitions under the title Heroic Gestes and Romantic Interludes: Celebrating the Millennium of Firdawsi’s Shahnama. The others are at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (April 24, 2010–January 16, 2011) and the Houghton Library, Harvard University (July 6–November 24, 2010). Curated by Mary McWilliams, Norma Jean Calderwood Curator of Islamic and Later Indian Art, Harvard Art Museum/Arthur M. Sackler Museum; and Sunil Sharma, assistant professor of Persianate and comparative literature, Boston University.

New Acquisition: Lorna Simpson’s 1957–2009 Interior
February 23–May 30, 2010
Floor 4
Composed of 52 gelatin silver prints arranged in five grids, this 2009 work includes found photos from the 1950s and Simpson’s reenactment of them in the studio. For the first time Simpson (American, b. 1961) puts herself into the field of vision — in male attire, masquerade, and makeup that foregrounds questions of aging and youth.

Rubens and the Baroque Festival
March 19–August 28, 2010
Floor 4
Rubens’s oil on wood sketch of Neptune Calming the Tempest in the Fogg collection is a preparatory study for the left wing of the Stage of Welcome, a temporary stage built in honor of the triumphal entry of the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand into Antwerp in 1635. This small installation juxtaposes the sketch with an engraving of the final stage and with Renaissance prints and ancient coins and cameos that informed Rubens’s design. Organized by Anna Knaap, Theodore Rousseau Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Paintings, Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Harvard Art Museum/Fogg Museum, in collaboration with Carmen Arnold-Biucchi, Damarete Curator of Ancient Coins, Harvard Art Museum/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, and lecturer on classics, Harvard University.

Related Event: Coins and Classical Imagery in Baroque Festival Designs. Gallery talk, March 24.
Related Event: Art, Music, and Spectacle in the Age of Rubens. Two-day symposium, April 16-17.
Related Event: Theatricality in Rubens’s Triumphal Entry of 1635. Gallery talk, April 28.