Over the next 18 months, the Harvard Art Museums will present a series of special and temporary exhibitions and unveil a new commission, all showcasing modern and contemporary art and the unique role of the university teaching museum. From video and multimedia by Jesse Aron Green, to vibrant pop art by Corita Kent, to works by Indigenous artists of Australia, including the first-ever comprehensive analysis of the materials they use—these and other upcoming exhibitions will invite visitors to view art in new and different ways.
“While the majority of our installations and programming draw on the historic nature and concerns of our vast permanent holdings, there is clearly a renewed emphasis on modern and contemporary art across all media at the new Harvard Art Museums,” said Thomas W. Lentz, the museums’ Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director. “This reflects the unique opportunities that the art of our time presents within the rich context of historical collections, but also the ever-evolving nature of teaching and learning at a great university, where old and new are in constant dialogue.”
Read on for brief descriptions about our upcoming exhibitions (for further details, please refer to our press release).
Jesse Aron Green: Ärztliche Zimmergymnastik (Medicalized Indoor Gymnastics), on view from May 23 through August 9, 2015, in the University Research Gallery, is an installation comprising an 80-minute projected video and associated sculptural and photographic works and drawings. The 2008 work takes as its point of departure an exercise manual of the same name by German physician Dr. Daniel Gottlob Moritz Schreber (1808–1861).
The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States, on view from May 23 through August 9, 2015, in the University Study Gallery and featured in the Art Study Center, encompasses a broad array of works by conceptual and minimalist artists of the 1970s and ’80s, including several artists who were not previously represented in the museums’ collections. The exhibition and related Art Study Center viewings offer insight into the practice of collecting.
Corita Kent and the Language of Pop, on view from September 3, 2015, through January 3, 2016, in the Special Exhibitions Gallery, explores the work of Corita Kent, a Roman Catholic nun, artist, and educator who created vivid and rousing screenprints during the 1960s. The exhibition frames Kent’s work in the context of pop art, positioning over 60 of her prints alongside more than 60 works by her prominent contemporaries, including Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol.
Everywhen: The Eternal Present in Indigenous Art from Australia, on view from February 5 through September 18, 2016, in the Special Exhibitions Gallery, features over 70 works of contemporary Indigenous art from Australia, and explores the ways in which time is embedded within Indigenous artistic, social, historical, and philosophical life. Large-scale works by significant Indigenous artists, such as Rover Thomas and Emily Kame Kngwarreye, as well as bark painter John Mawurndjul, and visual and performance artist Christian Thompson, are included.
In addition to the upcoming exhibitions, the Harvard Art Museums will welcome a new mobile sculpture by contemporary Mexican artist Carlos Amorales, on display beginning April 17, 2015. The large-scale work, called Triangle Constellation, consists of 16 suspended triangles of graduated shape and scale. It will hang in the Calderwood Courtyard, from the specially designed kingposts, or steel trusses, that are part of the rafters under the courtyard’s glass roof. The commissioned work is part of the museums’ Art in Public Spaces Initiative, giving visitors an opportunity to contemplate original works of art upon entering the courtyard, which is accessible without the purchase of gallery admission.
