Back to Calendar

Disrupt the View: A Conversation with Arlene Shechet

A photograph of two porcelain sculptures, one a figural sculpture and the other an abstract sculpture.
Polymnia, c. 1744–45, a porcelain figurine from the collection of the Busch-Reisinger Museum beside Arlene Shechet’s Sexy Baby Eyes, 2012; © Arlene Shechet. Image courtesy of the artist.

Lecture

In-Person
Harvard Art Museums, Menschel Hall
32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA

This event was recorded. Please view the lecture on our Vimeo or Youtube channel.

In her installation Disrupt the View: Arlene Shechet at the Harvard Art Museums, contemporary sculptor Arlene Shechet presents her recent work alongside historical German, Japanese, and Chinese porcelain objects from the Harvard Art Museums.

Join curator Lynette Roth as she talks with Shechet about her artistic process, her past collaborations with German porcelain manufactory workers, and how she recontextualizes these remarkable objects to speak to the larger history of labor, class, and global trade.

Disrupt the View is on view through July 6, 2025.

Speakers:
Arlene Shechet, Artist

Lynette Roth, Daimler Curator of the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Division of Modern and Contemporary Art, Harvard Art Museums

Before the lecture, guests are invited to visit the exhibition on Level 1.

Free admission, but seating is limited, and reservations are required. Reservations may be arranged by clicking on the event on this form beginning on Tuesday, September 27, after 10am.

The lecture will take place in Menschel Hall, Lower Level. Doors will open at 5:30pm from the Broadway entrance for gallery access, and at 6:00pm for seating for the lecture. The lecture begins at 6:30pm. Please review our general visitor policies, including details on COVID-related precautions.

Limited complimentary parking is available in the Broadway Garage, 7 Felton Street, Cambridge.

This installation and related programming are supported by the Charles Kuhn Endowment Fund in the Busch-Reisinger Museum. Support for the lecture is also provided by the M. Victor Leventritt Fund, which was established through the generosity of the wife, children, and friends of the late M. Victor Leventritt, Harvard Class of 1935. The purpose of the fund is to present outstanding scholars of the history and theory of art to the Harvard and Greater Boston communities. Modern and contemporary art programs at the Harvard Art Museums are made possible in part by generous support from the Emily Rauh Pulitzer and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., Fund for Modern and Contemporary Art.

The Harvard Art Museums are committed to accessibility for all visitors. For anyone requiring accessibility accommodations for our programs, please contact us at am_register@harvard.edu at least 48 hours in advance.