Our galleries are ever-changing, with new installations occurring each month throughout the museums. This spring, explore newly installed art, including these three dynamic and captivating works.

A Benevolent Bodhisattva

This well-preserved painting dating to 985 depicts the eleven-faced, six-armed manifestation of the bodhisattva of compassion, Guanyin. The accompanying illustrations of verses from the Lotus Sutra signal the bodhisattva’s omnipresence and attentiveness to devotees in distress: they show Guanyin rescuing the faithful from fires, cliffs, demon attacks, and imprisonment.

This work is among a group of paintings and calligraphy on display in Gallery 2740 from the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang in northwestern China’s Gansu province. In 1900, the caretaker of the Mogao Caves, Wang Yuanlu 王圓籙, accidentally uncovered the sealed Library Cave, revealing a cache of more than 50,000 manuscripts, paintings, banners, and other objects. This painting is believed to be from that group. Beginning in 1907, Wang sold many of these materials to explorers and scholars to pay for restorations to the site. The inscription identifies the donor as Cao Zongshou 曹宗壽, a local ruler in Dunhuang, who dedicated the painting to the monk Yuanman 圓滿 in the year 985 CE. Cao is depicted at lower right in a black robe, holding a censer, while Yuanman sits directly above him, holding a sutra.

See Eleven-Headed Guanyin on display with other paintings from the Mogao Caves in Gallery 2740 through June 1, 2025.

Art for Its Own Sake

When Karel de Nerée tot Babberich made this enigmatic drawing, the young dandy was gravely ill. He died of tuberculosis five years later. His eccentricities, paired with social ambitions, had generated some notoriety, but his art was little known beyond the circle of his friends. At first glance, this drawing seems to be of a private nature. But it was in fact designed for a competition for Wercks Choco, a Dutch chocolate factory. The eroticism, gold paint, and grotesque ornamentation almost completely distract from the chocolate bar on the table. 

Nerée’s art was connected to an international trend that united progressive European artists, writers, and composers around the turn of the 20th century, called “l’art pour l’art,” or “art for its own sake,” which invited free association, beyond the control of reason. This whimsical composition seems to suggest that all you need to let your mind spin into a fantastical world of luxury and decadence is a piece of chocolate.

Feast your eyes on this drawing and others by Nerée’s contemporaries Constantin Meunier and Félicien Rops, in Gallery 2130 through June 9, 2025.

Colorful Kragerø

Edvard Munch lived in the small port town Kragerø—roughly 115 miles southeast of Oslo—from 1909 to 1915, and the town remained a subject of his work long after he returned to Oslo in 1916. Like his other paintings of the town, this landscape has anthropomorphic qualities, exaggerated lines and shapes, and expressive brushwork. The curvilinear, multicolored hills and roads that surround a small group of angular houses vibrate with vitality, indicating the coming spring.

Munch’s formal techniques and his fascination with painting nature in a lively and dynamic manner led to his role as the “spiritual godfather” of modern art in Germany, and in his lifetime his work was understood as a precursor to expressionism. 

See From Kragerø in Gallery 1440 through October 1, 2025. To see other depictions of Kragerø and its inhabitants by Munch, visit the special exhibition Edvard Munch: Technically Speaking on Level 3! The exhibition is on view through July 27, 2025.

Follow @harvardartmuseums on Instagram to hear even more about new additions to our galleries!

Tara Metal is the Digital Content Manager and Strategist at the Harvard Art Museums.