Search results for ""museum of fine arts,boston""

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, boasts one of the largest collections of the celebrated Impressionist artist Claude Monet’s work outside France. This book reproduces all thirty-five oil paintings by Monet in the MFA’s permanent collection, representing nearly the full span of Monet’s long career. An introductory essay presents a brief introduction to his acclaim in Boston during his lifetime, and entries for the thirty-five paintings provide an overview of his life and work. Monet returned time and again to his favourite locations and motifs, utilizing vivid colour and varied brushwork to dazzling effect and inviting viewers to see the world anew.

Read more less

This newly updated edition of the definitive guide to the MFA’s most enduring masterpieces provides an enticing introduction to a collection that circles the globe and spans thousands of years. Featuring more than 500 works of art – from Native American ceramics to European silver, Egyptian funerary arts to Warhol silkscreens, alongside world-renowned paintings and sculpture, all reproduced in vibrant colour – this guide invites readers and visitors alike to experience the surprise, delight and inspiration offered by the collections of a major museum.

Read more less

Born in Italy, trained in Paris and a resident of London, John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) became Boston’s favorite painter in the 1880s. His commissions from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, to decorate its new building’s grand staircase and rotunda resulted in one of Sargent’s last and most ambitious works. Sargent regarded the entire space as a giant canvas and brought together all the pictorial, decorative and architectural elements with a painter’s skill and vision. This compact volume offers a guide to the murals and their surroundings, elucidating their allegorical subjects drawn from classical mythology to emphasize the museum’s role as the guardian of fine arts.

Read more less

A pocket-sized tour of one of the world's great museums The collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, encompasses more than 450,000 works of art, from ancient coins, gems, and mummies to work by some of today's most celebrated contemporary artists, and everything in between. This attractive little volume illustrates a selection of these remarkable holdings, including highlights of the museum's famous Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, its unrivaled collection of Asian art, and spectacular works from all eras of American history. The perfect memento of the MFA, this best-selling Tiny FolioTM has been updated throughout and features all-new color photography. Art of the Americas * Art of Europe * Contemporary Art * Prints, Drawings, and Photographs * Art of the Ancient World * Art of Asia, Africa, and Oceania * Textile and Fashion Arts * Musical Instruments

Read more less

Mixed from egg whites and vegetable tints, water and soot, oils and rare minerals and applied to bone, wood, metal and canvas, the plastic and expressive properties of paint have stirred artists and their admirers throughout history. The holdings of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston have grown into a formidable appraisal of one of humankind's oldest and most diverse forms of artistic expression--from its first acquisition, Washington Allston's "Elijah in the Desert" (1818), to recently acquired works by Edgar Degas, Georgia O'Keeffe and Takashi Murakami--and now constitutes one of America's largest permanent collections. The first version of Masterpieces has long been a favorite among museum-goers and art lovers. This new edition expands on the scope of the old, adding new acquisitions and featuring 150 master works by artists from Asia, Europe and the Americas--from delicate Song-dynasty handscrolls to jewel-like images of medieval piety, scenes of mythic drama, austere still lifes, sensitive portraits, grand landscapes and jarring Modern visions. Featuring artists such as Rembrandt, El Greco, Copley, Monet, Sargent and Picasso, anonymous masters of medieval Europe and Asia and living artists of uncompromising vision such as Gerhard Richter and David Hockney, this book is a celebration of the possibilities of paint.

Read more less

A visual history of fashion that fits in the palm of your hand. Drawing from the extensive Textile and Fashion Arts Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, this miniature history of European and American fashion features some 275 garments, accessories, and related works of art from the 17th century to the present. Dress historian Allison Taylor introduces each new era with a concise overview of the period's fashionable styles and silhouettes, as well as the underlying historical and cultural influences. This chic Tiny Folio is the perfect gift for fashionistas and fashion historians alike.

Read more less

Ink, Silk, and Gold explores the dynamic and complex traditions of Islamic art through more than 115 major works in a dazzling array of media, reproduced in full color and exquisite detail – manuscripts inscribed with gold, paintings on silk, elaborate metalwork, intricately woven textiles, luster-painted ceramics, and more. These objects, which originated within an Islamic world that ranges from Western Europe to Indonesia and across more than thirteen centuries, share a distinctive relationship to the materials they are made of: their color, shape, texture, and technique of production all convey meaning. Enhanced by texts from an international team of scholars and drawing on the latest technical information, Ink, Silk, and Gold is an inviting introduction to the riches of the Islamic art collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and a window into a vibrant global culture.

Read more less

An accessible exploration of the rich and varied portrait traditions of Ancient Egypt, based on masterpieces from one of the world’s premier collections Over the course of some 3,000 years, Ancient Egypt fostered a vibrant and dynamic portrait tradition that encompassed innovations, revivals and renaissances. From imposing colossal statues of kings to glamorous sculptures of queens and divinities, to strikingly realistic heads of priests and officials, supremely accomplished artists brought their subjects to life—literally, as statues were places where the spirits of the dead could reside. Faces of Ancient Egypt draws on masterworks in the peerless collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, to tell the story of how the creators of these portraits strove to balance realism and symbolism, humanity and divinity, tradition and the particular desires of their subjects. Their enduring legacy brings us face to face with a gallery of ancient Egyptians and confirms the surpassing achievements of those who portrayed them.

Read more less

Takashi Murakami’s irreverent, pop culture-infused art has made him one of the most recognized Japanese artists today. His bright, contemporary boisterousness, however, belies his deep scholarship and engagement with traditional Japanese art. Takashi Murakami: Lineage of Eccentrics presents key examples of Murakami’s work alongside a rich selection of Japanese masterpieces spanning several centuries and arranged here according to concepts laid out by his mentor and foil, leading Japanese art historian Nobuo Tsuji. Beautifully illustrated with Tsuji’s selections from the pre-eminent Japanese art collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, as well as some of the Murakami’s best known works of painting and sculpture, the combination of old and new in this groundbreaking volume enriches our understanding of each, and ultimately shows us how contemporary art can be seen as part of a continuum or lineage.

Read more less

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is home to an important collection of artworks from South Asia that spans a large geographical area – comprising India and the countries that surround it – and more than four millennia. Among these objects are expressive figures in bronze and stone, dazzlingly intricate miniature paintings, luxury textiles and exquisite metalwork. Arranged thematically around dualities of art and craft, sacred and secular, Hindu and Muslim, real and ideal, male and female, and local and foreign – reflecting and challenging the dualistic thinking often applied to South Asian art – these works of art reveal the richness and depth of South Asian art and culture.

Read more less

How artists have interpreted the intrigues and love stories of The Tale of Genji, one of the world’s oldest novels Lady Murasaki’s Tale of Genji has delighted readers for more than 1,000 years and inspired writers to create numerous parodies. Artists have responded with a rich parallel tradition illustrating the courtly intrigues, love affairs and shifting alliances of the epic novel, as well as its retellings. This lavishly illustrated volume explores interpretations of the original story and its spinoffs by Japanese master printmakers such as Kunisada, as well as Hiroshige, Suzuki Harunobu and Chobunsai Eishi, bringing the characters to life in dazzling woodblock prints from the peerless collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. With insightful commentary from a leading Japanese print scholar, this book invites readers to explore the colorful world of The Tale of Genji and its visual afterlife.

Read more less

Presents the best of the collection of African art and artefacts held by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The African art collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, offers a portal into the life and politics of a large and complex continent with a wealth of history and culture. The highlighted works in this volume have been selected to illuminate different societies and periods, and to offer an introduction to traditions within the wider field of African art. They are presented through the framework of their original contexts: refined bronze sculptures made for royal palaces, spiritual figures powerfully rendered in wood or stone for shrines, vibrant luxury textiles, masks for public celebrations, art made for export, and trenchant contemporary photography intended for global art markets. By examining the places where these objects were first encountered by viewers – the palaces of Mangbetu kings, the busy streets of Lagos, or a gallery in London – vivid stories emerge about who made, paid for, used and enjoyed these artworks. Taken together, they evoke the brilliance and variety of artistic traditions across a vast continent.

Read more less

A selection of masterpieces from MFA Boston’s preeminent decorative arts collection American Decorative Arts features over 100 carefully selected masterpieces of furniture, silver, glass, ceramics, base metals, coins and medals, basketry and sculpture from one of the world's preeminent collections. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is renowned for its high-style works from New England, but in fact its collection is encyclopedic, featuring significant pieces from a wide geographic area and all time periods. This survey includes monuments such as Paul Revere's Sons of Liberty bowl, Tiffany and Gorham silver, sculpture from William Rimmer and Augustus Saint-Gaudens, furniture by Gustav Stickley and Charles Eames, and craft objects from contemporary creators including Sam Maloof and Judy McKie, plus selected examples from Central and South America. Through these objects, handsomely illustrated and intelligently discussed, American Decorative Arts offers a unique window into the beauty and meaning of the decorative arts as they have flourished in the American context.

Read more less

A glorious trove of miniature art across eras and mediums—from ancient Egypt to the present, from netsuke to medieval shrines Intricate and appealing, curious and uncanny, miniature works of art exert surprising power. Over thousands of years and across cultures, artists and artisans have created small objects for many purposes: tiny gold amulets of ancient Egyptian gods to protect the wearer; portable European medieval shrines made of precious materials to hold the relics of saints; English and American miniature painted portraits to keep loved ones close; Dutch dollhouse furnishings to display the maker’s skill and the owner’s social standing; pocket-size tools and globes from the age of exploration; Japanese netsuke carved in the shape of auspicious animals; and everyday objects transformed into statement jewelry by contemporary makers. Tiny Treasures looks closely at more than 75 fascinating miniature objects from across the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, exploring their meaning and purpose along with their often dazzling workmanship, and showing that the human impulse to create on a small scale can produce compelling masterpieces.

Read more less

Located at the intersection of trade routes from central Africa, the ancient Near East, and the Classical world, ancient Nubia ruled the entire Nile Valley at the height of its power in the eighth century bc. Its neighbour and frequent rival Egypt called it ‘the gold lands’ because its territories held such an abundance of the precious metal, and because its inhabitants produced some of the most finely crafted jewelry of the ancient world. This book features over 100 adornments and personal accessories from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which houses the finest collection of Nubian jewelry outside Khartoum. The first comprehensive introduction to the sophisticated jewels of this great empire, it reveals how Nubian artisans employed techniques that would not be reinvented in Europe for another thousand years, and how the original owners valued such possessions not only for their inherent beauty, but also because they were imbued with magical meanings. Exquisite photography and an authoritative history written by leading experts make this book essential for both jewelry aficionados and anyone interested in the great cultures of the ancient world.

Read more less

Contemporary art is a vast and complex field representing artists, ideas, and trends from every imaginable cultural and geographical background. This book introduces the art of our times by taking the reader through a tour of some seventy examples from the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Thematic chapters present artistic categories, concepts, and propositions that have been prevalent since the mid-1950s and offer a path toward understanding the different subjects, forms, styles, purposes, and techniques of contemporary art. Some, such as `portrait’, are long-standing notions in the history of art; others, such as `site’ or `borrowed’, raise provocative questions and may be less immediately obvious. But it is the works of art themselves – brilliantly conceived by some of the most creative minds of our times – that make the case for embracing contemporary media in all its diversity.

Read more less

The world-renowned collection of European decorative arts from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is full of sumptuous surprises. Some delicate and some divine, the objects range from an opulent automaton to a richly wrought crozier, and vary in scale from a salt cellar in the form of a crustacean to the fine wood panelling of an entire dining room. Their dates of manufacture span more than a thousand years – the earliest made shortly after the fall of the Roman Empire and the most recent in the computer age. They reach across space as well as time, bearing evidence not only of cultural exchange among European countries, such as England and France, but also of the revival of ancient motifs and of contemporary trade with India and China. Presented here with an introduction to the topic and individual texts on each piece, these diverse works are organized chronologically and by stylistic movements to highlight the hidden histories of these works.

Read more less

Ancient Greek, Roman and Etruscan civilizations come to life in this illustrated selection of 100 highlights from the famous collections of classical art of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. An introduction by curator Christine Kondoleon describes the geographic range, stylistic progression and technical development of art in the classical world, and a second essay briefly relates tales of conservation and the provenance of some of the featured objects. In the main body of the book, the highlighted artworks are grouped into five broad themes: Myth and Religion, Heroes and Warriors, Love and Loss, Daily Life and Beasts and Beauties. Celebrated mosaics, statues and vases share the stage with less familiar jewelry, coins and glassware, with each piece accompanied by a concise discussion of its artistic creation and cultural context. Both common themes and distinctions emerge in cross-cultural discussions of topics such as war and politics, commemoration of the dead, sports and entertainment and the human form, providing rich insight into the astonishing civilizations that produced and used these fascinating objects so many centuries ago.

Read more less

The lives, works and imagery of women artists, patrons and icons in Renaissance Italy The story of the Renaissance in Italy is often told through the work of great male artists such as Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello and Leonardo. But what about the female half of the population? By exploring works made by, for, or about women, this book aims to reconsider a period of creative ingenuity and artistic excellence from their often-overlooked perspective. Drawing on the rich collection of paintings, ceramics, textiles, illustrated books and prints at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, this publication focuses on images of feminine power, both sacred and secular, telling the stories of saints such as Mary Magdalen as examples of strength and ascetic devotion, Biblical heroines such as Judith as civic and domestic role models, and the mythical sorceress Medea as the ideal of a heroic nude. Women also asserted their presence as artists, artisans and patrons: Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Artemisia Gentileschi, Vittoria Colonna, Isabella d’Este and Eleonora Gonzaga are just some of the strong women who shaped the life and art of the Italian Renaissance.

Read more less

Glorious, sophisticated, and refined works of art produced in ancient Nubia, drawn from one of the richest museum collections in the world and presented in their cultural contexts. Ancient Nubia was home to a series of civilizations between the sixth millennium bce and ad 350 that produced towering monuments, including more pyramids than in neighbouring Egypt, and artifacts of enduring beauty and significance. Nubia’s trade network reached across the Mediterranean and far into Africa. At the time that Nubian kings conquered Egypt, in the middle of the eighth century bce, they controlled one of the largest empires of the ancient world. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has the largest and most important collection of ancient Nubian art outside of Khartoum, mostly gathered during the pioneering Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition in the first half of the twentieth century. The objects highlighted in this volume include refined early ceramics, monumental statues and relief carvings made for royal pyramids, exquisite gold and enamel jewelry, playful decorations for furniture and clothing, and luxury goods traded from around the Mediterranean world. Together they provide a fascinating introduction to a sophisticated cultural tradition and a rich history that are still being revealed today.

Read more less

An authoritative and beautifully illustrated history of the innovative, colourful and finely crafted Arts and Crafts jewelry created by a circle of artists in the first decades of the 20th century. Belief in the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement, which held that art and beauty could instill morality and inspire joy, united a vibrant and active community of jewelry makers – along with artists, craftspeople, scholars and critics and patrons – at the turn of the 20th century in Boston. Frank Gardner Hale, who trained in England with founders of the movement, became the most prominent and prolific creator of works of wearable art, helping to define the `Boston look’ characterized by bold use of colored stones and brilliant enamels; refined and delicate settings; and exquisite design and craftsmanship, conceived and executed by a single craftsman. A leading figure in the community of jewelers, and an advocate for the Society of Arts and Crafts, Hale influenced many other important makers, among them Josephine Hartwell Shaw, Edward Everett Oakes, Margaret Rogers and Elizabeth Copeland. This book, the first in-depth study of the subject, reproduces dozens of ornaments in dazzling colour, accompanied by design drawings from the extensive Frank Gardner Hale archive at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. These drawings provide insight into the works’ transformation from two to three dimensions and represent rare renderings of many pieces of jewelry that are now lost. The authoritative text brings together scholars of jewelry history and American design to explore how Hale and his contemporaries expressed Arts and Crafts principles in the creation of jewels of enduring allure.

Read more less

How artists from Hiroshige and Kuniyoshi to Whistler and Arthur Wesley Dow embraced and transformed Hokusai’s dynamic style and innovations The great painter, book illustrator and print designer Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) has become the best known of all Japanese artists and one of the most famous and influential artists in the world. He was a key figure for the Japonisme movement in late 19th-century Europe, and his iconic images—especially the color woodblock print nicknamed “The Great Wave”—are frequently referred to in present-day art in both serious and frivolous forms, from sculpture, printmaking and painting to anime and emojis. This book looks at Hokusai from the viewpoint of fellow artists who incorporated lessons learned from him into their own work, including Hokusai’s own students, his contemporary rivals and his many posthumous admirers working in a wide range of mediums, in Japan and around the world, from the late 19th century to the present. Lavishly illustrated and accompanied by illuminating and engaging texts, this publication invites readers to encounter the origins and enduring appeal of Hokusai’s delightful art. Artists include: Félix Bracquemond, John Cederquist, Arthur Wesley Dow, Hiroshige, Sori Hishikawa, Hokkei, Hokusai, Winslow Homer, Loïs Mailou Jones, Henri Gustave Jossot, Shun’ei Katsukawa, Shunsho Katsukawa, Oi Katsushika, Eisen Keisai, Korin, Kuniyoshi, Paul Legrand, Manjiro Hokuga, Ogata Korin, Odilon Redon, Henri Rivière, Hoitsu Sakai, Hokuju Shotei, Hokushu Shunkosai, Kogan Tobari, Hokkei Totoya, Toyoharu Utagawa, Utamasa, Édouard Vuillard, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Samuel Wilson and Shigenobu Yanagawa.

Read more less

Bowling's transition to abstraction, seen against the backdrop of 1960s–’70s debates on abstract art and the Black Arts movement “Modernism belonged to me also.” So resolved the British Guiana–born artist Frank Bowling in 1966, when he moved from his temporary home base of London to New York City, keen to make his mark on modern painting. This volume surveys for the first time the transformative years that Bowling spent in the US from 1966 through 1975, a chapter of extraordinary productivity and artistic growth that would greatly shape his thinking and practice. Bowling’s relocation to New York brought him into contact with an art scene in flux, with abstract painting on the rise and vigorous debates unfolding around Black cultural identity and artistic practice. Bowling participated in this scene in broad and deep ways, from his unique vantage point as an emigre twice over: exhibiting widely, writing for art magazines, engaging peers in dialogue and, in 1969, organizing 5+1, an exhibition of five leading African American abstract artists plus himself. During these years, his own work explored the tension between representational imagery and fields of color, ultimately moving toward full abstraction. Frank Bowling’s Americas assembles more than 30 paintings—many rarely seen—from this critical period, and places them in the context of both Bowling’s own artistic trajectory and the New York art scene at a time of aesthetic and racial reckoning. Offering magnificent reproductions of these vibrant, multifaceted works, accompanied by curatorial essays and statements by contemporary artists, this book invites new understanding of an artist whose work has remained always in motion. Born in British Guiana in 1934, Frank Bowling arrived in London in 1953, graduating from the Royal College of Art in 1962. By the early 1960s, he was recognized as an original force in London’s art scene. After moving to New York in 1966, Bowling shifted away from figurative imagery. He returned to London in 1975 but continued to spend significant periods in New York. Bowling was awarded a knighthood in 2020. He is the subject of a BBC documentary, Frank Bowling's Abstract World.

Read more less

How design made America modern: masterpieces of furniture, metalware and plastics from the early 20th century During the 1920s and 1930s, the speed of modern life in the United States, accelerated by advances in transportation, communication, technology and advertising, changed how people lived their lives, and the objects they chose to live with. A new profession emerged to help American manufacturers and consumers navigate the overwhelming transitions of the era. Through the power of design—form, color, ornament and materials—the earliest industrial designers created a modern aesthetic that came to represent American hopes, dreams and fantasies. America Goes Modern explores these designers’ achievements through close examination of selected masterworks. Each of these exceptional objects offers a window into the social, cultural, technological and economic world in which they were made and used. The book features sleek furniture, vibrant ceramics, streamlined metalwares and innovative plastics from the leading designers of the era. Designers include: Norman Bel Geddes, Manning Bowman Company, Jules Buoy, Donald Deskey, Paul Frankl, Earl Harvey, Ianelli Studios, Belle Kogan, William Lescaze, Erik Magnussen, Peter Muller Munk, Gilbert Rhode, RumRill Art Pottery, Victor Schreckengost, Walter Dorwin Teague, The Hall China Company, Harold Van Doren, John Vassos, Kem Weber, Western Coil and Electric Company and Russel Wright. Photographers and painters include: Berenice Abbott, Arthur Dove, Archibald Motley, Alvin Langdon Coburn, M. Murray Lebowitz, Norman Lewis, Max Weber, Margaret Bourke-White, Henry Callahan and Alfred Stieglitz.

Read more less

Eloquent and provocative drawings, exquisitely reproduced, provide an intimate encounter with these two daring Austrian masters. Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele were two of the most daring and controversial artists in Vienna during the culturally turbulent decades around the turn of the 20th century. They worked out their provocative depictions of the human body, created in a search for psychological truth as well as physical realism, in the direct and intimate medium of drawing. In Klimt’s studies, the distinctive character or unsettling emotional resonance of the person portrayed comes through in the artist’s delicate, sinuous lines. The striking presence of the individual in Schiele’s more finished drawings, often rendered with extreme frankness and bold colouration, pulses with dramatic immediacy. Although Klimt was almost thirty years Schiele’s senior, he quickly recognized and encouraged the younger artist’s extraordinary talent. The sixty important works exquisitely reproduced in large format in this volume reach from each artist’s early academic studies to more incisive and unconventional explorations of nature, psychology, sexuality and spirituality. By giving viewers access to these artists’ worlds, this album of unforgettable drawings provides a direct connection to the minds of two master draftsmen exploring the limits of representation, as well as the shock of recognition at seeing our own inner lives caught on paper.

Read more less

American patriot Paul Revere is wrapped in the swirling mixture of myth and poetry through which history often descends, but as a craftsman and artist, he left behind more tangible traces, as well. In this volume, esteemed art historian Gerald W. R. Ward tells the true story of Revere’s most iconic creation, the Sons of Liberty bowl, bravely made and marked by the rebel and silversmith on the threshold of the Revolutionary War. John Singleton Copley’s portrait of Revere, created the same year, 1768, helps introduce the man he was and the legend he became. The painting and the silver bowl are both popularly reproduced and have joined re-tellings of his Midnight Ride to define Revere in the American imagination, in turn signifying the Revolution and the young country’s values.

Read more less

Though conservation plays a decisive role in the public's experience of artworks in museums, visitors are often unaware of what it takes to keep them vibrant, intact and in some cases existent, and until now there has never been a comprehensive, accessible volume that explains this science to the layperson. Here, the respected conservation scholar Richard Newman recounts tales of uncovered forgeries and unknown masterpieces from more than 130 years of MFA history--tales of important works rescued from neglect and abuse, and of new insights that have helped us understand how artists and craftspeople throughout history worked, lived and created the masterpieces we now see on display. Covering objects from all periods, media and genres--ancient to contemporary, painting to furniture, Eastern to Western--this latest volume in the MFA Highlights series invites readers to share a backstage look at the restoration, study and even discovery of some of the world's most remarkable artworks.

Read more less

During his remarkable life, Yousuf Karsh, who was born in Armenia in 1908, traveled the globe to photograph subjects ranging from historical figures to anonymous farmers to steelworks. Karsh: A Biography In Images is a full revision of the 1996 60-year retrospective of his work and brings that popular catalogue back into print in an affordable paperback format. This new edition covers the photographer's career with greater breadth than its previous incarnation, adding works from his early experiments and his photojournalism commissions in Canada. Karsh's reputation as one of the most sought-after portrait photographers of the twentieth century is well established. A roll call of his subjects is a veritable who's who of the modern age--Winston Churchill, Jacqueline Kennedy, Pablo Picasso, Walt Disney, Elizabeth Taylor and Albert Einstein, to name just a few--and this book features many of these figures, in some of the most recognized images of our time. But added to the portraits are a number of lesser-known or previously unpublished photographs--early figure studies, atmospheric views of the Ottawa theatre and scenes of wheat fields, city streets and factories across Canada. With its long autobiographical essay and extensive captions for each photo, many of them new to this edition, Karsh: A Biography In Images is both an elegant celebration and an indispensable overview of a life lived in photography. Yousuf Karsh passed away last year.

Read more less

Evocative photographs of a major archaeological expedition from the last century, conveying the effort and excitement of discovery and the austere beauty of the desert landscape. Specially trained Egyptian photographers were an integral part of the pioneering Harvard-MFA expedition during the first half of the twentieth century. Their photographs documented the excavations with thousands of images, as the riches of a great ancient civilization in northern Sudan were uncovered. The best of these photographs bring to life the dramatic landscapes of the Nile Valley, the excitement of archaeological discovery, and the artistry of the photographers who recorded it all.

Read more less

From refined portraits of resplendent maharajas to earthy depictions of divine rogues cavorting with milkmaids, Indian miniature paintings depict the world as it should be: radiant, plentiful and passionate. These manuscript illustrations combine vibrant color with exquisite delicacy, offering immediate impact while also rewarding lengthy examination. Alone on the market, this beautiful volume presents the art form for non-specialists, surveying the most notable styles and periods of Indian painting and offering an introduction to the legends and historic personalities that inspire its entertaining subjects. The text covers such diverse topics as scriptures written on palm leaves, likenesses of favorite animals, images inspired by music, techniques and materials, and Indian reactions to European art. The Boston Museum of Fine Art's collection of Indian paintings, assembled by the esteemed scholar A. K. Coomaraswamy, is justly renowned as one of the finest in the world, and Indian Painting, one of the only readily available comprehensive histories of the subject, is the first book since Coomaraswamy's seminal catalogues of the 1920s to draw so extensively on the MFA's collection. It includes 120 of the most remarkable pieces, many of which are reproduced here in color for the first time.

Read more less

Among private collections of fine photography, the Lane Collection stands out as one of the most remarkable. Begun in the 1960s and still ongoing, the collection shines not only for its wealth of top-quality prints by the great modernist triumvirate of Ansel Adams, Charles Sheeler and Edward Weston (including the most important single holding of Adams' work), but also for its breadth. This volume presents 120 photographic masterpieces from the Lane Collection, ranging from William Henry Fox Talbot to the Starn twins, and including along the way work by Arbus, Brancusi, Bravo, Cunningham, Frank, Fuss, Goldin, Kertesz, Lange, Michals, Modotti, Morell, Penn, Steichen, Strand, Sudek and nearly 50 others. The keynote essay by Lyle Rexer trains an acute eye on images from the collection, defining the vision behind this magnificent grouping. But it is the images themselves that place this among the most significant photography books of the year.

Read more less

Arts of Korea celebrates historical Korean art through 100 works from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The MFA has one of the finest collections of Korean art outside of East Asia, with particularly superb holdings of high-quality stoneware and lacquerware of the Koryo and Yi dynasties, Bronze Age funerary objects and Buddhist paintings and sculptures. Many of the objects in this book were originally intended for everyday use and tell a story not only about the people who used or collected these boxes, mirrors, jars, tiles and trays, but also about the people who made them. Set to coincide with the MFA’s long-awaited Korean Gallery renovation, this is an affordable yet unique addition to any Asian art library, with essays that offer an ideal introduction to the history of Korean art.

Read more less

The collection of Native American artworks is one of the hidden treasures of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, with some of its finest objects seldom displayed to ensure their preservation. This volume presents 100 of these little-known works, many reproduced for the first time. Although some objects were made for Native use, many reflect the interaction of Native Americans with other cultures, and demonstrate a mastery of new materials and techniques in weaving, silversmithing, beadwork and other crafts. An introductory essay traces the history of Native American art at the MFA since the late nineteenth century, which mirrors cultural shifts in attitude toward these objects in the United States as a whole. Covering a diversity of objects from across the North American continentfrom the eastern and southern Woodlands to the Northwest Pacific Coast, with a particular emphasis on the Southwestthis latest volume in the MFA Highlights series demonstrates the vast richness of American

Read more less

If this monumental second-century Roman statue could speak, she would tell of travels from a theatre in ancient Rome to the gardens of an Italian prince’s villa—and then across the Atlantic to a suburban garden, where she endured for a century before finding a home at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Although standing 13 feet tall and weighing some 13,000 pounds, this colossal statue has a long history of hiding in plain sight. Now, stylistic evaluation, historical research, and technical examination have revealed connections with five other “sister” statues, all carved of Carrara marble, that were part of an Augustan renewal of Rome. Despite losing her head (and gaining a new one), and suffering damage and repairs, she has continued to be admired throughout two millennia. As the largest classical sculpture in North America, newly restored and protected from the elements at last, she has just begun to share her secrets.

Read more less

Over the past 35 years, husband-and-wife collector duo Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo have acquired an unparalleled private collection of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish paintings, representing a selection of work by the Dutch Golden Age’s most important artists. This volume compiles some two dozen masterworks from the van Otterloo Collection, which was donated by the couple to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2017, as one of the most generous gifts in the museum’s history. Included among these visually splendid paintings is one of the world’s best-preserved Rembrandts, previously housed in a private collection: his 1632 piece Portrait of Aeltje Uylenburgh, which depicts its elderly sitter in dark robes and a delicate white millstone collar. Works by other Dutch Masters such as Cuyp, Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and Jan Brueghel the Elder round out the collection with a variety of pictorial subjects, from genre scenes to seascapes to still lifes. Accompanied by biographical and art historical information to provide context for the artists and their work, the series of lavish reproductions assembled in this volume invites readers to immerse themselves in the careful composition and beautiful light quality of this era’s finest paintings.

Read more less

Over the course of the twentieth century, photography evolved as an art form while serving as an eyewitness to social, cultural and political change. This book presents some seventy-five iconic images that came to define their times, and explores the stories behind the moments they recorded and the photographers who captured them. Among these beautifully reproduced images – many from unique vintage prints – are powerful visual testimonies of Depression-era America, politically engaged street photography, definitive celebrity portraits, celebrations of the performing arts, harrowing visions of war and compelling depictions of the Civil Rights movement. Drawing on the unparalleled Howard Greenberg Collection, recently acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Viewpoints invites us to take a fresh look at celebrated photographs by such masters of the medium as Berenice Abbott, Margaret Bourke-White, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks and Edward Steichen.

Read more less

Exploring the impact and influence of global trade networks on 17th-century Dutch life and art The 17th century has long been considered a "golden age" for Dutch art, fueled by the Dutch Republic’s growth as an economic world power. Nourished by an innovative stock market and burgeoning global trade network, this vibrant economy not only provided artists with a rich context in which to make their art, but also directly influenced the art itself—in its subject matter, materials, meaning and interpretation. The genre scenes and still lifes that today seem quintessentially Dutch actually project a global vision, and often address the positive and negative aspects of economic and global expansion. Drawing on the world-renowned collection of Dutch paintings, works on paper, decorative arts and illustrated books at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, this book offers a fresh look at 17th-century Dutch art, accompanied by authoritative essays that ask readers to consider the global context in which this work was made. Artists include: Rembrandt van Rijn, Jacob van Ruisdael, Rachel Ruysch, Frans Hals, Judith Leyster, Gerrit van Honthorst, Maria Schalcken, Pieter Claesz, Nicolaes Maes, Jan van Huysum and Johannes Vermeer.

Read more less

An introduction to the refined, spiritually significant, and often dazzling arts produced by the varied cultures of a cradle of world civilization The ancient cultures of the Americas comprise a vast array of societies, whose peoples spoke thousands of languages and dialects, developed distinctive political and economic systems, and followed myriad spiritual practices. The territory stretching from northern Mexico to Chile is one of six world regions where ancient civilizations arose – joining Egypt, the Near East and Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, North China and Southeast Asia. The intellectual, architectural and artistic accomplishments of the ancient American peoples rival those of the others, including fully developed writing systems, the tallest structures in the western hemisphere until the 20th century, and textiles and painted ceramics of unsurpassed complexity and refinement. The collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is particularly strong in Maya ceramics, early Andean textiles, and gold objects from Panama and Colombia, and throughout its history the Museum has been at the forefront in presenting pre- Columbian artifacts as part of art history rather than in the context of natural history or archaeology. The artworks featured in this volume exemplify the aesthetics and supreme craftsmanship of the peoples of the ancient Americas in pictorial pottery, sumptuous gold body adornments and luxury textiles. Together they introduce the sophistication, creativity and variety of the cultures of the Western Hemisphere’s cradle of civilization.

Read more less

This is a book about Edward Weston before he was Edward Weston – before he was the renowned modernist photographer we know so well. His early years in the field coincided exactly with the height of the Pictorialist movement in America, and while he was never a typical practitioner, he did make photographs that borrowed themes from paintings and other media, and experimented with soft-focused imagery that sometimes look more like graphite drawings or inky dark prints than photographs. He would later disavow the gauzy, painterly experiments of his early years, claiming in his Daybooks that ‘even as I made the soft “artistic” work...I would secretly admire sharp, clean, technically perfect photographs.’ Introducing rare surviving prints from the unplumbed holdings of the Lane Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, this book offers new insights into Weston’s working methods and his evolution as a photographer. By taking a longer and more nuanced view of his early years, and by reinserting his first experiments back into the larger story of his artistic production, it reveals the variety of ways in which the paths he took as a young man led him to become the mature modernist master. Beautifully reproduced examples of Weston’s most important early work, essays explaining their place in his oeuvre, and a section dedicated to the variety of Weston’s early materials and techniques make this book a must-have resource.

Read more less

Postcards of a nation embracing a new democratic technology The ubiquity of photography and social media today makes it hard to imagine a time when it was not possible for ordinary people to take their own pictures and send them with short messages over long distances. But it was revolutionary when the Eastman Kodak Company, in 1903, unveiled a new postcard camera that produced a postcard-size negative that could print directly onto a blank card. Suddenly almost anyone, amateurs and entrepreneurial photographers alike, could take a picture—of neighbors at home and at work, local celebrations, newsworthy disasters, sightseeing trips—and turn it into a postcard. This book captures this moment in the history of communications—from around 1900 to 1930—through a generous selection of what came to be known as “real photo postcards” from the extensive Leonard A. Lauder Postcard Archive. As the formality of earlier photography falls away, these postcards remind us that the past was occupied by people with distinct and individual stories, dramatic, humorous, puzzling and surprising.

Read more less

A paperback edition of the book described by the New York Times Book Review as `thoroughly absorbing’. Henry James minced no words in crediting John Singer Sargent with a `knock-down insolence of talent.’ Among the painter’s many renowned works, few deserve the phrase as much as The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, which stands alongside Madame X and Lady Agnew of Lochnaw as one of Sargent’s greatest images. The painting, depicting four young sisters in the family apartment (first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1883, it predated by just one year the scandal of Madame X), both explores and defies convention, crossing the boundaries between portrait and genre scene, formal composition and casual snapshot. At its unveiling, one prominent critic rushed to praise Sargent’s stunning originality, while another dismissed the canvas as `four corners and a void.’ Using numerous unpublished archival documents, Erica E. Hirshler explores this iconic canvas from a variety of angles, discussing its innovative significance as a work of art, the people involved in its making and what became of them, its importance to Sargent’s career, its place in the tradition of artistic patronage, and its changing meanings and lasting popularity. Sargent’s Daughters is an evocative, multifaceted book that will transform the way you look at Sargent’s work, simultaneously illuminating a much beloved painting and reaffirming its mystery

Read more less

The MFA's holdings of Japanese art make up the finest and most comprehensive collection outside of Japan. This stunning overview features many of the collection's best-known and most beloved works, including such rare paintings as the eighth-century Buddhist panel "Shaka, the Historical Buddha, Preaching on Vulture Peak" and the thirteenth-century narrative hand-scroll "Night Attack on the Sanjo Palace" (the most exciting section of the celebrated Heiji monogatari scrolls), along with fine examples from the Museum's unsurpassed grouping of woodblock prints, magnificent sculptures such as a gilt-wooden statue of the bodhisattva Miroku by the twelfth-century master Kaikei, plus a representative selection of postcards, textiles, ceramics, lacquer wares, sword-fittings and other decorative arts. In all, more than 160 highlights from the museum's staggering collection are illustrated and discussed, divided into four themes--Art of the Temple, The Town, The Ruling Classes and Japanese Art in the World. Ranging from the seventh century to the present day, this engaging volume introduces readers to the complex variety and renowned brilliance of Japanese arts.

Read more less

On the night of 25 December 1776, George Washington led his ragged Continental Army through a snowstorm across the Delaware River, on the way to a surprise attack that would turn the tide of the American Revolution. More than forty years later, the ambitious young painter Thomas Sully chose this dramatic moment as the subject of a portrait of the founding father. He combined careful research into contemporary sources, compositional models drawn from European and American history paintings, and his own flair for theatricality to create a monumental panorama. In it, a dramatically lighted Washington urges on the troops from the back of a magnificent white steed, while his troops contend with the wintry river crossing below. The Passage of the Delaware, the first large-scale painting of this iconic moment, was created in the early years of the burgeoning cult of George Washington, when American artists, writers, and politicians evoked the heroic deeds of the founding fathers to foster a sense of national purpose and unity. This compact introduction to the painting reveals how Sully’s imagination, technique, and ambition came together to embody the drama of the Revolution and the character of its leaders.

Read more less

Images of fantasy and fairy tales by a Danish master of illustration The Danish artist Kay Nielsen’s luminous interpretations of fairy tales and legends from around the world are among the most celebrated book illustrations of the 20th century, unsurpassed in their dramatic intensity and intricate detail. This book is the first to put his achievements in the context of a career that took him from studies in Paris to the Copenhagen theater, to galleries in London and New York, to the Walt Disney Studios, presenting fresh insights into his life and work as well as his materials and techniques. Dazzling reproductions of original watercolors and drawings from one of the premier collections of Nielsen’s work invite viewers to enter the enchanted world of an imaginative and supremely gifted artist. Born in Copenhagen and educated in Paris, Kay Nielsen (1886–1957) gained international recognition for his exquisite gift book illustrations, notably his masterpieces East of the Sun and West of the Moon (1914) and Fairy Tales by Hans Andersen (1924). In contrast to some of his contemporaries, Nielsen often focused on the melancholic or dramatic elements of tales, creating memorable visual sequences reflecting themes of love, passion, loss and death. During the last stage of his career, he collaborated with Walt Disney Studios on the landmark animation film Fantasia, and produced several public art commissions.

Read more less

A stunning stained glass window becomes a lens through which to view the career of Louis Comfort Tiffany and intersecting arcs of art and design in America. The story of the Parakeets stained glass window – from national and international recognition to years of obscurity, followed by a return to the limelight – parallels the public reception of the art of its maker, Louis Comfort Tiffany, who had one of the most recognized names in American art at the turn of the twentieth century. It is a story of artistic ambition and experimentation, of nationalist pride and promotion, and of the capricious nature of public opinion and the art market. A careful study of the fabrication, imagery, and life of the window offers an intimate look into the legacy of Tiffany, as well as the nineteenth-century revival of the lesser-known medium of stained glass, which some argue was the United States’ first major contribution to the international art world.

Read more less

Quilts and Color presents more than sixty graphically bold American quilts from the Pilgrim/Roy Collection, one of the finest and largest collections of quilts in the world. These collectors recognized that quilt makers often grappled with the same concerns as many modern artists. Influenced by twentieth-century art developments such as Abstraction, Op Art and the Colour Field movement, Paul Pilgrim and Gerald Roy were among the first to appreciate quilts as more than simply decorative bedcovers, women’s fancy work, or symbols of a rustic past. Reproduced brilliantly and arranged by ideas based in colour theory – Vibrations, Mixtures, Gradation Harmonies, Contrasts, Variations, Optical Illusions and Singular Visions – each quilt in this book is celebrated as a unique work of art. The accompanying text also sheds light on the social and cultural history of the quilts as well as the practices and aspirations of their mostly anonymous makers, who created such works of enduring beauty and arresting visual impact.

Read more less

The life of Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) is one of the richest and most mythic in the history of Western art. Abandoning a career in banking, a family and his homeland, in the last decade of the nineteenth century he sailed from France to the South Seas to seek a life “in ecstasy, in peace and for art.” During his years in Tahiti, Gauguin brought forth a wealth of astonishing paintings, culminating in this monumental meditation on what he called the “ever-present riddle” of human existence posed in the work’s title. This compact introduction to Gauguin’s masterpiece explores its relation to European models as well as to the artist’s own companion pieces.

Read more less