The attitude commonly required of museum visitors is that of a flaneur, moving at a relatively sedate stroll or saunter though the many galleries. Megacities Asia at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston has a more rapid heartbeat, so to…
A gray dance floor is stationed in the middle of the Museum of Fine Art’s exhibit The Idea of North: The Paintings of Lawren Harris. Its pale color complements the light blue and white hues of Harris’s paintings, which boldly…
When Aaditi Joshi was born in 1980, her hometown was called Bombay and was also home to about 8 million others. Today, it’s Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra and one of the largest cities in the world, with more than…
Realizing durational work such as ‘100 Ways to Consider Time’ is an immense undertaking. As a part of the audience, I was able to stay with Marilyn Arsem’s performance at the Museum of Fine Arts on different days and for…
Exploring time in a new way every day within 6-hour durations through the show 100 Ways to Consider Time at the Museum of Fine Arts, Marilyn Arsem challenges audience members to contemplate time as a material. This multifaceted work of performance…
This piece has been updated, click here to view it. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has found itself mired in controversy over an in-gallery program responding to Claude Monet’s La Japonaise, a portrait of the artist’s wife Camille clad…
The artist known as Katsushika Hokusai (he was to use thirty-one different names during his ninety years) is probably the most widely celebrated Japanese artist of the Ukiyo-e period of Japanese art. By 1760, Edo (now Tokyo) was probably the…
“Information is never innocent. Its toxicity depends on who is consuming—and who is consumed.” from “Material Witness” by David Joselit, Artforum, February 2015 During the October 14th episode of his radio program On Point, Tom…
“The Creative Process in Modern Japanese Printmaking” is an all-too tiny exhibit at the MFA–typical but unfortunate for a museum that houses the largest collection of Japanese prints in the United States. Nonetheless, the show is an oasis of quietude…
Last Wednesday, after dark, two dimly lit galleries in the Museum of Fine Arts resonated with words. To those familiar with Boston’s generally stoic and tight-lipped durational performance art1, Jeffrey Gibson and Patty Chang must have seemed awfully talkative. Onto…
It comes as no surprise that a photograph’s value is about access. While some art has the luxury of being unique as an object, a photograph is only as unique as what it represents. It’s a window into a moment…
Believe it or not, An Enduring Vision was an exhibition catalog before it ever reached the Herb Ritts Gallery, published by the MFA in 2011. And it was part and parcel of a collection of some 6,000 photographs before being…
Wednesday night the MFA and Big Red & Shiny were proud to present the Odd Spaces panel discussion at the MFA Boston, following the group exhibition of performance art curated by Liz Munsell, assistant curator of contemporary art and MFA…
Liz Munsell One thing I’ve noticed working with you so far—which I must say has been nothing but an honor and a pleasure—has been how easy you make the job of a curator, precisely because you consider the context in…
One consistent trend we’ve noticed at BR&S is the strength of our local performance art scene. Several of our recent Journal articles have considered performance art: We’ve explored its differences from theater, published numerous interviews with performers, and what will…
It was madness, unlike any other event I’ve ever been to at the Museum of Fine Arts. Of course, I am referring to last week’s Boston performance by Raphael Montañez Ortíz entitled WHAT DOES FLUXES HAVE TO DO WITH IT,…
There’s no question that Bruce Davidson is a lion of twentieth century photography, and with good reason. His silver gelatin prints are atmospheric, transporting viewers to a rough and tumble 1960s Harlem neighborhood. Like the work of Lewis Hine, Walker…
Few people think of New England as a destination for fashion exhibits. While it may be true that no major city in this region is host to an internationally known Fashion Week, many of our gateway cities were once major…
Charles White, Trumpet Player, charcoal and gouache on board, 1959-60. Estimate $100,000 to $150,000 The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) plans to auction a significant group of works by African-American artists to benefit its permanent collection, according to…
In 1986, the Westin Stamford Hotel in Singapore became the newly crowned “world’s tallest hotel.” Sensing an opportunity to attract Western investors into their market and a chance to appear competitive within the growing world economy, North Korea began construction…