The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston opens
53 new rooms devoted to American art
18.11.2010
BOSTON’S Museum of Fine Arts moved into its imposing granite temple of culture in 1909. It has just been given a whopping dose of 21st-century spaciousness, light and cultural politics. “Art of the Americas”, a new four-storey addition, was designed by the architectural firm run by Sir Norman Foster. It cost $345m and took 11 years to complete.
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The new building is free-standing but designed to seem part of the old one. A glass-walled courtyard, which rises to the full height of the addition, connects on three sides to the existing building. Its fourth side opens onto the new wing. The courtyard café provides refreshments and a place to rest. That is handy. The 53 galleries of the “Art of the Americas” wing display more than 5,000 objects, twice the number previously on view. They date from 900BC to the 1980s and are arranged in ascending order—from the Americas of ancient times up through the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries to the top floor.
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In addition to paintings and sculpture, there are photographs and fabrics, jewels and toys, wedding gowns, teapots and pottery, a great deal of fine furniture, a collection of handsome model sailing ships and the timber frame of a late 17th-century Massachusetts house. This does not exhaust the variety of media on view.
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The visitor enters the original building, passes through the courtyard into the new wing. Directly opposite is a spotlit silver bowl in a tall, transparent case through which is visible a 1768 portrait of Paul Revere (pictured below) by Boston’s John Singleton Copley, said to be the first American to paint in oils. The revolutionary war hero and outstanding silversmith made the Sons of Liberty silver bowl in the case. Many more Copleys are on view, often portraits of early American statesmen, as well as Gilbert Stuart’s studies of George Washington. The galleries bring alive the early history of the United States. Yet walking through them disquiet grows. Surely there is earlier material.
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To see the art of ancient Central and South America it is necessary to descend to the basement. This is psychologically and politically unfortunate. It is also inappropriate. The MFA has an almost unrivalled collection of Mayan painted pottery from the Classical period (250-900AD). Among them are 31 boldly painted chocolate drinking vessels, one of which says “chocolate” in hieroglyphs. There is also fabulous, sculptural gold jewellery from Colombia and Panama and vivid red woven and embroidered Peruvian fabric from the start of the first millennium. Beyond this is a display of complex Native American bead and basket work and a glorious feather cloak worked to mimic fur. Galleries that run along this central display present model ships and 17th-century Massachusetts period rooms. These leaps in time, mood and cultures seem bizarre. The grandeur of the pre-Columbian art fortunately transcends its surroundings.
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The upper floors bring together John Singer Sargent’s paintings. He is much loved in Boston. Sargent painted the ceiling of the rotunda in the old MFA as well as murals for the Boston Public Library. Also on this level are seascapes by Winslow Homer, pictures by Thomas Eakins and James McNeill Whistler and stained glass by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The top floor is home to such moderns as Georgia O’Keeffe, Alexander Calder and Franz Kline. A surprise is a porcelain bowl painted by Jackson Pollock in 1939, when he was hospitalised for depression and hoping that ceramics would prove therapeutic.
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There is much to enjoy in the new wing and much cause for civic pride. Nonetheless, the project seems misconceived. Apart from ancient material there is very little from Latin America. The early treasures would be better seen in the old building near the superb collection of early Chinese sculpture of much the same period. Next year a new contemporary gallery will open. Modern art could go there. Why not have “Art of America” concentrating on the MFA’s strengths in material from the early United States and the north-eastern colonies that preceded it? This would make room for focused displays. Perhaps even one about the Boston Tea Party.
http://www.economist.com/
53 new rooms devoted to American art
18.11.2010
BOSTON’S Museum of Fine Arts moved into its imposing granite temple of culture in 1909. It has just been given a whopping dose of 21st-century spaciousness, light and cultural politics. “Art of the Americas”, a new four-storey addition, was designed by the architectural firm run by Sir Norman Foster. It cost $345m and took 11 years to complete.
.
The new building is free-standing but designed to seem part of the old one. A glass-walled courtyard, which rises to the full height of the addition, connects on three sides to the existing building. Its fourth side opens onto the new wing. The courtyard café provides refreshments and a place to rest. That is handy. The 53 galleries of the “Art of the Americas” wing display more than 5,000 objects, twice the number previously on view. They date from 900BC to the 1980s and are arranged in ascending order—from the Americas of ancient times up through the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries to the top floor.
.
In addition to paintings and sculpture, there are photographs and fabrics, jewels and toys, wedding gowns, teapots and pottery, a great deal of fine furniture, a collection of handsome model sailing ships and the timber frame of a late 17th-century Massachusetts house. This does not exhaust the variety of media on view.
.
The visitor enters the original building, passes through the courtyard into the new wing. Directly opposite is a spotlit silver bowl in a tall, transparent case through which is visible a 1768 portrait of Paul Revere (pictured below) by Boston’s John Singleton Copley, said to be the first American to paint in oils. The revolutionary war hero and outstanding silversmith made the Sons of Liberty silver bowl in the case. Many more Copleys are on view, often portraits of early American statesmen, as well as Gilbert Stuart’s studies of George Washington. The galleries bring alive the early history of the United States. Yet walking through them disquiet grows. Surely there is earlier material.
.
To see the art of ancient Central and South America it is necessary to descend to the basement. This is psychologically and politically unfortunate. It is also inappropriate. The MFA has an almost unrivalled collection of Mayan painted pottery from the Classical period (250-900AD). Among them are 31 boldly painted chocolate drinking vessels, one of which says “chocolate” in hieroglyphs. There is also fabulous, sculptural gold jewellery from Colombia and Panama and vivid red woven and embroidered Peruvian fabric from the start of the first millennium. Beyond this is a display of complex Native American bead and basket work and a glorious feather cloak worked to mimic fur. Galleries that run along this central display present model ships and 17th-century Massachusetts period rooms. These leaps in time, mood and cultures seem bizarre. The grandeur of the pre-Columbian art fortunately transcends its surroundings.
.
The upper floors bring together John Singer Sargent’s paintings. He is much loved in Boston. Sargent painted the ceiling of the rotunda in the old MFA as well as murals for the Boston Public Library. Also on this level are seascapes by Winslow Homer, pictures by Thomas Eakins and James McNeill Whistler and stained glass by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The top floor is home to such moderns as Georgia O’Keeffe, Alexander Calder and Franz Kline. A surprise is a porcelain bowl painted by Jackson Pollock in 1939, when he was hospitalised for depression and hoping that ceramics would prove therapeutic.
.
There is much to enjoy in the new wing and much cause for civic pride. Nonetheless, the project seems misconceived. Apart from ancient material there is very little from Latin America. The early treasures would be better seen in the old building near the superb collection of early Chinese sculpture of much the same period. Next year a new contemporary gallery will open. Modern art could go there. Why not have “Art of America” concentrating on the MFA’s strengths in material from the early United States and the north-eastern colonies that preceded it? This would make room for focused displays. Perhaps even one about the Boston Tea Party.
http://www.economist.com/
