German artist Käthe Kollwitz’s reception in the Global South has only recently begun to be considered. Known for its socialist and anti-war sentiments, her work was largely introduced to South Africa by exiles fleeing Nazism, and her prints became an important touchstone for many of the country’s politically minded artists in the years leading up to and during apartheid.

Looking to Kollwitz’s 1905 cycle, Peasant’s War, Jessica Williams will explore how these images circulated among South Africa’s Left and how her work came to influence an entirely new generation of lesser-...

In 1943, the museum was gifted 25 stone fragments from the Tianlongshan cave temples in China’s northern Shanxi province. Beginning in the late 1920s, the reliefs and sculptures were removed from the site and published by art dealer Sadajirō Yamanaka, sparking interest among collectors worldwide. This talk will highlight a collaboration with Harvard students that investigates the creation of the works, their meaning in Buddhist medieval China, their sale and journey to their current home, and the ravaged site they left behind.

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The fable of the 19th-century European “discovery” of Japanese prints and their catalytic effect on Impressionist painting is by now comfortably worn, threadbare even. But what were painters in Europe actually encountering?

In this talk, curator Rachel Saunders will take a close look at a major new acquisition that shines a distinctly different light on European interest in “Japanese art,” and the ways in which this new category was constructed in Japan itself.

Led by:
Rachel Saunders, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Curator of Asian Art, Division of...

Egyptian makers were skilled at using only a few materials to create a rich variety of textiles, but we rarely have detailed information about the people who made them or their artistic processes.

Join conservation fellow Julie Wertz to explore what close looking, microscopy, and micro-analytical techniques can teach us about the materials and methods these unknown makers used to create beautiful and functional art objects.

Led by:
Julie Wertz, Beal Family Postgraduate Fellow in...

Since we are unable to welcome you into the museums at this time, we are bringing our experts to you in the online series Art Study Center Seminars at Home.

Otto Piene (1928–2014) was a pioneer in multimedia and technology-based art, creating a large, kaleidoscopic body of work based on the intersections of art, science, and nature. In this session, curatorial fellow Lauren Hanson and museum data specialist Jeff Steward share their research into the 2019 gift of Piene’s sketchbooks—a visual archive of over seven decades of artistic practice—and how the bound pages of these “...

The French Revolution saw an explosion of printed media and printmakers—including women, who used their artistic production to participate in the politics they were legally excluded from because of their gender.

In this talk, curatorial intern and Ph.D. candidate Sarah Lund will unfold the layers of this large color print, from the radical Jacobin revolutionary who made it and the martyred war hero it depicts to the woman artist who, by blood, by marriage, and by trade, was equally entangled in the print’s politics even as she was excluded from its image.

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The Harvard University Native American Program and the Harvard Art Museums present a reading and conversation with Joy Harjo, the 23rd poet laureate of the United States.

Harjo is an internationally renowned performer and writer, who is a member of the Mvskoke Nation and belongs to Oce Vpofv (Hickory Ground). The author of nine books of poetry, several plays and children’s books, and a memoir (Crazy Brave), she has received many honors, including the Ruth Lilly Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of...

Join us on Zoom to discover haiku this spring, inspired by the Arnold Arboretum and the Harvard Art Museums exhibition Painting Edo: Japanese Art from the Feinberg Collection!

Haiku, a concise form of poetry that originated in Japan and was popularized during the explosively creative Edo period (1615–1868), has since been adopted around the world as a means of capturing the ways in which the natural world and humanity intersect. It is made up of just a few words that tell a story about what you see, what you think, or how you react to the world around you. Haiku...

Join us online to experience a special glimpse into the museums and access to the experts while we’re closed.

Led by:
Amy Brauer., Curator of the Col¬lection, Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art

This tour will take place online via Zoom. Pre-registration is required. The day before the event, you will receive a Zoom link.

To become a Friend or Fellow please visit ...

Climate change has brought renewed and urgent interest in the relationship between human behavior and the mass extinction of animal species and their habitats. Early modern Europeans, too, were preoccupied with extinction, and many works of art bear witness to their concerns. Focusing on Antonio Tempesta’s print A Wolf Hunt, with a Dead Ram as Bait, this talk will examine the period’s various notions of extinction, while also drawing connections with contemporary thinking on the subject in museums and elsewhere.

Led by:
Sarah Mallory, graduate...

What does it mean to redefine the (art) landscape?

Join curator Mary Schneider Enriquez and Ph.D. candidate Chassidy Winestock for a conversation reflecting on works by Howardena Pindell, Kara Walker, and Kerry James Marshall. Revisiting works in the Harvard Art Museums collections, they will look with fresh eyes, informed by the contemporary moment, at questions of race and representation and the ways these artists have put pressure on museum spaces and the broader landscape of the art world.

Speakers:
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In this talk, photography curator Makeda Best will explore the history of photography collecting at Harvard and share her work to foreground new perspectives, contexts of interpretation, and historical connections.

Led by:
Makeda Best, Richard L. Menschel Curator of Photography, Division of Modern and Contemporary Art

This talk is part of a series inspired by ReFrame, a museum-wide initiative to reimagine the function, role, and future of the university art museum. These talks examine...

Professor David A. Moss, author of the acclaimed book “Democracy: A Case Study,” makes history come alive with an audience-driven discussion of a pivotal moment in our past. The year was 1965. The Constitution, “declared that the right to vote shall not be denied or abridged … on account of race,” but the reality in the South was far different. Martin Luther King Jr. was building support for African-American voting rights, one protest at a time. The political pressures upon him, from the White House on down, were enormous. 

By stepping into the shoes of your predecessors...

Join us on Zoom for a bitesize look at the role of food in art, presented in partnership with the Food Literacy Project at Harvard University Dining Services!

From vegetable-based dyes to dairy fixatives, food and art share a long and interesting history. In this talk, curatorial and conservation fellows Ruby Awburn, Lauren Hanson, Leonie Mueller, and Julie Wertz will take us on a culinary tour of the Harvard Art Museums and discuss the varied roles that food has played in art.

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