December
A white marble sculpture depicts the head of a bearded man whose eyes, nose, mouth, and chin are partially destroyed or missing. The man’s beard and hair are ornately carved and textured, while his cheeks and forehead are smooth.

As the holidays approach and 2020 winds down, we reflect on a year like no other. One of the silver linings amid this great challenge has been the opportunity for the Harvard Art Museums team to develop new ways of staying in touch with you, sharing our collections and programs across the globe.

Don’t miss our final Creature Feature of the season! We are delighted to announce that this family-friendly online pilot program will return in early 2021, as will our virtual Art Talk series, Student Guide Tours, Art Study Center Seminars, and more special events. In the meantime, check out the calendar and let’s continue to enjoy art together.
Within the oval opening of a rectangular gold frame, a woman seen in half-length pours steaming liquid from a cup into a saucer held in her left hand. She is looking down and is turned slightly to the left. Her face is pale except for her cheeks and lips, which are pink. She wears her curly blond hair up in a bun, and a striped scarf is draped over her shoulders.

If you missed our popular Art Talk in October, you’re in luck because you can now learn about an unusual print with gold leaf and why artist Louis-Marin Bonnet had to hide the fact that he’d created it.
A white marble sculpture depicts the head of a bearded man whose eyes, nose, mouth, and chin are partially destroyed or missing. The man’s beard and hair are ornately carved and textured, while his cheeks and forehead are smooth.

Mark your calendar for an upcoming Art Talk Live on Thursday, December 17. Throughout history, images of disgraced rulers were destroyed and their legacies erased from memory—or were they?
This photograph shows a dimly lit gallery with track and recessed lighting; in the center is an exit sign over an opening to another gallery. Two large pink and purple murals are on either side of the exit. Overlaid on the photograph are the words: “Dream Boston Powered by the Huntington” and “The Moment Before the Lights Went Out on the Rothkos by John Kuntz.”

Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company recently released a short audio play The Moment Before the Lights Went Out on the Rothkos, set at the Harvard Art Museums. After listening to the play, read more here about Mark Rothko’s Harvard Murals.
This bronze sculpture is in the shape of a bird. It has a tall Egyptian crown on its head and a gold ring around its eye.

Don’t forget to print your free activity book—Coloring Ancient Egypt—and have it on hand for the latest family-friendly Creature Feature on Saturday, December 5, when you can look at animals in ancient Egyptian art and life!
A perfectly symmetrical view of a glass roof from below is at the center of the image. Multiple floors of the building, which are visible as rectangles in ascending sizes, frame the roof. The border of the image shows repeating archways made of stone. The sky through the glass roof is light blue.

Buddha, George Washington, and Napoleon all make an appearance in the final Student Guide Tour of the season, on December 5! Also, on December 10, members of our very first Student Guide cohort chat about their art experiences and why museums matter.
This photograph shows four stainless steel chairs next to each other in a gallery. Some of the back supports of the chairs are missing.

This week, we had an Art Talk Live event exploring the work of Doris Salcedo. Check out this article from the archive about how Salcedo challenges the limits of materiality and pushes contemporary sculpture in new directions.

Index 

Online Events


Images: Bearded man, possibly Emperor Macrinus, Roman, Roman Imperial period, early to mid-3rd century CE. Luna marble. Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Alpheus Hyatt Purchasing Fund, 1949.47.138.(Defying Expectations) Installation view of Thou-less and untitled chair works in the exhibition Doris Salcedo: The Materiality of Mourning. © Doris Salcedo.






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