January
This black and white photograph shows a man playing a country guitar; his eyes are downcast, and he has a serious look on his face. To his left is someone else playing a guitar; we see only a hand on the neck of the guitar. To the man’s right is a partial view of a figure wearing a black blazer and white shirt. Behind the musician is a boy, who is watching from a half-opened white barn door.

From everyone here at the Harvard Art Museums, we wish you and your family a happy and healthy new year. Welcoming 2021 is both a cause for celebration and a moment to reflect on the challenges of 2020.

The Harvard Art Museums are here for you online, to provide a source of solace and escape as well as a means to grapple with the issues of today. For your enjoyment and exploration, we’ve compiled a selection of Index articles from 2020. We also want to share some upcoming January events. As always, our online programs are free and open to everyone.
This cream-colored jug has a copper trim and handle. One side of the jug shows an image rendered almost entirely in black. A figure, in chains, draped in a white garment, is seated atop a group of rocks along a coast. His arms are outstretched. In the background is a body of water with a ship on the horizon. Alongside this image is the text “Am Not I a Man and a Brother.

INDEX 2020

Juneteenth

Back in June, the Harvard Art Museums released a series of articles to mark Juneteenth, the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.

Curatorial fellows chose works from the collections to honor Juneteenth, to examine equal voting rights, and to reflect on freedom.  
A small brass figurine depicts a woolly ram with a long tail. A bearded man pokes his head out from under its belly, grasping the animal’s side with his left arm. The animal’s fur is indicated by striated lines. The surface is shiny and nearly black, and partly covered in light brown encrustations.

INDEX 2020

Escape Artists

Curators delved into works from across the collections that illustrate escapes—whether it be from immediate danger, demands of daily life, health problems, political crises, or even the rules of nature. 

 
This print shows two raised hands, clasped together, in fire engine red, overlaid with a blue inscription in all caps, “Come Together in Peace.” The background is beige.

INDEX 2020

Art and Agency

Curators looked at political art from the past, asking what it might tell us about the responsibilities of today’s artists and art institutions. 
A blue wall in a gallery shows an arrangement of several framed painted fans in an irregular layout. Many of them are spaced off the wall by several inches.

INDEX 2020

Vantablack

Charlene Briggs, receptionist in the Art Study Center, explored the story behind one of the most famous materials in the Forbes Pigment Collection. 
This drawing depicts a woman, seen in profile, facing the left. She wears a hooded cape and kneels beside a small child. The woman places her proper right hand on the child’s back and in her other hand holds the child’s proper left hand.

For the first Art Talk Live event of 2021, on Thursday, January 7, learn how the Roma people were depicted in the 17th-century Netherlands and about the realities of their lives.
This photograph shows four stainless steel chairs next to each other in a gallery. Some of the back supports of the chairs are missing.

Join curatorial fellow Kappy Mintie for the first live Art Talk of 2021, on Thursday, January 14, to examine Ben Shahn’s interest in photographing folk musicians during the Great Depression. 

Index 

Online Events


Header Image: Ben Shahn, American, Practicing for the Westmoreland Fair, Pennsylvania, 1937. Gelatin silver print. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Transfer from the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, 2.2002.3117.






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