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May

This drawing in brown ink shows a landscape with a wooden fence to the left, a road in the foreground, and countryside in the background.

It’s spring at the Harvard Art Museums! A recent visitor let us know that her museum experience was “rife with delights both celebrated and unexpected.” Bring in the season with friends to explore the galleries, and you, too, will delight in the unexpected. Our two new special exhibitions Crossroads: Drawing the Dutch Landscape and Earthly Delights: 6,000 Years of Asian Ceramics open on May 21. If you’re here earlier in the month, be sure to catch the remaining days of Social Fabrics: Inscribed Textiles from Medieval Egyptian Tombs, on view through May 8.

A large crowd of college graduates in black caps and gowns with red sashes gather outside near a large brick building.

FREE ADMISSION

Spring Celebrations

In honor of Harvard Commencement, the Harvard Art Museums will extend free admission to all visitors on Thursday, May 26. Check out the calendar to view other free admission days in May. Don’t forget, all visitors can visit for free on Sundays!

A courtyard full of people chatting, with paintings on display in the background.

AT NIGHT

Lights On!

It was a hit! Thank you to everyone who came out for the first Harvard Art Museums at Night event on April 28. If you missed it—or if you want to experience the museums with friends for more fun, music, and refreshments—our next At Night is happening on Thursday, May 26.

A watercolor painting depicts three angels and a kneeling man on a bridge over a river. Along the banks of the river are houses, cattle, and trees. Six boats float on the river.

EXHIBITION

Dutch Drawings

Discover how artists from the Dutch Republic such as Rembrandt, Van Goyen, and Van Ruisdael captured humankind’s relationship with the environment during rapid colonization in Crossroads: Drawing the Dutch Landscape, opening on Saturday, May 21.

A gray ceramic vessel with a fluted top has triangle-shaped holes along the sides.

EXHIBITION

Earthly Delights

Travel through time and admire the diverse styles, textures, subjects, and colors from the Harvard Art Museums’ collection of Asian ceramics. Earthly Delights: 6,000 Years of Asian Ceramics makes connections between potters working between the 5th millennium BCE and the 21st century.

A dark red and blue patterned wool cushion cover with embedded inscriptions.

EXHIBITION

Last Days of Social Fabrics

There’s still time to explore Egypt’s history through its textiles in our Social Fabrics: Inscribed Textiles from Medieval Egyptian Tombs exhibition. Delve into the stories surrounding sociopolitical hierarchies, class, trade, and concerns for the afterlife in a changing world.

GALLERY TALK

Brandywine Prints

Join student intern and exhibition contributor Hannah Chew ’23 for an introduction to the exhibition Prints from the Brandywine Workshop and Archives: Creative Communities, on Tuesday, May 3. Make sure to register the day of the event to save your spot!

A black-and-white photogram with abstract patterns and silhouettes of faces and a hand.

EXHIBITION

Beyond the Photograph

What is a photogram? White Shadows: Anneliese Hager and the Camera-less Photograph sheds light on Anneliese Hager’s pioneering work with camera-less photographs, or photograms, and her contribution to the surrealist movement in Europe. White Shadows is on view through July 31.

This drawing in brown ink shows a view of a river and riverbank, with a city and a large hill in the background.

LECTURE

Dutch Travels

Sit in on this free, in-person lecture on Tuesday, May 24 with Jane Shoaf Turner of the Rijksmuseum, Netherlands, to learn about the experiences 17th-century Dutch draftsmen had to face as they journeyed from their studios to places near and far.

A horizontal painting with vertical washes of blues, greens, reds, yellows on beige paper.

DIGITAL TOOL

The Sound of Art

Students in last fall’s class Music 4: Introduction to Composition created quartet compositions in response to a work from the Harvard Art Museums collections; those compositions were then played by Harvard’s Parker Quarter in a virtual concert. Now you can enjoy these compositions from home or on your earbuds when touring the galleries!

A photograph of a woman with black hair with a red line painted down her nose is superimposed on a painting with a green floral background. She wears a painted beige hat.

SOCIAL

Makeup Art

Cecilia Zhou, one of Harvard Art Museums’ head Student Guides, combines art history with makeup tutorials on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Instagram account. Learn from Cecilia and the talented Harvard students in the Ho Family Student Guide Program by checking out the Ho Family Student Guides YouTube channel.

Index

Events

Images: (header) Cornelis Vroom, Dutch, Landscape with a Road and a Fence, 1631. Brown ink over graphite on off-white antique laid paper. The Maida and George Abrams Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Gift of George Abrams in memory of Robert M. Light, 2020.209. Spring Celebrations and Lights On!: Photo: Danny Hoshino. Dutch Drawings: Hans Bol, Netherlandish, Abraham and the Angels (detail), 1589. Opaque and transparent watercolor over traces of black chalk on antique laid paper mounted overall to wood panel, traces of framing lines in shell gold and dark red opaque watercolor. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, The Kate, Maurice R. and Melvin R. Seiden Special Purchase Fund in honor of Joseph Koerner and Margaret Koster, 2004.75. Last Days of Social Fabrics: Cushion cover with tiraz inscription, Egypt, early 9th century. Wool and linen: tapestry weave. Cleveland Museum of Art, J.H. Wade Fund, 1959.48, TL42343.6. Courtesy of Cleveland Museum of Art. Earthly Delights: Ceremonial stand, Korea, Three Kingdoms period, Kaya, 5th century. Stoneware with incised, applied, and openwork decoration. Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Partial gift of Maria C. Henderson and partial purchase through a fund established by Ernest B. and Helen Pratt Dane for the purchase of Asian art, 1991.501. Brandywine Prints: Odili Donald Odita, American, Cut (detail), 2016. Offset lithograph on white wove paper. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Margaret Fisher Fund, 2018.33.44. © Odili Donald Odita. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Beyond the Photograph: Anneliese Hager, German, Untitled (Portrait A. H.) (detail), 1947. Gelatin silver print (photogram). Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Gift of the German Friends of the Busch-Reisinger Museum, 2018.313. © Estate of Anneliese Hager. The Sound of Art: Morris Louis, American, Blue Veil (detail), 1965. Acrylic resin paint on canvas. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Lois Orswell and Gifts for Special Uses Fund. © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Makeup Art: Courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art Instagram.