Harvard Art Museums

Happy Halloween from Dare to Know: Prints and Drawings in the Age of Enlightenment! Our current special exhibition has quite the array of spooky, creepy, downright chilling works on paper, from the anatomical to the imaginative. See #DareToKnow for free on Sundays and take an exhibition tour this Saturday, November 5 at 12:30pm. #HarvardArtMuseums

What role did drawings and prints play during the Enlightenment era? Our new exhibition "Dare to Know" explores many nuances of this complex time—when political and cultural revolutions swept across Europe and the Americas, spurring profound shifts in science, philosophy, the arts, social and cultural encounters, and our shared sense of history. #DaretoKnow officially opens Friday September 16 and kicks off with a presentation by curators and contributors at 5pm on Thursday, September 15! Visit our website to learn more. #OpeningSoon #HarvardArtMuseums

Tomorrow night, celebrate the launch of our new book 🎀 𝙈𝙖𝙙𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙙𝙚 𝙋𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙙𝙤𝙪𝙧: 𝙋𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙋𝙞𝙣𝙠 🎀 at an extra special Harvard Art Museums at Night! Admission is free for all! We’ll be giving away copies of the book to those wearing their best pink outfit—creativity encouraged! Tours will occur every half hour starting at 5:30pm and ending at 8:00pm. Pink-inspired food and drink will be available for purchase, all set against the smooth sounds of Boston’s own DJ C-Zone. Our featured local vendor is Lamplighter Brewing Co. #HarvardArtMuseums

Discover innovative prints from the Brandywine Workshop and Archives, a diversity-driven nonprofit in Philadelphia celebrated for its collaborative approach to printmaking. Our exhibition of prints from Brandywine is now in its final month! Don’t miss the opportunity to see compelling works by artists including John Biggers, Sam Gilliam, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar, and many more. #BrandywineHarvard #HarvardArtMuseums

Artists active in the Dutch Republic were heavily engaged with their local countryside and often drew local areas of natural beauty. In celebration of our exhibition “Crossroads: Drawing the Dutch Landscape,” we asked staff to reflect on their local fields, forests, gardens and shores here in New England. Penley Knipe, Paper Conservator: “The picture I took is from the barn where I take weekly riding lessons, Wildflower Stables in Norfolk, MA. Though it is a bit of a drive from my house, it is a very enjoyable one through pretty countryside. The stables themselves are on 23 acres of hilly land that includes this pond surrounded by trees. The scene reminds me of the mid-17th century drawing of a pond on blue paper by Simon de Vlieger. It is lovely and a bit wild and scruffy. I grew up in rural Massachusetts, so this kind of landscape is very familiar to me. What I am most looking forward to is swimming with the horses in the pond this summer!” #HarvardArtMuseums

Between the late 16th and early 18th centuries, artists in the Dutch Republic were heavily engaged with their local countryside. In celebration of our exhibition “Crossroads: Drawing the Dutch Landscape,” we asked staff to reflect on their local fields, forests, gardens, and shores here in New England and compare their own photos to drawing in the exhibition. Their responses will be posted throughout the run of the exhibition. Angela Lorenzo, Production Coordinator/Graphic Designer: “The East Bay bike path runs along the Narragansett Bay from Providence’s India Point Park to Bristol, Rhode Island. This former railroad is now a forested trail with a few parks and beaches along the way and, in many places, bodies of water on both sides of the path. Riding along, you encounter other people cycling, running, walking dogs, fishing, and boating in the bay. On my way to the beach at Tilinghast Farm by way of the East Bay bike path one Sunday morning, I was reminded of this 1620s drawing by Hendrick Barentsz Avercamp which depicts the local residents’ relationship to the water and mirrors our own to the New England coastline.” See Avercamp’s drawing in “Crossroads,” on view at the #HarvardArtMuseums through August 14.

Since 1972, the Brandywine Workshop and Archives in Philadelphia has provided space for and supported printmakers from diverse backgrounds through its artist residency program. Here, artists and founder Allan Edmunds talk about what makes Brandywine special. See works from Brandywine in our special exhibition, on view through July 31. #BrandywineHarvard #HarvardArtMuseums

This Presidents' Day, we're turning to the installation by Krzysztof Wodiczko on view in our first floor Gallery 1120, which raises contemporary questions about democracy, society, and American values. Wodiczko brings political debate into our galleries through a projection that overlays the iconic 18th-century portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart with contemporary voices, faces, and opinions. Experience "Krzysztof Wodiczko: Portrait," on view at the Harvard Art Museums through April 17. #PresidentsDay #KrzysztofWodiczko #NowOnView #GeorgeWashington #GilbertStuart #HarvardArtMuseums

Sol LeWitt’s role in the creation of an artwork was its concept. He stipulated materials, dimensions, and hues so that anyone reading his instructions could make its tangible form. For “Complex Forms” he provided Peter Pettengill, a New Hampshire printer skilled in intaglio processes, a drawing of lines representing triangles and quadrilaterals, which Pettengill etched onto copper, printed, and mailed the impressions back to LeWitt in Connecticut. See “Complex Forms” on view in “States of Play: Prints from Rembrandt to Delsarte” (closing January 2!) and learn more about these prints in the “States of Play” digital tool, linked in our bio. #StatesOfPlay #Printmaking #SolLewitt #Prints #NowOnView #HarvardArtMuseums

Now available for purchase, "Devour the Land: War and American Landscape Photography since 1970" is a visually stunning accompaniment to our current exhibition that considers how contemporary photographers have responded to the U.S. military’s impact on the domestic environment. Designed to evoke a field book and to nod toward ephemera produced by earlier artists and activists, the catalogue features works by dozens of photographers, including Ansel Adams, Robert Adams, Dorothy Marder, Alex Webb, Terry Evans, and many more. Order your copy of "Devour the Land: War and American Landscape Photography since 1970" today via the link in our bio! #DevourTheLand #ArtBooks #Photography #EnvironmentalActivism #HarvardArtMuseums

Gilbert Stuart’s iconic 1795 portrait of George Washington comes to life in a new installation by Krzysztof Wodiczko, #NowOnView in Gallery 1120. Voices of people from the Boston area speak through Washington, fostering an exchange of views about identity, democracy, and political division. #KrzysztofWodiczko #HarvardArtMuseums

Our collaboration with Cambridge's Community Art Center introduced kids aged 5-12 to the Harvard Art Museums' collections through the creation of masterpieces of their own. Here, their amazing creations are shown beside the works in our galleries that inspired them! Learn more about the Community Art Center through the link in our bio. #CambridgeMA #MakeArt #HarvardArtMuseums @caccambridge