SEMINARS

Close-Up: Study Room Collections in the Busch-Reisinger Museum

Saturdays, March 22 and May 3, and Thursday, May 1
Study Room, Busch-Reisinger, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Free admission; advance registration is not required, but space is limited.
Brochure

The Close-Up seminars provide informal opportunities to get to know works in the Busch-Reisinger Museum’s study room collections that are not regularly on view.

Saturday, March 22
Otto Piene: A Birthday Celebration
Peter Nisbet, Daimler-Benz Curator of the Busch-Reisinger Museum

The German painter, printmaker, and environmental artist Otto Piene turns 80 this year. Since cofounding the Zero Group in Düsseldorf in 1957, Piene has had an enormously productive and experimental career, encompassing grid pictures made with stencils, works made with traces of smoke and fire, “sky art” with helium-filled balloons, and performances with light. From 1974 to 1994, he was director of MIT’s Center for Advanced Visual Studies. This seminar will look closely at examples of his work in the Busch-Reisinger Museum’s collection, including a painting, performance-related works on paper, gouaches and collages, and a teacup.

Thursday, May 1
Porcelains East and West: Aesthetic, Cultural, and Technical Encounters
Robert D. Mowry, Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art, and Heather Hess, 2006–2008 Stefan Engelhorn Curatorial Fellow
Porcelain was an exclusive and luxurious import from East Asia until the establishment of the Meissen Porcelain Manufactory in Saxony in 1710. Even then, early European porcelain aimed to imitate Chinese and Japanese examples as closely as possible. This seminar offers a unique opportunity to see Eastern and Western ceramics side by side, drawing on the rich and rarely seen collections of the Sackler and Busch-Reisinger museums. Examples will illustrate the development of porcelain in China and Japan from the 7th through the 18th century and demonstrate European contributions to the medium in the 18th century.

Saturday, May 3
Verbal Visual
Lizzy Ramhorst, curatorial assistant
The incorporation of text into artworks has been one of the defining features of modern-ism. Many German artists including Anselm Kiefer, Hanne Darboven, and Carlfriedrich Claus frequently draw on historical, philo-sophical, and literary sources, using defamiliarized fragments and references to probe the gap between associations and personal experience. In this seminar, we will explore the various ways text is deployed in modern German art, placing particular emphasis on the exploration of cultural memory.

Light Conversation: Seminars with Contemporary Photographers

Monday, April 7-Seminar Cancelled

MIDDAY ORGAN RECITALS
Thursdays, March 6, 13, 20, 27;
April 3, 10, 17, 24
Adolphus-Busch Hall, 12:15–12:45 p.m.
Free admission

The 47th season of midday recitals continues with concerts performed on the Art Museums’ historic and world-renowned D. A. Flentrop organ.

ARTS FIRST 2008
Saturday, May 3
Fogg and Adolphus-Busch Hall, 12–4:30 p.m.
Free admission

Harvard students will present musical performances in the Fogg Art Museum and Adolphus Busch Hall throughout the day as part of the annual Arts First celebration taking place around Harvard’s campus.