On my second visit to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, I began a slow and studious exploration of the Art of the Ancient World. I had trouble making a connection with the art at first as there seemed to be no story linking them together. Galleries adjacent to one another held Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, and Roman art. Thousands of years, and thousands of miles, and thousands of cultures side by side. But I did make a connection looking at the sculptures of ancient people and gazing into their eyes. When face to face with a person it is hard to maintain eye contact, but here I could look into the eyes of humans who lived millennia ago and they had so much to say. One Greek sculpture, Woman from a funerary monument, almost looked alive in her expression of grief.
To mix things up, I moved on to the Contemporary Art collections. Ancient art memorialized people and honored gods, but contemporary art asks you questions. The descriptions, the writing on the wall, even the art itself ask questions. Art here is more a reflection of the viewer, literally in the case of Untitled (Shu-red). I spent more time that I should be willing to admit trying to take a selfie in its lacquered surface and finding myself delightfully disoriented. Art also asks the tough questions, like “Why?” and “How can we let this happen?” A sobering gallery collects artists’ responses to the 2011 earthquake in Japan. The photographs and film here capture more pain and poignancy than any other news report.
There’s still much more to see and experience at the MFA, so I hope I return soon.
Standing figure of Babaef Egypt About 2472-2458 BC
Face from a composite statue Egypt 2873-2859 BC
Pseudo-group statue of Penmeru Egypt 2465-2423 BC “The Dad and Mom”
Pseudo-group statue of Penmeru Egypt 2465-2423 BC “The kids”
Statue of a young man Egypt 2353-2323 BC
Colossal statue of King Mengkaura Egypt 2490-2472 Detail of hand.
Colossal statue of King Mengkaura Egypt 2490-2472 Detail of head.
Face froma mummiform coffin Egypt 1070-656 BC
Male and female figures Syria about 3200-2800 BC
Lion from the Processional Way Iraq (Babylon) Reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, 604-561 BC
Lion Greece about 550 BC
King Menkaura (Mycerinus) and queen Egypt 2490-2472 BC
Woman from a funerary naiskos Greek About 330-325 BC
Figures of Eros with musica instruments Greek (Euboea) 4th or 3rd century BC
Juno Roman Head, Trajanic or Hadrianic Period, Body of earlier period 1st to 2nd century A.D.
Me, reflected in “Untitled (Shu-red),” 2007 by Anish Kapoor
Me, reflected in “Untitled (Shu-red),” 2007 by Anish Kapoor
John, 1st Baron Byron, 2013 Kehind Wiley
Still from “Stigma,” 2011 by Jonas Englert
The Artist in His Loft, 1969 George Segal
Kiki Smith Lilith, 1994
Josiah McElheny Endlessly Repeating Twentieth-Century Modernism, 2007
Jonathan Borofsky I Dreamed I Could Fly, 2001
Previously:
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