Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
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photography Courtesy of the museum of fine arts (Street MuSicianS); rose art museum, Brandeis university gevirtz-mnuChin purChase fund, © estate of roy LiChtenstein (Forget it! Forget Me!) Forget It! Forget Me! by Roy Lichtenstein, 1962. below: Street Musicians at the Doorway of a House by Jacob Ochtervelt, 1665. PoP UP Warhol and lichtenstein headline a snazzy neW exhibit at the Rose ARt MuseuM at brandeis University. by jared bowen While few would ever question the enduring significance of the Pop art in the Rose Art Museum's new exhibit "LA/ M A," the museum itself has not escaped such criticism. Despite t he st r ik ing, f inely honed collect ion of moder n and contemporary works at the Brandeis University institu- tion, just a few years ago, during the deepest throes of the economic downturn, the college's then-president, Jehuda Reinharz, offered a proposal: The museum should be shut- tered and much of its collection sold off for the financial betterment of the university. The art world (not to mention t he cour t s) issued a t hunderous condemnat ion, t he pla n wa s dropped, a nd Reinha rz resig ned a yea r later. A nd today t he collect ion once considered dispensable is t he very reason the Rose is f lourishing. In 2012, after stints at the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Christopher Bedford took the reins of the Rose as its new director (and at 35, he was one of the youngest museum directors in the country). A native of Scotland whose family moved to England and later the United States, Bedford—who has a penchant for long-distance running and natty dressing—quickly recog- nized the power and potential of the museum's permanent collection, which was begun by the Rose's founding direc- tor, Sa m Hunter, in 1961. Hunter snatched up works by names that would soon be venerated: Robert Rauschenberg, Roy L ichtenstein, A lex K at z, Ellswor t h Kelly. "It's been evident that Sam Hunter was bold, audacious, and vision- ary," says Bedford. "That can be most clearly stated." In "LA/ MA," a survey of Pop art from the '60s, Bedford considers the work of the East Coast artists collected by Hunter and his colleag ues, such as Lichtenstein, Robert Indiana, and Andy Warhol, versus that of their lesser-known West Coast counterparts, including Joe Goode and Judy Chicago. While their work was comparable, Los Angeles – based artists didn't receive the same recog nition simply because they weren't in New York. "W hat we're doing is to suggest that there was another discourse entirely taking place on the West Coast," Bedford says. "A nd because of geography, we didn't incorporate those artists early on." But as the Rose itself has demonstrated, it's never too late for a course correction. September 12 – December 13. 415 South St., Waltham, 781-736-3434; brandeis.edu/rose BC The Museum of Fine Arts explores the multitiered society of the Dutch Baroque era. by jar ed bowen Today, class division is the subject of newspaper editorials and Sunday- morning talk shows. But in the 17th century, the Dutch social divide was captured in enduring images by the greatest painters of the era. "Class Distinctions: Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer," an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, gathers a breathtaking array of masterworks from public and private collections across Europe and the United States. Rembrandt's lush depiction of a lavishly ornamented member of the ruling class is juxtaposed with a portrait of a middle-class shipbuilder. Nobles surveying their vast domains contrast with a humble laborer sharpening his scythe at a grindstone or the wary denizens of an old men's home. Organized by senior curator Ronni Baer, the show also offers an extremely rare opportunity to view several Vermeer masterpieces in Boston, including A Lady Writing and The Astronomer. MFA exhibits are always a class act, but this one takes it literally. October 11–January 18, 2016. 465 Huntington Ave., 617-267-9300; mfa.org CLASS ACT 60 bostoncommon-magazine.com CuLTure Art Full