Gallery Preview | Sackler Museum opens 'Re-View,' a wall-shaking survey of Harvard art collections

    The Arthur M. Sackler Museum at 485 Broadway in Cambridge will be opening its doors tomorrow after a summer-long hibernation. The Sackler's closing and reopening is part of a larger scheme: plans for a massive renovation of the Harvard University Art Museums, which in addition to the Sackler includes the Fogg and Busch-Reisinger collections. The renovations are predicted to take five years, and all of the artwork will be moved out of the Fogg and Busch-Reisinger complex on 32 Quincy St. and put away in storage facilities or put on loan to other museums. The ultimate concept for the renovations is the construction of a new building, designed by acclaimed Italian architect Renzo Piano, who has designed other museums such as the Morgan Library and Museum in New York. The structure will house all three collections under one roof, consolidating them and promoting easier access and dialogue.
    For those who will miss the Fogg and Busch-Reisinger Museums in these next five years, the Sackler is a savior as it features "Re-View," an exhibition of works from all three collections, to be shown together for the first time. The Sackler, which previously housed ancient, Islamic, Asian and late-Indian art, will now meet the West, showing European and American art previously on display in the other museums. Having been separated before by different buildings and rooms, the interplay between ancient and modern, continents and cultures, should make for an interesting display.
    The works, which include favorites and "greatest hits" as well as valuable pieces from the collections brought out of storage in this moment of flux, were chosen by curators from the three museums.
    Part of the reason behind the closings is that the buildings are decrepit and not fully up to code, lacking both climate control and space for the collections. By having this ongoing exhibition across the street from construction and demolition, the mission of teaching and scholarship at the Harvard University Art Museums can continue, though on a much smaller scale. It is an example of the interplay between objects and collections predicted for the new facility when it opens to the public in 2013.
    The exhibitions of "Re-View" are divided into themes. On the ground floor is European and American art since 1900, connecting the Fogg and Busch-Reisinger collections through the theme of modern reinterpretations of traditional subjects in art. Works will include Max Beckmann's "Self-Portrait in Tuxedo" (1927) and Glenn Ligon's "Untitled (Negro Sunshine)" (2005).
    The second floor shows the Sackler's Asian and Islamic Art dating from 5,000 B.C. to now, emphasizing the relationship between ceramic works and the evolution of religious expression throughout Asia and Europe. On view here is the Sackler's distinguished collection of ritual bronze vessels and archaic jades, both great draws for visitors.
    The fourth floor, organized chronologically, exhibits primarily Western works from antiquity to the late 19th century, but the occasional contrast to other styles or time periods is expected to shake up the walls. Comparisons include works from different cultures hung side by side, meant to represent historic moments of international communication when Europe encountered other societies, including Egyptian, Asian, Islamic, indigenous American, African and Near Eastern.
    Favorites from the beloved Maurice Wertheim Collection from the Fogg Museum are also on view, including significant works by impressionists and post-impressionists like Monet, Picasso, Cézanne and van Gogh. Specifically, Picasso's iconic "Mother and Child" (1901) from his Blue Period are hanging.
    Certain works on paper sensitive to light will be rotated, and a teaching gallery on the fourth floor will also house four temporary installations each year. In this period of removal and loss in the Boston art community, the Sackler's multi-cultural, multi-technical and multi-stylistic "Re-View" is expected to offer some consolation to devoted community members and visitors.