Peabody Essex Museum

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Boston arts institutions flexed their muscles in 2011

Boom town!
The following rundown of the best art exhibits of 2011 shows how greater Boston is now consistently offering some of the richest institutional art exhibition programs in the country.
By GREG COOK | December 28, 2011

Slideshow: ''Painting the American Vision'' at the Peabody Essex; ''Shifting Terrain: Landscape Video'' at the Currier Museum of Art

"Painting the American Vision": Though Nov 6, 2011 | "Shifting Terrain": Through Sep 18, 2011
This slideshow of images from "Painting the American Vision" at the Peabody Essex Museum and "Shifting Terrain: Landscape Video" at the Currier Museum of Art accompanies Greg Cook's review of both exhibits, "Painting — and video — of the American landscape."
By PHOENIX STAFF | August 02, 2011

Painting – and video – of the American landscape

Manifest destiny
"Painting the American Vision" — 45 rapturous paintings from the New York Historical Society — surveys the Hudson River School painters, dubbed for the upstate New York river where they spent their summers prospecting for sights to transform into ravishing canvases in their Manhattan studios each winter.
By GREG COOK | August 02, 2011

By | January 01, 0001

Man Ray and Lee Miller at the Peabody Essex Museum

L'amour fou
"Man Ray | Lee Miller, Partners in Surrealism," organized by curator Phillip Prodger at the Peabody Essex Museum, is an impressive exhibit of 76 photos, paintings, sculptures, and letters that came out of their steamy three-year affair, plus art by their pals — Picasso, Calder, Le Corbusier.
By GREG COOK | June 24, 2011

By | January 01, 0001

Photos: Golden: Dutch and Flemish masterworks

Peabody Essex Museum | East India Square, Salem | Through June 19
The Van Otterloo collection at the Peabody Essex Museum
By PHOENIX STAFF | March 02, 2011

The Van Otterloo collection at the Peabody Essex Museum

Solid gold
Some years back, Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo began collecting horse carriages, until they completely filled their New Hampshire barn.
By GREG COOK | March 02, 2011

The Van Otterloo collection at the Peabody Essex Museum

Solid gold
Some years back, Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo began collecting horse carriages, until they completely filled their New Hampshire barn.
By GREG COOK | March 02, 2011

10 must-visit New England art exhibits for early 2011

Gorey's "Enigmas," La Farge's Tahiti, Fig's studios, Perry Welty's voicemail
During the icy months of the gray heart of the Boston winter, art offers a chance for you to travel to the balmy South Seas and, via a brainy conceptual artist, the streets of Mexico City. Winter shows also offer a chance to travel through history, from Rembrandt to overlooked women Pop Artists, from early computer art to Edward Gorey's gothic whimsies.
By GREG COOK | December 29, 2010

Top 10 New England Art Exhibits of 2010

Art – and art spaces — of all sizes
Art – and art spaces — of all sizes
By GREG COOK | December 28, 2010

An Emperor's heaven on earth

The Peabody Essex Museum scores a curatorial coup
Salem's Peabody Essex Museum has pulled off the curatorial coup of the year with "The Emperor's Private Paradise," which reveals to the public for the first time 90 "treasures from the Forbidden City," the Chinese imperial palace in Beijing.
By GREG COOK | September 22, 2010

Slideshow: Treasures from the Forbidden City

The Emperor's Private Paradise at the Peabody Essex Museum, now through January 9, 2011
The Emperor's Private Paradise at the Peabody Essex Museum, now through January 9, 2011
By PHOENIX STAFF | September 22, 2010

Tracking time

Mark Ruwedel at PEM, Jerome Liebling at the Currier
The tracks run side by side across cracked, dried mud. But this black-and-white photo by Mark Ruwedel is deceptive.
By GREG COOK | August 03, 2010

Art in the air conditioning

Local museums keep you cool — and the art's pretty good, too
From Picasso to William "Shrek" Steig's cartoons, and surfer photos to a Twilight Zone toy store, New England offers art worth traveling to this summer. Here we round up the best in the region, no matter the weather or your artistic inclinations.
By GREG COOK | June 16, 2010

After images

Karen Finley does Jackie
Karen Finley won’t be naked, or covered in chocolate. Candied yams will not be involved. If there are neighborhood morality-watch squads in Salem, they’ll have the night off.
By JIM SULLIVAN | May 28, 2010

Slideshow: The Maya And The Mythic Sea at Peabody Essex Museum

“Fiery Pool: The Maya And The Mythic Sea,” Peabody Essex Museum through July 18
Mayan works of art at the “Fiery Pool: The Maya And The Mythic Sea,” exhibit
By PHOENIX STAFF | May 19, 2010

Power plays

The Maya and the Kennedys at the Peabody Essex
Some weeks back, I got to listen to Brown University archæology professor Stephen Houston pronounce the throaty, staccato sounds of Maya hieroglyphs carved across a six-foot-wide limestone panel.
By GREG COOK | May 21, 2010

Photos: 'The Kennedys' at Peabody Essex Museum

Photos of JFK, Jackie Onassis and family at the PEM through July 18
"The Kennedys” exhibit at Peabody Essex Museum, through July 18
By RICHARD AVEDON | May 19, 2010

Tall stories

Puppets, painted poetry, and the Kennedys
The Institute of Contemporary Art gets down and dirty this spring with Mexican artist Jerónimo López Ramírez, who's better known as DR. LAKRA — or, as they might say in his home of Oaxaca, "Dr. Delinquent."
By GREG COOK | March 11, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Modern times

Does Jen Mergel's appointment mean that the MFA is getting serious about contemporary art?
Does Jen Mergel's appointment mean that the MFA is getting serious about contemporary art?
By GREG COOK | January 06, 2010

Fresh fruit and vegetables

A winter crop of art
The bleakest months of New England winter are ahead of us, so the prospect of leaving your toasty house to see art may not be at the top of your to-do list.
By GREG COOK | January 04, 2010

2009: The year in art

Saints, sinners, paint
The year started off with a kick in the teeth when, in January, Brandeis University announced plans to shutter its Rose Art Museum and sell off its masterpieces.
By GREG COOK | December 30, 2009

Magpie and copyist

Iris Apfel at PEM, Mary McFadden at MassArt
If you were going to recount the evolution of hippie guy fashion, you might say that what began with psychedelic ruffled shirts and corduroy pants in 1968 has in late middle age split into two streams: collarless white button-down shirts, usually buttoned right up to the neck and worn with a black vest, and Hawaiian shirts.
By GREG COOK | November 24, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

Pottery, Potter, mummies, and a 'Rare Bird'

Museums and galleries gather their objets d'art
The art of 2000 BC Egypt, visions from the Iraq War and AIDS activism, and the magic of a digital technology and Harry Potter make up the highlights of Boston's autumn art calendar.
By GREG COOK | September 15, 2009

Photos: Dutch Seascapes at Peabody Essex

"The Golden Age of Dutch Seascapes" at the Peabody
Dutch Seascapes at Peabody Essex
By PHOENIX STAFF | June 24, 2009

Ruling the waves

The golden age of Dutch sea power sails into Salem
The Dutch emerged at the dawn of the 17th century as a pre-eminent military and commercial power on the sea. They were in the midst of throwing off Spanish rule and developing a shipping empire that would reach from the Americas to South Africa to Asia.
By GREG COOK | June 23, 2009

Water world

Surfing photos in Salem, new talent at PRC
What's the difference between art photography and fashion photography? That's the question I kept wondering about at Joni Sternbach's "SurfLand" exhibition at Salem's Peabody Essex Museum.
By GREG COOK | June 09, 2009