Degas and Some Ladies on Film at Harvard

Bostonist decided to take a break from the MFA and head over to the Harvard Univerity Art Museums this past weekend; while we recall visiting the Peabody Museum on a high school field trip, we don’t recall ever wandering into any of the art museums that Harvard has to offer. The biggest draw right now is the Degas exhibit at the Sackler museum, which is home to the University’s permanent Asian, Indian, and Islamic art collections. Running until November 27, this special exhibit is dedicated to Edgar Degas, who is usually grouped in with the Impressionist artists, except that he didn't like all that "plein air" painting and often focused on portraits inside a studio. The exhibit features his works in pastels, bronze, and pencil, which focus on three main topics: ballerinas, horse racing, and nudes. While Bostonist mostly associates Degas with his drawings of ballerinas, he also spent much time focusing on nudes, especially women getting out of the bathtub. At first Bostonist had to ask “how were these women okay with being drawn getting out of the tub?”, but we got past that and went on to appreciate Degas's many sketches of the bathers. The only downsides to “Degas at Harvard” were a wish for more art on display and fewer people to appreciate it. We showed up at noon and had to wait until 2:00 p.m. to enter the exhibit. Tickets are $7.50 per person (free with your Harvard employee I.D. or Cambridge Library card; there are student discounts too); the admission gets you into all of the Harvard University Art Museums.

Since Bostonist had some time to kill, we also checked out the Fogg Museum, with its John Singer Sargent collection, and the “Girls on Film” exhibit at the Sert Gallery. Now, before everyone gets riled up thinking this is some pornographic collection, this exhibit is nothing close to that. Back before digital imaging, the film industry relied on old color-timing control strips, which were used to match colors among the film reels of a movie; in order to compare colors, women, who were referred to as “China Girls” for some reason, would sit in and serve as models for color proofing. These women never appeared in the actual films, but these test photos were traded among film projectionists serving as a type of “pin-up girl.” Artists Julie Buck and Karin Segal have taken these color strips and restored them to their original condition and gathered them into a collection. Note: the two artists created their own color strips and mixed them among the real ones. Bostonist could only figure out one of them, with the help of a gallery attendant. The “Girls on Film” exhibit runs until September 18.

If you feel you’ve had enough culture for the day, take a quick walk over to Toscanini’s on Mass Ave. for a delightful scoop of ice cream. (Bostonist highly recommends the coconut.) With only a few weeks of warm summer weather left, you might as well make that two scoops.