Past Exhibitions
SMFA Traveling Scholars
The annual exhibition of work by recipients of the prestigious Traveling Scholarship Awards—three Museum School alumni and three Fifth Year students...
Rhythms of Modern Life
British Prints 1914-1939
Featuring approximately one hundred lithographs, etchings, woodcuts and color linocuts by fourteen artists, “Rhythms of Modern Life: British Prints...
The Brilliance of Bird-and-Flower Painting
Throughout Asia birds and flowers have been cherished for their beauty, but they have carried rich symbolic messages as well. For example, the lotus—a...
Zhang Daqian
Painter, Collector, Forger
Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) casts a long shadow over the modern history of Chinese painting. As a painter, he was known for his singular ability to mix...
Sumo
Japan's Big Sport
From its legendary prehistoric beginnings until the present day, sumô wrestling has dominated the world of traditional Japanese sport. Like Kabuki...
RSVP
Jim Lambie
Scottish artist Jim Lambie is the third artist to participate in the series RSVPmfa, in which the Museum invites artists to consider the extraordinary...
Drawing
A Broader Definition
"Drawing: A Broader Definition" brings together sixty-six objects from across the Museum’s collections to show various approaches to drawing on both...
Symbols of Power
Napoleon and the Art of the Empire Style, 1800-1815
Named for the Napoleonic Empire at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Empire style is one of the grandest and most opulent in the history of...
Arthur Wesley Dow
Photographer and Printmaker
The MFA celebrates its acquisition of a rare album of 264 cyanotypes by New Englander Arthur Wesley Dow with an installation of the blue-toned...
Walk This Way
While shoes serve a practical function by protecting our soles from the elements and hazards underfoot, they have also become highly ornamented...