Arthur M. Sackler Museum
Encyclopedia
The Arthur M. Sackler Museum joins the Fogg Museum and the Busch-Reisinger Museum
as part of the Harvard Art Museums. Its postmodern building was designed by British architect James Stirling
, generally regarded as the greatest British architect of the 20th century, and recipient of the Pritzker Prize
in 1981 (the equivalent to the Nobel Prize for architecture). The most prominent of the four Stirling-designed buildings in the U.S., the Sackler opened to the public in October 1985. It is, curator John Rosenfield wrote in Harvard's celebratory publication on the museum, "a tribute to James Stirling's clarity of vision, to Arthur Sackler's generosity and loyalty, to Harvard University's commitment to the visual arts, and to Seymour Slive's fiery and single-minded devotion to the project."
Even before the Sackler's completion, New York Times architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable
observed that "The event causing the most stir in professional circles right now is the awarding of three prime American commission to the English architect James Stirling. Considered by many of his peers to be one of the few authentic creative geniuses of our time, Stirling has influenced so many practitioners in so many places that his style, or styles, are better known through the cribbing of others than through his own executed works.... What he will produce for Harvard's prestigious Fogg Museum...will be one of the more important surprises of the year."
In 2008, the 32 Quincy Street building that formerly housed the Fogg and Busch-Reisinger collections closed for a major renovation project to create a new museum building designed by architect Renzo Piano
that will house all three museums in one facility. During the renovation, selected works from all three museums are on display at the Sackler. Concerns about the fate of Stirling's Sackler building (see Chronicle of Higher Education link below) have not been addressed by Piano or the Harvard Art Museums.
s and Japanese surimono
, as well as Chinese bronzes
, ancient ceremonial weapons, and Buddhist cave-temple sculptures; Chinese and Korean ceramics; and Japanese woodblock prints, calligraphy, narrative paintings, and lacquer boxes.
The Sackler's collections of ancient and Byzantine art
include notable works in all media from Greece, Rome, Egypt, and the Near East. They are especially strong in the pottery of ancient Greece
, and in small bronzes and coins from throughout the ancient Mediterranean world.
The museum also holds works on paper from Islamic lands and India, including paintings, drawings, calligraphy, and manuscript illustrations, with particular strength in Rajput
art, as well as significant Islamic ceramics from the 8th through 19th century, including Samanid
epigraphic wares, luster wares from Iraq, Iran, and Spain, and İznik
Ottoman wares.
Many of the works in the Sackler Museum can be accessed as part of the Harvard Art Museums' online Collection Search, which features 250,000 works of art.
, "A Style Chrstallised"
The Sackler Museum [originally designed as an addition to the Fogg] elicited world-wide attention from the time of Harvard's commission Stirling to design the building, following a selection process that evaluated more than 70 architects. As a measure of the excitement generated by the project, the University mounted an exhibition of the architects' preliminary design drawings in 1981, "James Stirling's Design to Expand the Fogg Museum," and issued a portfolio of Stirling's drawings to the press. The range of publications that discussed the project included Architecture and Urbanism, Art in America (S. McFadden), Casabella (Massimo Scolari
), Lotus, the Architectural Review (Peter Buchanan, John Coolidge), The Boston Globe (Robert Campbell (journalist)
), Time Magazine (Robert Hughes (critic)
), The New Boston Review (Gary Wolf), Skyline (E. Constantine), Express (K. Michael Hays
), and the GSD News from Harvard's Graduate School of Design.
After completion, the building's coverage was even greater, with general acknowledgment of the building's significance as a Stirling design and a Harvard undertaking. Aside from descriptions of the building's organization and exterior appearance, perhaps most noted was the way in which the inventive design accommodated its diverse program on a challenging site. Harvard published a 50-page book on the Sackler, with extensive color photos by Timothy Hursley, an interview with Stirling by Michael Dennis, a tribute to Arthur M. Sackler, and essays by Slive, Coolidge and Rosenfield.
Vidler's summary of the "very different James Stirling" that emerges from his research provides an instructive overview of the architect with respect to the Sackler Museum: "This is a Stirling never wavering in the search for what he called the right balance between the 'context' and the 'associational' values of the architecture, between the rigorous analysis of the programme and its disaggregation and re-composition into volumetric elements; the insistence on achieving an architecture that can appeal not only to a limited circle of those 'in the know' but to the general population of users." (p. 17)
Busch-Reisinger Museum
The Busch-Reisinger Museum, opened to the public in 1903, is one of two museums in North America dedicated to the study of art from the German-speaking countries of Europe. The other museum is the Neue Galerie, located in New York City. The Busch-Reisinger joins the Fogg Museum and the Arthur M...
as part of the Harvard Art Museums. Its postmodern building was designed by British architect James Stirling
James Stirling (architect)
Sir James Frazer Stirling FRIBA was a British architect. He is considered to be among the most important and influential British architects of the second half of the 20th century...
, generally regarded as the greatest British architect of the 20th century, and recipient of the Pritzker Prize
Pritzker Prize
The Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded annually by the Hyatt Foundation to honour "a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built...
in 1981 (the equivalent to the Nobel Prize for architecture). The most prominent of the four Stirling-designed buildings in the U.S., the Sackler opened to the public in October 1985. It is, curator John Rosenfield wrote in Harvard's celebratory publication on the museum, "a tribute to James Stirling's clarity of vision, to Arthur Sackler's generosity and loyalty, to Harvard University's commitment to the visual arts, and to Seymour Slive's fiery and single-minded devotion to the project."
Even before the Sackler's completion, New York Times architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable
Ada Louise Huxtable
Ada Louise Huxtable is an architecture critic and writer on architecture. In 1970 she was awarded the first ever Pulitzer Prize for Criticism for "distinguished criticism during 1969."...
observed that "The event causing the most stir in professional circles right now is the awarding of three prime American commission to the English architect James Stirling. Considered by many of his peers to be one of the few authentic creative geniuses of our time, Stirling has influenced so many practitioners in so many places that his style, or styles, are better known through the cribbing of others than through his own executed works.... What he will produce for Harvard's prestigious Fogg Museum...will be one of the more important surprises of the year."
In 2008, the 32 Quincy Street building that formerly housed the Fogg and Busch-Reisinger collections closed for a major renovation project to create a new museum building designed by architect Renzo Piano
Renzo Piano
Renzo Piano is an Italian architect. He is the recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, AIA Gold Medal, Kyoto Prize and the Sonning Prize...
that will house all three museums in one facility. During the renovation, selected works from all three museums are on display at the Sackler. Concerns about the fate of Stirling's Sackler building (see Chronicle of Higher Education link below) have not been addressed by Piano or the Harvard Art Museums.
Collection
The Sackler holds world-renowned collections of archaic Chinese jadeChinese jade
Chinese jade is any of the carved-jade objects produced in China from the Neolithic Period onward. The Chinese regarded carved-jade objects as intrinsically valuable...
s and Japanese surimono
Surimono
are a genre of Japanese woodblock print. They were privately commissioned for special occasions such as the New Year. Surimono literally means "printed thing". Being produced in small numbers for a mostly educated audience of literati, surimono were often more experimental in subject matter and...
, as well as Chinese bronzes
Chinese bronzes
Bronzes are some of the most important pieces of Chinese art, warranting an entire separate catalogue in the Imperial art collections. The Chinese Bronze Age began in the Xia Dynasty, and bronze ritual containers form the bulk of the collection of Chinese antiques, reaching its zenith during the...
, ancient ceremonial weapons, and Buddhist cave-temple sculptures; Chinese and Korean ceramics; and Japanese woodblock prints, calligraphy, narrative paintings, and lacquer boxes.
The Sackler's collections of ancient and Byzantine art
Byzantine art
Byzantine art is the term commonly used to describe the artistic products of the Byzantine Empire from about the 5th century until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453....
include notable works in all media from Greece, Rome, Egypt, and the Near East. They are especially strong in the pottery of ancient Greece
Pottery of Ancient Greece
As the result of its relative durability, pottery is a large part of the archaeological record of Ancient Greece, and because there is so much of it it has exerted a disproportionately large influence on our understanding of Greek society...
, and in small bronzes and coins from throughout the ancient Mediterranean world.
The museum also holds works on paper from Islamic lands and India, including paintings, drawings, calligraphy, and manuscript illustrations, with particular strength in Rajput
Rajput
A Rajput is a member of one of the patrilineal clans of western, central, northern India and in some parts of Pakistan. Rajputs are descendants of one of the major ruling warrior classes in the Indian subcontinent, particularly North India...
art, as well as significant Islamic ceramics from the 8th through 19th century, including Samanid
Samanid
The Samani dynasty , also known as the Samanid Empire, or simply Samanids was a Persian state and empire in Central Asia and Greater Iran, named after its founder Saman Khuda, who converted to Sunni Islam despite being from Zoroastrian theocratic nobility...
epigraphic wares, luster wares from Iraq, Iran, and Spain, and İznik
Iznik
İznik is a city in Turkey which is primarily known as the site of the First and Second Councils of Nicaea, the first and seventh Ecumenical councils in the early history of the Church, the Nicene Creed, and as the capital city of the Empire of Nicaea...
Ottoman wares.
Many of the works in the Sackler Museum can be accessed as part of the Harvard Art Museums' online Collection Search, which features 250,000 works of art.
Architecture
"James Stirling has dealt in a very high kind of order and organisation in the design of the [Sackler Museum]: this is a dense, tight plan on a small restricted site that brilliantly solves administrative and gallery needs. The building is remarkable for the creative virtuosity with which its functions are accommodated while suggesting a monumentality that belies actual dimensions. Stirling was lucky to have as a client the director of the Fogg [Museum], Seymour Slive, who understood this achievement immediately. Professors John Coolidge and Neil Levine...complete a formidable triumvirate of sympathetic experts." Ada Louise HuxtableAda Louise Huxtable
Ada Louise Huxtable is an architecture critic and writer on architecture. In 1970 she was awarded the first ever Pulitzer Prize for Criticism for "distinguished criticism during 1969."...
, "A Style Chrstallised"
The Sackler Museum [originally designed as an addition to the Fogg] elicited world-wide attention from the time of Harvard's commission Stirling to design the building, following a selection process that evaluated more than 70 architects. As a measure of the excitement generated by the project, the University mounted an exhibition of the architects' preliminary design drawings in 1981, "James Stirling's Design to Expand the Fogg Museum," and issued a portfolio of Stirling's drawings to the press. The range of publications that discussed the project included Architecture and Urbanism, Art in America (S. McFadden), Casabella (Massimo Scolari
Massimo Scolari
Massimo Scolari , is an Italian architect, painter and designer.He graduated in architecture in Milan in 1969. In 1973 he became a professor of History of Architecture at Palermo, and of Drawing at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia...
), Lotus, the Architectural Review (Peter Buchanan, John Coolidge), The Boston Globe (Robert Campbell (journalist)
Robert Campbell (journalist)
Robert Campbell is a writer and architect. He is currently the Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic for the Boston Globe. He lives and works in Cambridge, Massachusetts.-Education:...
), Time Magazine (Robert Hughes (critic)
Robert Hughes (critic)
Robert Studley Forrest Hughes, AO is an Australian-born art critic, writer and television documentary maker who has resided in New York since 1970.-Early life:...
), The New Boston Review (Gary Wolf), Skyline (E. Constantine), Express (K. Michael Hays
K. Michael Hays
K. Michael Hays is Eliot Noyes Professor of Architectural Theory at Harvard University, in Harvard's Graduate School of Design and Co-Director of Doctoral Programs .- Education :...
), and the GSD News from Harvard's Graduate School of Design.
After completion, the building's coverage was even greater, with general acknowledgment of the building's significance as a Stirling design and a Harvard undertaking. Aside from descriptions of the building's organization and exterior appearance, perhaps most noted was the way in which the inventive design accommodated its diverse program on a challenging site. Harvard published a 50-page book on the Sackler, with extensive color photos by Timothy Hursley, an interview with Stirling by Michael Dennis, a tribute to Arthur M. Sackler, and essays by Slive, Coolidge and Rosenfield.
John Coolidge Appreciation of the Sackler Design Process and Product
As evidence of the Sackler's success, John Coolidge, long-time director of the Fogg Museum, featured the building as a model of museum design in his publication, Patrons and Architects: Designing Art Museums in the Twentieth Century. Coolidge included the museum in his chapter on "When the Architect and the Professional Staff Collaborate"--which followed a chapter of negative examples of buildings to house works of art: "When the Architect Has His Way." He detailed the many ways that the Stirling/Wilford Sackler was, perhaps unexpectedly for some, responsive to the client's functional concerns. Coolidge concluded that "Stirling's brilliant parti has produced a building at once striking, convenient, and--above all--a sympathetic setting for works of art."Recent Attention to the Sackler Museum Building
In 2010, design drawings for the Sackler Museum were included in Anthony Vidler's extensive catalog published by the Canadian Centre for Architecture and Yale University, "James Frazer Stirling: Notes from the Archive." These original drawings appear in the exhibition that travels from the Yale Center for British Art to the Tate Britain in London, to the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, and to the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal, from 2010 through 2012.Vidler's summary of the "very different James Stirling" that emerges from his research provides an instructive overview of the architect with respect to the Sackler Museum: "This is a Stirling never wavering in the search for what he called the right balance between the 'context' and the 'associational' values of the architecture, between the rigorous analysis of the programme and its disaggregation and re-composition into volumetric elements; the insistence on achieving an architecture that can appeal not only to a limited circle of those 'in the know' but to the general population of users." (p. 17)
See also
- Harvard Art Museums
- Fogg Museum
- Busch-Reisinger MuseumBusch-Reisinger MuseumThe Busch-Reisinger Museum, opened to the public in 1903, is one of two museums in North America dedicated to the study of art from the German-speaking countries of Europe. The other museum is the Neue Galerie, located in New York City. The Busch-Reisinger joins the Fogg Museum and the Arthur M...
- James Stirling Architect
- Pritzker PrizePritzker PrizeThe Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded annually by the Hyatt Foundation to honour "a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built...
External links
- Harvard Art Museums website
- Arthur M. Sackler Museum website
- Harvard Art Museums Collection Search website
- Harvard University website
- James Stirling on the Pritzker Prize website http://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureates/1981/announcement.html
- http://chronicle.com/blogs/buildings/harvard-u-begins-museum-renovations-with-no-plan-for-stirlings-sackler-building/5157