Visual Arts

Explore exhibitions, artists, and visual works that enrich Harvard’s cultural and academic life.

A vase of yellow flowers on a table next to an orange and a glass.

There’s a New Sargent Painting in Town

Harvard Art Museums restores a rare glimpse of an American master.

by Schuyler Velasco

Two MAD Magazine covers

MAD Magazine at the Norman Rockwell Museum

An illustrative retrospective at the Norman Rockwell Museum 

by Nell Porter-Brown

Tunic pattern

The Mystery Behind an Incan Tunic

Unraveling an Inca masterpiece’s secrets

by Max J. Krupnick

Portrait of Kimberly Dowdell sitting on steps

Architect Kimberly Dowdell is Changing Her Profession

Kimberly Dowdell influences her profession—and the built environment.

by Nell Porter-Brown

Hudson in a baseball cap with her easel and paints at a rocky seaside

Landscapes of a Harvard Plein Air Painter

Kathleen B Hudson ’09 captures the essence of the outdoors, from the Rocky Mountains to the beaches of Maui.

by Brandon Rosas

Corita Kent’s a man you can lean on (1966) plays with its medium: screenprints are not reversed in the making, but her image is.

Harvard Professor on Printmaking

An art historian analyzes an overlooked medium.

by Murray Whyte

Oval black and white image of Frederick Douglas with gold frame around image

American Citizenship Through Photography

How photographs promote social justice

by Nina Pasquini

The opening display of the exhibit, showing introductory text and a large photograph of Harriet Hayden

The Picture of Freedom

A Boston Athenaeum exhibit explores an abolitionist with Harvard ties.

by Lydialyle Gibson

College students, one with a trump, another with an upright bass, gather around a piano with Dizzy Gillespie, who plays his trumpet while a student pianist also plays

A New Chapter for Harvard Arts

The Office for the Arts turns 50, and its longtime director steps down.

by Lydialyle Gibson

A clay sculpture of a robed angel.

Bernini’s Model Masterpieces at the Harvard Art Museums

Thirteen sculptures from Gian Lorenzo Bernini at Harvard Art Museums.

by Nina Pasquini

Princess Marie and Jensen pose beside Jensen's finished portrait of the princess

Harvard Portraitist Nina Skov Jensen Paints Celebrities and Princesses

Nina Skov Jensen ’25, portraitist for collectors and the princess of Denmark. 

by Lydialyle Gibson