Alex Katz Prints

Van Gogh</a> (1853–1890) once wrote, “What I’m most passionate about…is the portrait, the modern portrait.” This passion flourished between 1888 and ’89 when, during his stay in Arles, in the South of France, the artist created a number of portraits of a neighboring family—the postman Joseph Roulin; his wife, Augustine; and their three children: Armand, Camille, and Marcelle. Van Gogh’s tender relationship with the postman and his family, and his groundbreaking portrayals of them, are at the heart of this exhibition, which is the first dedicated to the Roulin portraits and the deep bonds of friendship between the artist and this family.</p><p>Visitors can see approximately 20 works by Van Gogh, including the MFA’s iconic portraits Postman Joseph Roulin (1888) and Lullaby: Madame Augustine Roulin Rocking a Cradle (La Berceuse) (1889) as well as important loans from museums such as the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Museum of Modern Art in New York, Art Institute of Chicago, and Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Additionally, key works of earlier Dutch art and Japanese woodblock prints—both of which profoundly informed Van Gogh’s portrait practice—provide critical insight into elements of the artist’s creative process. Letters written by Postman Roulin bring to life the deep bond of friendship and a major turning point in Van Gogh’s life, as he moved to a new city and grappled with his mental health. He dreamed of creating a vibrant community of artists in Arles, which led to a visit by fellow painter Paul Gauguin, whose work is included in this exhibition.</p><p>Despite imagining himself as a husband and father, Van Gogh never married or had children. As he came to terms with this, he found comfort in his relationship with the Roulins; his portraits of them capture an intimacy that resonates across place and time in families of all kinds—biological, chosen, or observed. This exhibition gives visitors the most in-depth look yet at the emotional underpinnings of some of the beloved artist’s most widely recognized paintings.</p><p>Organized in partnership with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, “Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits” is accompanied by a forthcoming catalogue from MFA Publications.</p><p><br></p>" />

photographer Robert Frank</a>’s (1924–2019) birth, this exhibition features the personal scrapbook he made for his first wife, titled Mary’s Book. Created in 1949 for Mary Lockspeiser, the album consists of 74 small photographs with Frank’s written inscriptions. They reveal his appreciation for the poetic resonance of objects and spaces. Many of the photographs are devoid of people, although their presence is felt everywhere. He muses on the chairs and streets of Paris with messages interspersed for Mary. The book is a reflection on solitary contemplation that reads like a lyrical poem and compelling personal photographic sequence.</p><p>This one-of-a-kind, handmade album represents a formative moment in Frank’s career as he experiments with text and image juxtaposition. Robert Frank: Mary's Book includes a selection of spreads from the scrapbook in the Museum's collection as well as photographs Frank took in Paris, on loan from the artist’s foundation.</p><p>A publication based on the exhibition will be published in early 2025, written by Kristen Gresh, the MFA’s Estrellita and Yousuf Karsh Senior Curator of Photographs and Stuart Alexander, a Robert Frank scholar. This is the first time Mary’s Book will be fully reproduced.</p><p><br></p>" />

Wilson’s work</a>, co-organized by the MFA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Featuring approximately 110 works by the artist in a wide range of media—prints, drawings, paintings, sculpture, and illustrated books—the exhibition explores the many ways Wilson called attention to racial, social, and economic injustices through his art. Challenging both biases and omissions, Wilson explored subjects that include anti-Black violence, the civil rights movement, labor, and family life—with a particular focus on fatherhood. Portraits like Julie and Becky (1956–78) and his Young Americans suite of life-size portraits (about 1972–75) celebrate the essential humanity of Wilson’s family and friends, while other works like Deliver Us from Evil (1943) and The Trial (1951) depict the heinous impacts of systemic prejudice and racism. Wilson’s work speaks to shared experiences, while also displaying his personal search for identity as an artist, Black man, parent, and American.</p><p>A significant number of the works are drawn from the MFA’s collection, including a number of early self-portraits and depictions of Martin Luther King Jr. The centerpiece of the Boston presentation of “Witnessing Humanity: The Art of John Wilson” is a reduced-scale bronze maquette for Eternal Presence, the monumental sculpture installed in 1987 on the grounds of the National Center of Afro-American Artists (NCAAA) in Roxbury. Fondly called the “Big Head” by many local residents, the colossal sculpture was described by Wilson as “an image of universal dignity.”</p><p>A resident of Brookline for decades, Wilson had an influence and impact on artists and community across Boston that remains deep today. These ties are explored further through community involvement in the exhibition planning process, the accompanying publication, and public programs that take place during the run of the exhibition.</p><p><br></p>" />