The Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies at the Harvard Art Museums possesses over 2500 of the world¿s rarest pigments. Visually and anthropologically excavating the extraordinary collection,Atelier Editions¿ monograph examines the contained artefacts¿ providence, composition, symbology and application. Whilst simultaneously exploringthe larger field of chromatics, utilising a variety of theoretical frameworks to interpret the collection anew. An introduction to the monograph is authored by Straus Center Director, Dr. Narayan Khandekar.

"This publication accompanies the exhibition The Philosophy Chamber: Art and Science in Harvard's Teaching Cabinet, 1766-1820, on view at the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts, from May 19 through December 31, 2017, and at The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, Scotland, in 2018."

From personal ornamentation to funerary practice, from palace decoration to private devotion, jade has played a major role in Chinese social, cultural, and political life for millennia. Exploring the history of this revered stone through the esteemed Grenville L. Winthrop Collection at the Harvard Art Museums--which includes some of the finest examples of ancient and archaizing jades outside China--this volume explains how and why jade developed its special significance. In-depth entries on over one hundred objects present recent archaeological discoveries and new information garnered from conservation analysis, while Jenny So's broad and engaging narrative not only elucidates the layered meanings of the objects and their iconography but also delves into the unique qualities of the material and the craftsmanship involved in quarrying and working jade. Distributed for the Harvard Art Museums

Tracing the impacts of militarism on the American landscape, through the lens of art, environmental studies, and politics Devour the Land considers how contemporary photographers have responded to the US military's impact on the domestic environment since the 1970s, a dynamic period for environmental activism as well as for photography. This catalogue presents a lively range of voices at the intersection of art, environmentalism, militarism, photography, and politics. Alongside interviews with prominent contemporary artists working in the landscape photography tradition, the images speak to photographers' varied motivations, personal experiences, and artistic approaches. The result is a surprising picture of the ways violence and warfare surround us. Although most modern combat has taken place abroad, the US domestic landscape bears the footprint of armed conflict--much of the environmental damage we live with today was caused by our own military and the expansive network of industries supporting its work. Designed to evoke a field book and to nod toward ephemera produced by earlier artists and activists, the catalogue features works by dozens of photographers, including Ansel Adams, Robert Adams, Dorothy Marder, Alex Webb, Terry Evans, and many more.

From 1921 until 1948, Paul J. Sachs (1878–1965) offered a yearlong program in art museum training, “Museum Work and Museum Problems,” through Harvard University’s Fine Arts Department. Known simply as the Museum Course, the program was responsible for shaping a professional field—museum curatorship and management—that, in turn, defined the organizational structure and values of an institution through which the American public came to know art. Conceived at a time of great museum expansion and public interest in the United States, the Museum Course debated curatorial priorities and put theory into practice through the placement of graduates in museums big and small across the land. In this book, authors Sally Anne Duncan and Andrew McClellan examine the role that Sachs and his program played in shaping the character of art museums in the United States in the formative decades of the twentieth century. The Art of Curating is essential reading for museum studies scholars, curators, and historians.

Accompanies an exhibition of the same name held at the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts, February 14-July 26, 2020.

A fresh look at the influential pedagogy and practice pioneered by the Bauhaus Founded by architect Walter Gropius (1883-1969) in 1919, the Bauhaus was the 20th century's most influential school of art, architecture, and design. After the school was shuttered under pressure from the Nazis in 1933, many Bauhaus artists brought their innovative practices and teaching methods to the United States. Gropius himself accepted a position at Harvard, where he would help establish a collection of Bauhaus material that has since grown to more than 30,000 objects--the largest such collection outside Germany. Harvard in turn became an unofficial center for the Bauhaus in America. Written by established and emerging voices in the field, the scholarship presented here expands on the special link between the two institutions, while highlighting understudied aspects of the Bauhaus, such as weaving, photography, and art made by women. Accompanied by beautiful illustrations--some of never-before-published objects--this book yields fascinating insights for Bauhaus devotees and design aficionados. Distributed for the Harvard Art Museums

"[Book title] is the first book to explore the crucial role the Fogg [Museum] played in the evolution of conservation in the United States and abroad. It traces the efforts of staff and students who developed protocols for the treatment and documentation of works, sometimes through trial and error; disseminated research findings by establishing professional forums and a seminal journal; set standards for contemporary artists' materials during the New Deal; and led the Allied drive to protect monuments and works of art during World War II."--Back cover.

The strange story of Harvard's Rothko murals has become part of the legend of contemporary art. Staff at Harvard Art Museums' Center for Conservation and Technical Research oversaw repairs and remounting of these large yet fragil works in preparation for a major exhibition at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum in August 1988. They were removed from the dining room of Harvard's Holyoke Center where they had hung since 1963 (a gift from the artist), suffering from tears, stains, graffiti, and severe color shifts from exposure to sunlight and instability in the artist's materials.(Harvard University Art Museums)