A look back at the Museum of Fine Art’s boundary-breaking shows.
Two of the cars displayed in the Speed, Style and Beauty: Cars from the Ralph Lauren Collection exhibit, which opened on March 6, 2005.
Very few of us would ever have the chance to see the private car collection of famed designer Ralph Lauren. And yet, on March 6, 2005, anyone with a ticket to the Museum of Fine Arts (mfa.org) was awarded this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity when the Speed, Style and Beauty: Cars from the Ralph Lauren Collection exhibit opened its doors. On display were sixteen of the rarest European automobiles manufactured between the 1930s and the 1960s, never before exhibited together and most never before seen by the public. The exquisite design and beauty matched only by the engines, which were also on display at the “Hood’s Up” evenings on the last Thursday of each month during the exhibition’s run. Famed car executive Lee Iacocca was even in attendance one evening. Seeing the stunning machines on display in the hallowed halls solidified their place as works of art, sculptures to be admired.
Exhibits like these throughout the museum’s recent history have challenged what it means to be defined as art. Also in 2005 was an exhibit called Things I Love: The Many Collections of William I. Koch. On display were objects from the businessman’s collection that he was particularly enamored with, like the gun that killed Jesse James. Koch is also an avid sailor who assembled winning racing teams, and for this exhibit, the MFA installed two America’s Cup yachts on the museum’s front lawn. For the 2011 Dale Chihuly exhibit, Through the Looking Glass, the museum installed around 50 large-scale glass works. The impressive 42-foot “Lime Green Icicle Tower,” comprised of over 2400 giant icicles, now lives in the Shapiro courtyard thanks to a crowdsourcing initiative that allowed the museum to purchase it. Most recently, in 2020, hip-hop and graffiti were celebrated in an exhibition devoted to Jean-Michel Basquiat and his peers called Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation.
Over the past 20 years, the MFA has welcomed more than 20 million visitors to approximately 500 special exhibitions, in addition to exhibitions from its collection. Each opening is a chance to attract a new audience that hasn’t yet felt represented, celebrated or spoken to. “Our curators are intentional about special exhibitions and new installations in our galleries. Our goal is to actively engage our visitors with a range of content, including new ways of looking at old favorites, contemporary art and works from artists traditionally underrepresented in the art historical canon,” says MFA historian and archivist Maureen Melton. Case in point is an exhibit opening this May, The Visionary Art of Minnie Evans, which features 16 multimedia works by the black female artist who grew up in the American South during the Jim Crow era and created thousands of kaleidoscopic works inspired by vivid dreams and local landscapes.
Photography by: COURTESY OF MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON
