The Queen of Boston Museums: The Fine Arts Museum

Located at 465 Huntington Avenue in the Fenway Cultural District, with its own rapid-transit stop (Museum), Boston's Fine Arts Museum (FAM) is a world-class art museum, in the company of the National Gallery in Washington, the Metropolitan in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum, and the Art Institue of Chicago. Also, for Japanese art, the collection and display surpasses that of the Japanese building in the Los Angeles County Museum and San Francisco's new(ish) Asian Art Museum. Founded in 1870, with a collection from the Boston Athenaeum, it has been in its imposing neoclassical edifice (designed by Dawson Evans) since 1909. A new wing for the arts of the Americas was added. This opened in 2006.

Highlights

I am well aware that interests vary, but want to highlight what most impressed me.

Substantial parts of the European art collection of the FAM ere closed for expansion, but those left open more than enough to exhaust any but the most determined and hardy visitor. It not only has a lot of Egyptian stuff, but more individuated less stylized human figures than those of, say, the British Museum or the Louvre. It has a room of Etruscan funerary art, many red-on-black Greek vases and Roman marble copies of Greek bronze sculptures, a wall of Vietnamese ceramics, quite a few sculptures from Java, the best collection of Japanese sculpture I've seen, extensive Chinese holdings that are very well displayed, fine Chinese and Japanese paintings, many Japanese swords, along with armor, kimonos, netsuke, and the Morse collection of 5,000 pieces of Japanese pottery,. I was intrigues by an 18th-century square ceramic tray with a line drawing and a poem, a 12th-century, bulging-eyed Fudo, a wooden Dainichi carved in 605, and, indeed, the whole connection of Buddhist art from Japan.

The FAM has many so-so Arthur Dove paintings, some interesting Sheelers, one fine Demuth, a mixed bag of Georgia O'Keefe (of six, two semi-abstract paintings of patios most struck me), a roomful of John Singer Sargeant paintings, no Marsden Hartley paintings. It has some good if not revelatory Monets (pairs of haystack, poplar, Rouen cathedral paintings plus one of a Japanese women) and Degases, a pair of van Gogh portraits, an OK Gaugain, an interesting Munch portrait of a woman in a green dress, a striking Kirchner nude of a yellow woman. It has no Nolde or Marc or Toulouse-Lautreac works (these lacks are made up ar Harvard's Fogg Museum, which also has four Hartley paintings). There are small collections with striking African and Oceanic pieces, some pre-Columbian ceramics, and a very striking Wari (Peruvian Amazon) tunic decorated with macaw feathers.

The lighting and labeling in the FAM are excellent, and seem even more so in contrast to the Isabell Gardner Museum a few blocks from it. (On a day with bright light like the one of my recent visit, the stained glass in the Gardner looked great, but it was difficult to adjust the eyes from the bright light coming in from the courtyard and from windows to the dark rooms and often dark objects.)

The gallery of Japanese Buddhist sculpture is particularly dramatic in presentation.

Note: When I was last there, most of the East Wing (mostly European paintings, but by no means all the FAM's collection of European paintings) is currently closed as part of the museum's expansion. Nevertheless, what is open is more than enough to overwhelm visitors on one day.

Seats
I get tired walking around and standing around in museums and welcome chances to sit down and look at the art. The Boston Fine Arts Museum is the best major art museum I can recall in this regard. In addition to lots of leather sofas and chairs in the rotunda, many of the galleries have benches or seats that are part of the collection but are also there to be used.

Open Hours
Monday and Tuesday 10 am-4:45 pm
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 10 am-9:45 pm
Saturday and Sunday 10 am-4:45 pm
The Gund Gallery's special exhibitions close 15 minutes before Museum closes.
The Museum Bookstore & Shop are open during weekday Museum hours, and until 5:45 pm Saturdays and Sundays. This and the auditorium are outside the area for which admission to the museum is charged.

The Museum is closed on the following holidays:
New Year's Day (January 1)
Patriots' Day (third Monday in April)
Independence Day (July 4)
Thanksgiving (fourth Thursday in November)
Christmas (December 25)
It is open on most Monday holidays.

All public restrooms are wheelchair accessible. There are pay phones by the coatrooms near both entrances and outside the the Fine Arts Restaurant on the upper floor.

Admission prices are not cheap, though readmission within 30 days is good for those staying more than a few days in the Boston area or for residents.
Adults $17
Senior Citizens and College Students $15
Youth, 7-17 $6.50 on school days until 3 pm; admitted free at all other times
There is usually an additional charge for Gund Gallery special exhibitions.
And admission to movies, concerts, and other events are not included in the museum ticket price (but do not require a museum ticket, either). Moreover, the ticket is good for a second visit within 30 days (which is good for residents and helpful only to a minority of visitors who are lingering in the Boston area).

Visitor Guides with floor plans, are available at both entrances in Japanese, Français, Italiano, Russian, Español, Deutsch, and Chinese.

Difficult and Expensive Parking/Easy Public Transportation
The Museum has two parking lots located on Museum Road, adjacent to the MFA. One is a covered garage on the left side of Museum Road and the other is an open-air parking lot on the right side of Museum Road, just beyond the garage. Parking at and near the MFA is limited and fills up fast, so taking the Green E Line to the Museum stop, or the Orange Line to Ruggles stop (or the 39 bus line) to the FAM is strongly advised.

Parking Rates:
Members: $2.50 each half hour ; $12.00 maximum
Non members: $3.50 each half hour; $22 maximum/day

For information on gallery closures, special exhibitions, etc., see
www.mfa.org