Krzysztof Wodiczko: Portrait: Harvard Art Museums

Explore the matters and questions of today’s democracy through a commissioned artwork by internationally renowned artist Krzysztof Wodiczko, presented at the Harvard Art Museums in partnership with the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Video recordings capturing voices and opinions of students and young people from Harvard and the Boston area will activate the Harvard Art Museums’ iconic portrait of George Washington (c. 1795) by Gilbert Stuart, fostering an exchange of views and responses at this time of heightened political division.

In conjunction with the Portrait commission, two drawings by Wodiczko that were recently acquired by the museums will also be on display. The works are studies from the artist’s Homeless Vehicles series, created in the late 1980s to address the emerging needs of individuals experiencing homelessness, and as a critical response to former U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s economic policies.

Curated by Mary Schneider Enriquez, Houghton Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Harvard Art Museums.

This exhibition is made possible by the Graham Gund Exhibition Fund, held jointly by the Harvard Art Museums and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

In its own galleries, the Graduate School of Design will present a career-spanning look at Wodiczko’s work, Interrogative Design: Selected Works of Krzysztof Wodiczko, from October 21, 2021 through April 8, 2022. Before visiting, please visit the GSD’s website for up-to-date information on public access to the school’s galleries.

Image: Gilbert Stuart, American, George Washington, c. 1795. Oil on canvas. Harvard University Portrait Collection, Gift of Sidney F. Tyler to the University, 1969, H631.