▲El Anatsui, Ghanaian, born in 1944, active in Nigeria
Black River
2009
Aluminum, bottle caps and copper wire
*1

The Museum’s Department of Contemporary Art, established in 1971, focuses on works created since 1955. It now encompasses Contemporary Art and MFA Programs, bringing together in one department all forms of contemporary culture including art, film, lectures and music. The department acquires works in all media including painting, photography, works on paper, sculpture, installation, decorative arts, craft, design, and new media, such as video and LED. To date it has acquired more than 1250 works, although thousands more works dating since 1955 are held in the Museum’s other departments including Prints, Drawings, and Photographs; Art of the Americas; and Art of Asia, Oceania, and Africa. In September 2011, the MFA unveiled seven new galleries dedicated to the Contemporary collections in the Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art, housed in the fully renovated 1981 building designed by I. M. Pei. A rich diversity of more than 200 works is represented throughout the wing. Among the collection highlights are major works by internationally recognized artists: El Anatsui, Lynda Benglis, Mark Bradford, Cerith Wyn Evans, Mona Hatoum, Jenny Holzer, Eva Hild, Matthew Day Jackson, Alex Katz, Ellsworth Kelly, Christian Marclay, Josiah McElheny, Sigmar Polke, Ken Price, Martin Puryear, Doris Salcedo, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, Fred Wilson, and Betty Woodman, among others.

*1：105 x 140 inches (266.7 x 355.6 cm)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Towles Fund for Contemporary Art, Robert L. Beal, Enid L. Beal and Bruce A. Beal Acquisition Fund, Henry and Lois Foster Contemporary Purchase Fund, Frank B. Bemis Fund, and funds donated by the Vance Wall Foundation
2010.586
Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, NY
Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

▲Panpipes (paixiao)
19th century
Lacquered wood, bamboo
*2

Musical instruments first became a part of the Museum’s collection in 1917. Instruments from around the world are included in the MFA’s holdings-such as rare, early keyboards, flutes and rattles, and many types of guitars-with exceptional examples dating from ancient civilizations to the late 20th century, from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Among other recent acquisitions are several historical keyboard instruments, a large collection of pre-Columbian flutes and ocarinas, a complete Javanese gamelan orchestra made in 1840, and an outstanding ensemble of Thai and Burmese instruments. The department has also increased its focus on instruments manufactured in America, especially from New England.

*2：Length 38.5 cm, height 36.4 cm, depth 4.5 cm (Length 15 3/16 in., height 14 5/16 in., depth 1 3/4 in.) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Leslie Lindsey Mason Collection 17.2098
© Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

▲Edward Weston, American, 1886-1958
Sand Dunes, Oceano, California 1936 1936
Photograph, gelatin silver print
*3

These holdings encompass an extraordinary range of artists, time periods, and media-including prints, drawings, watercolors, photographs, and posters of American and European origin, dating from the mid 15th century to the present, in addition to the acclaimed Lane Collection of modernist photography and prints. Well-represented artists include Durer, Rembrandt, Goya, Picasso, Munch, Kollwitz, and the German Expressionists, as well as the French Impressionists Pissarro, Cassatt, and Degas. The Museum possesses one of the earliest photography collections in the country, initiated in 1924 when Alfred Stieglitz donated 27 of his photographs. In 1967, a purchase program was inaugurated and today the collection spans the history of photography from its beginnings in the 1840s to present day, including works by Clarence White, Frederick Evans, Georgia O’Keeffe, Edward Weston, and Yousuf Karsh. In 1997, the MFA opened the Morse Study Room to further the public's access to works on paper housed at the Museum, and in 2008, opened the Herb Ritts Gallery, a dedicated space for photography. In 2012, the Museum received more than 6,000 photographs from the renowned Lane Collection, including works by Charles Sheeler, Edward Weston, and Ansel Adams.

*3：19.0 x 24.2 cm (7 1/2 x 9 1/2 in.) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Sophie M. Friedman Fund
1983.169
© Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

▲Woman's jacket
Japanease, Edo period, late 17th to early 18th century Silk twill with supplementary silk
and gilt-paper wefts tied
*4

The MFA was the first American museum to establish an independent textiles department and did so in 1930. The collection features objects from the first century through today, and includes costumes, accessories, needlework, shoes, fans, rugs, quilts, and fashion periodicals from all over the world. The departmental library, one of the largest of its type in the country, is an international study resource that includes rich holdings ranging from rare books of the 16th to early 20th centuries, to contemporary fashion publications. In recent years, the Museum has focused on building its collection of 20th-century fashion, from haute couture to ready-to-wear, acquiring the archives of fashion designer Arnold Scaasi and fashion illustrator Kenneth Paul Block. Additionally, in 2006, the MFA became the first museum in the United States to create a curatorship for jewelry. In 2011, the MFA opened the first gallery dedicated to jewelry at an art museum, the Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation Gallery, and in September 2012 also debuted the Gems and Jewelry from the Ancient Mediterranean Gallery.

*4：143.5 x 139.7 cm (56 1/2 x 55 in.)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
William Sturgis Bigelow Collection and Julia Bradford Huntington James Fund
15.1155
© Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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