Around the Galleries

with Chief Curator Bruce Guenther

Members often stop me on the street or in the galleries to share a discovery they have just made in the Museum’s permanent collection galleries. They describe a work of art that they are certain is new and express how delighted they are to see it. With some 2,100 artworks on view in the Museum at any time, the work has often been part of the collection for many years and on view for some time and just waiting for someone to discover it anew.

With this first issue of Portal, we are initiating a new feature that will call out a curator’s picks from across those 2,100 objects for our members’ discovery and delectation. Framed by the presence in the Museum this fall of Titian’s magisterial portrait, La Bella, one of that master’s most beautiful women, my first selection showcases a bevy of women who define their age and open a dialogue around the changing nature of representation and our collective ideals of beauty.