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Isaak Koedijk’s “The Barber Surgeon,” painted in 1649-1650, is one of numerous paintings on display at the San Diego Museum of Art as part of the “Dutch Painting: Special Loans from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston” exhibit.(Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)<\/p>\n
In the Curator\u2019s Words<\/strong> is an occasional series that takes a critical look at current exhibitions through the eyes of curators.<\/p>\n It was an opportunity Michael Brown, curator of European Art at the San Diego Museum of Art, just couldn\u2019t pass up.<\/p>\n Numerous SDMA European paintings would be leaving for an exhibition in Japan, so he knew a large chunk of the museum\u2019s space in Balboa Park would be available.<\/p>\n Brown talks about \u201cDutch Painting: Special Loans from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,\u201d and how the exhibition, on display through March 2027, came to be.<\/p>\n Q: How lucky we are to be able to see these works in San Diego. How did this partnership come about with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n A:<\/strong> We are lucky, to be sure. SDMA curators have built on a number of collaborations with MFA Boston in recent years, most notably with \u201cO\u2019Keeffe and Moore\u201d in 2024. We had the ideal gallery \u2014 the centerpiece of the second floor of the museum\u2019s original 1926 building \u2014 available for this special presentation. So, from a curatorial point of view, it was also very good timing.<\/p>\n When my colleague, MFA Boston curator Frederick Ilchman, and I realized that San Diego\u2019s core collection of European paintings would be touring Japan at the same time as Boston\u2019s highly acclaimed exhibition \u201cDutch Art in a Global Age\u201d traveled the U.S., we saw it immediately as an opportunity for a meaningful collaboration. With 10 carefully selected Dutch paintings from Boston, our visitors would be able to enjoy an entire gallery exploring Dutch art. In turn, we agreed to lend several important Spanish paintings to a future exhibition at MFA Boston.<\/p>\n Q: Why are these works so important for us to study and admire in 2025?<\/strong><\/p>\n A:<\/strong> In the history of Western art and culture, we\u2019re struck by a few key moments: Ancient Greece and Rome, the Italian Renaissance or Spain\u2019s Golden Age. Four hundred years ago, something similar happened in the Netherlands, the tiny Northern European nation that gave rise to both Rembrandt the artist and the Dutch East India Company (by far the largest and most profitable employer in the world at the time, bigger than Amazon and Apple combined). Economically and socially liberal, though marred by colonial exploitation, Dutch society flourished. So did learning and science. Innovating with technical advances and styles approaching photo-realism \u2014 sometimes aided by optical lenses \u2014 highly skilled painters found great success. The paintings in this exhibition were commissioned by regular folk, not kings or popes, enjoyed in fairly modest domestic settings. Many paintings feature clear moral messages taught through humor and symbolism, many beginning with the basic reminder that life is short. The paintings\u2019 messages hold true today.<\/p>\n Q: If a viewer were new to Dutch paintings, are there common traits among them that we should look for?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n A:<\/strong> In this historic setting, I wanted to surround the 10 exquisite paintings from Boston with a supporting cast drawn from SDMA\u2019s superb collection of Dutch engravings. The radiant color and lustrous depth of the oil paintings \u2014 often on smooth wood panels \u2014 contrasts vividly with the drawn lines of the works on paper. Likewise, a selection of antique blue-and-white ceramics reinforces how images of flowers, landscapes and portraiture were constant themes across varied media at the time.<\/p>\n Observation of the natural world was key to Dutch painting, whether in still-life, landscape or portraiture. Paintings were often slightly improved but still realistic versions of the world. The paintings reward close looking, and maybe a certain degree of introspection. Likewise, the attention to detail \u2014 and lots of it! \u2014 was intended to delight and astound the viewer. Visitors are sure to see something new each time they come back.<\/p>\n \u201cDutch Painting: Special Loans from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston\u201d<\/p>\n When:<\/strong> Through March 2027<\/p>\n