Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and the Boston Public Library have featured Karsh’s work in recent years, but when it came to choosing a permanent home for nearly 30 original portraits, Karsh’s widow chose to donate them to the Armenian Library and Museum of America in Watertown for its permanent collection.
The library and museum had originally asked only for a loan of several portraits, but Estrellita Karsh decided to make the photos a gift.
“Yousef was so proud of his heritage,’’ she said. “He was a citizen of the world, but enormously proud of being Armenian.’’
The 40-year-old library and museum - the largest of its kind in the world outside of Armenia - is using the serendipity of Karsh’s gift to transform its main gallery into an open, airy, modern space to showcase his work in a new permanent collection.
“Armenians are proud of Karsh’s work, and he is an internationally admired photographer,“ said Michele Kolligian, an executive vice president of the museum’s board. “We want to bring non-Armenians in … to share Karsh’s Armenian heritage, and show it to people who might never have come here otherwise.’’
Designed by art consultant Keith Crippen, the exhibition “Celebrating Humanity’’ will occupy a windowfront gallery as part of the museum’s $500,000 renovation project, featuring state-of-the-art lighting, secure display spaces, and soaring ceilings. A new streamlined welcome desk will greet visitors at the building’s Main Street entrance in Watertown Square.
It will open with a black-tie gala benefit in Boston tomorrow, and a reception at the museum Saturday. It is hoped the Armenian ambassador to the United States will attend, Kolligian said.
Curator Gary Lind-Sinanian said that the Karsh gift and the renovations it has inspired are among the biggest challenges he’s faced in his two-decade-long career at the museum.
“We are transforming a small ethnic museum into an art museum, which is very exciting,’’ Lind-Sinanian said while showing visitors the new space.
