Recent arrivals, now in a museum’s spotlight

September 18, 2011|By Geoff Edgers, Globe Staff

For a curator, there is nothing quite like opening up a new space. For a contemporary art curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, the moment holds special significance. The MFA, fairly or unfairly, has long been viewed as disinterested in all things contemporary. Museum leaders hope to change that perception when they introduce the Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art’s new galleries, new educational facilities, and, of course, new art. “As we walk through the galleries,’’ says Edward Saywell, chair of the MFA’s contemporary art program, “it’s incredible how many works have come into the collection in recent years.’’

Here are five that stand out.

INTENT Wade Aaron

Status: Commissioned, temporary installation

Not all art lasts forever. In the case of Wade Aaron’s “Intent,’’ art only lasts as long as the lights stay on.

Aaron, 34, a New Hampshire native and 2009 graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, created the piece by constructing a grid of more than 300 light bulbs that, when plugged in, spell the word “Intent.’’ What happens to the word as the inevitable bulb-burn occurs? One requirement of the piece, says Aaron, is that the bulbs never be replaced. When they go out, they go.

“You go from this thing that’s clearly legible to this thing that sort of perishes or becomes deciduous over time,’’ he says. “It loses its message or ceases to be, or becomes something else.’’ He pauses. “That’s something I haven’t quite come to understand.’’

One thing’s for sure: The MFA installation is a big break for Aaron, 34, whose work has been exhibited in galleries but never in a major museum.

It will remain on view for two years and isn’t being made part of the MFA’s permanent collection.

“His piece is meant to die out,’’ says Jen Mergel, the MFA’s senior curator of contemporary art. “It’s a great poetic challenge to ideas that art should be permanent or last forever.’’

ARCUS III Stanislav Libensky and Jaroslava Brychtova

Status: Loan

With acquisition budgets tight, the MFA has to rely to some extent on the generosity of private collectors. For the new wing, that meant borrowing about 80 loaned works from a longtime friend of the museum, Daphne Farago.

Farago has been generous. In 2004, she gave the MFA fiber art by Katherine Westphal and Ed Rossbach. In 2007, she donated jewelry, leading to an exhibition. Just a couple of weeks after starting at the museum last October, Emily Zilber, the curator of contemporary decorative arts, headed to Rhode Island to visit with Farago. They went out for lobster rolls and returned to discuss Farago’s impressive collection of contemporary works.