What’s more, no museum in the vicinity of Boston has the depth to be able to put this work convincingly in a wider context - teasing out connections not just with earlier strains of modern art, both American and European, but with the full gamut of contemporary productions. The Rose does.
Now that a lawsuit by Rose supporters has been settled with Brandeis agreeing not to sell the Rose’s collection, the university and museum are doing all they can to emphasize the Rose as a great resource within the university. This new tack makes sense: Part of the problem that led to the crisis was that the museum was not deeply embedded in campus life. It operated with remarkable independence and failed, some say, to make itself indispensable to the university that provided its home and original raison d’être.
And so when former Rose director Michael Rush invited an auction house to perform an evaluation on the collection, and then talked up its cash value (about $350 million) with the university’s leaders, hoping to impress upon them the Rose’s importance, his actions had a disastrously unintended consequence: The dollar signs lit up in their eyes, and they saw a quick solution to Brandeis’s financial crisis.
The new resolve - expressed to me by everyone from Brandeis president Frederick Lawrence to the Rose’s staff - to integrate the Rose more fully into Brandeis’s curriculum and life, is smart thinking.
But I believe it is also important to stress that the Rose is a resource for the wider public. Like the priceless art collections of Harvard, Yale, Smith College, and Williams College, the Rose’s collection inspires envy all over the world. Its quality makes it a destination for the public at large, and for scholars, curators, and students not just from Brandeis but from other schools, too.
The story of the Rose’s formation, which these three shows celebrate, is moving. It’s a story of which Brandeis should feel proud, and for which the rest of us should feel thankful. But its continuing viability and health are not just Brandeis’s concern: They are things in which we all have an interest.
Sebastian Smee can be reached at ssmee@globe.com.
