The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) as we know it will undergo a number of changes thanks in part to a $25 million gift from the Wyss Foundation that will allow the institution to reinvent the presentation of its modern art collection, it announced today.
The donation will benefit the care, research, and display of the 20th-century art collection. These efforts include two new staff positions, namely, a curator and a conservator; Claire Howard was already appointed the inaugural Hansjörg Wyss Curator of Modern Art earlier this year. The funds are also slated to support a massive renovation project designed by Annum Architects that will create four new gallery spaces with an additional 5,665 square feet of space. Updates to lighting, windows, and climate control systems will improve energy efficiency.
Therein, three new galleries opening next fall will be added along the first floor of the MFA’s Evans Wing. Rotating displays of modern art will include single artists and thematic groupings. The fourth gallery will be dedicated to modern sculpture in the Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art and is slated to open in late spring 2025. Three of these spaces will be named after philanthropist and honorary MFA adviser Hansjörg Wyss and his late wife Rosamund Zander, an artist, author, and environmentalist.
“This moment marks a new chapter for modern art at the MFA, and we’re incredibly grateful to Hansjörg Wyss and his foundation for their generosity,” MFA director Matthew Teitelbaum said in a statement. “This gift honors Hansjörg’s lifelong journey in the world of art, spanning Europe and America, enabling us to create transformative experiences for generations to come. It allows us, as well, to share parts of our collection that are generally underrepresented, encouraging further study and recognition in our global museum.”
The MFA’s modern art collection, which spans several curatorial departments, includes a number of stalwarts across painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, and printing such as Jean (Hans) Arp, Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Frida Kahlo, Piet Mondrian, and Pablo Picasso.
“I am honored to have the opportunity to support the MFA’s efforts to reimagine the display of its 20th-century arts collections and highlight underrepresented artists,” Hansjörg Wyss said in a statement. “Promoting the arts and enabling discovery has been at the core of the Wyss Foundation’s mission, and I’m grateful to the MFA for their support in expanding those efforts to a museum with deep significance for myself and my late wife, Rosamund Zander. I know she would be overjoyed that a new generation will be able to experience the same collections that sparked her lifelong love for the arts.”
