Harvard Art Museums' Exhibition Catalogue Dare to Know Named Among the Best Art Books of 2022 by New York Times

December 16, 2022

A trailer for the book is available through this link.	The exhibition catalog Dare to Know: Prints and Drawings in the Age of Enlightenment (Harvard Art Museums: 2022), which includes numerous contributions from members of the department, has been named by New York Times critic Jason Farago as a Best Art Book of 2022. The catalog accompanies a major special exhibition of the same title, recently featured in The Boston Globe in the Best of Boston Arts 2022, and curated by Elizabeth M. Rudy (Ph.D. ’07) and Kristel Smentek, Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The book is an A to Z exploration of the Enlightenment quest for understanding and change; it includes 26 thematic essays and 11 Spotlights, focused entries on single objects. Ewa Lajer-Burcharth, William Dorr Boardman Professor of Fine Arts, contributed two essays titled “Human” and “XXX.” The essays “Geography” and “Wager” were authored by doctoral candidates J. Cabelle Ahn and Thea Goldring, respectively. Two Spotlights were contributed by doctoral candidates Ashley Hannebrink, Kéla Jackson, and Rachel Burke. The book is co-edited by Edouard Kopp, Elizabeth M. Rudy, and Kristel Smentek.

A trailer for the book is available through this link.

The exhibition catalog Dare to Know: Prints and Drawings in the Age of Enlightenment (Harvard Art Museums: 2022), which includes numerous contributions from members of the department, has been named by New York Times critic Jason Farago as a Best Art Book of 2022. The catalog accompanies a major special exhibition of the same title, recently featured in The Boston Globe in the Best of Boston Arts 2022, and curated by Elizabeth M. Rudy (Ph.D. ’07) and Kristel Smentek, Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The book is an A to Z exploration of the Enlightenment quest for understanding and change; it includes 26 thematic essays and 11 Spotlights, focused entries on single objects. Ewa Lajer-Burcharth, William Dorr Boardman Professor of Fine Arts, contributed two essays titled “Human” and “XXX.” The essays “Geography” and “Wager” were authored by doctoral candidates J. Cabelle Ahn and Thea Goldring, respectively. Two Spotlights were contributed by doctoral candidates Ashley Hannebrink, Kéla Jackson, and Rachel Burke.

The book is co-edited by Edouard Kopp, Elizabeth M. Rudy, and Kristel Smentek.