The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem was founded in 1799, and for more than 200 years now it has housed the unique and exotic treasures brought home from ports as far-flung as China, Japan, Korea, India, the Pacific Islands, and Africa, as well as fascinating items found locally, including Native American artifacts and objects representing the rich history of maritime practice. The frankly rather rambling institution also came to own a bevy of historic properties and gardens in the area, as it continued to extend its mission to bring history to life by showing how we have lived and also how we have broadened our cultural horizons through art and objects.
Last fall, the museum closed for an extensive overhaul, and this month it reopens with much fanfare, having undergone a vast expansion, renovation, and reconfiguration, including the addition of a grand wing designed by renowned architect Moshe Safdie. The white arc of Safdie’s new entrance to the museum is bright and welcoming, with a seafaring flavor in sync with the building’s historical and physical location; its crisp white stripes and contemporary air embrace the older parts of the building with a generous spirit. The museum’s commitment to engaging in present in a way that works with its historical collections is likewise reflected in " Family Ties: A Contemporary Perspective, " the inaugural exhibition in the museum’s new special exhibitions gallery. " Family Ties, " curated by former Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Seattle Art Museum contemporary curator Trevor Fairbrother, opens June 21 and boasts a great accompanying catalogue. The show is situated adjacent to a remarkable exhibition of Chinese ancestor portraits, which Fairbrother was aware of when he began organizing his show 15 months ago. " I wanted the exhibition to be cutting edge but also to respond to the Chinese ancestor portraits, which represent one nation, one class, one religion, " says Fairbrother. " Well, that was then, and this is now. ‘Family’ as we know it is a complicated term. I wanted to take the primal theme of family and show a very wide spectrum. "
Not only biological families but also family identifications born of shared race, religion, nationality, and personal choice all come into play in " Family Ties. " The very first object viewers encounter is a life-sized pink sculpture by Keith Edmier depicting a pregnant woman looking down at her belly. She is wearing a replica of the pink Chanel suit worn by Jacqueline Kennedy in Dallas on the day her husband was assassinated, along with ladylike pink gloves, pumps, and flip hairdo. The title, Beverley Edmier, 1967, identifies the woman as the artist’s mother, pregnant with the artist. This bizarre, probably Oedipal, self-portrait with mom, made by an artist who has also worked as a special-effects artist (contributing to movies such as Nightmare on Elm Street 3) manages to look both as serene as a Pietà and as weird as a figure in a wax museum, and serves as a fine introduction to works as varied as Janine Antoni’s exploration of her mother-daughter relationship and two uncharacteristically emotional Andy Warhol paintings of his mother, made shortly after her death. It also introduces the idea of a political era as a kind of family, reverberating with works like the wonderful mini-period room A Small World by Sanford Biggers and Jennifer Zackin, where you can sit on shag carpeting and watch side-by-side home movies of an African-American boy from the West Coast and a Jewish girl from the East Coast — they are delightfully similar, with trips to Disneyland and birthday parties, revealing their common middle-class, 1970s American experience.
The exhibition, " Family Ties: A Contemporary Perspective, " will be on view at the Peabody Essex Museum, East India Square, Salem, June 21 through September 21. Guest curator Trevor Fairbrother gives a slide lecture on " Making ‘Family Ties’ " on June 26 at 7:30 p.m., and artists Shellburne Thurber and John O’Reilly speak about their work on July 25 at 8 p.m.; tickets for lectures are $10 for members, $13 for nonmembers. For information, call (978) 745-9500.
