Art as omen in turbulent times
Arts & Culture Art as omen in turbulent times Joseph Koerner with Max Beckmann’s “Self-Portrait in Tuxedo” (1927) at Harvard Art Museums.Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer Eileen O'Grady Harvard Staff Writer March 12, 2025 8 min read In new book, Joseph Koerner dissects reaction to 3 works created during political unrest When Joseph Koerner first began teaching Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch at Harvard in the 1990s, he saw him as the “typical medieval artist” preoccupied with sin, chaos, and danger. But as Koerner uncovered more information about how Bosch’s works have been interpreted over the centuries by panicked people in times of political upheaval, the story began to shift. “Now, one almost feels like one is looking to Bosch for what we are supposed to do under our own emergency situation,” he said. “Instead of being way back in the past, he seems to have become a cipher for the present and an omen for the future.” Koerner’s latest book, “Art...