Skip to main content

Top Menu

  • Offers
  • Stay
    • Newbury King room
      Guestrooms
    • Grand Suite living room at The Newbury Boston
      Suites
    • The Mansion Presidential Suite, The Newbury Boston
      Collection Suites
    • One Newbury, Boston
      Accessible Suites
      Room FAQ's
    View All Accomodations
  • Dine
    • Contessa Rooftop in Boston
      Contessa
    • The Street Bar in Boston
      The Street Bar
    • woman sits on corner coach in front of bookshelves
      The Library
      Personal Dining
      Culinary Collaboration
    View All Dining Options
  • Celebrate
    • Bride in limo. Weddings at The Newbury Boston
      Weddings
    • Friends celebrating at The Newbury Boston
      Occasions
    • A venue to gather at The Newbury Boston
      Our Venues
      Submit RFP
      Celebrate
    Celebrate at The Newbury
  • Meet
    • Room at The Newbury Boston
      Our Venues
    • Chef Mario Carbone
      Culinary Collaboration
    • Venue at The Newbury Boston
      Submit RFP
    Meetings at The Newbury
  • Explore
    • One Newbury, Boston
      The Journal
    • One Newbury, Boston
      Neighborhood
    • A man and woman sit at the bar in The Newbury Boston
      Experiences
    • The Ivy Salon at The Newbury Boston
      Art Tour
  • Gallery

Mobile Menu

  • Close X
  • Home
  • Offers
  • Stay
    • Guestrooms
    • Suites
    • Collection Suites
    • Accessible Suites
    • Room FAQ's
    View All Accomodations
  • Dine
    • Contessa
    • The Street Bar
    • The Library
    • Personal Dining
    • Culinary Collaboration
    View All Dining Options
  • Celebrate
    • Weddings
    • Occasions
    • Our Venues
    • Submit RFP
    Celebrate at The Newbury
  • Meet
    • Our Venues
    • Submit RFP
    Meetings at The Newbury
  • Explore
    • The Journal
    • Neighborhood
    • Experiences
    • Art Tour
  • Gift Cards
  • Gallery
The Newbury Boston logo
  • Leaders Club
  • Gift Cards
  • BookReservations
Image

The Library

  • Yousef Karsh Portrait Photography at The Newbury Boston
    Selected Portraits
    Silver Gelatin Prints
    Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002)
    Audio file
    Selected Portraits
    Silver Gelatin Prints
    Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002)

    Next in the Library is a beautiful collection of black and white photographs by the late Yousuf Karsh, a pioneer in portrait photography in the 20th century. Karsh and his second wife, Estrellita, lived in the hotel’s residences and in appreciation, she allowed us access to this collection to choose these important portraits of artists and architects and writers. It creates a beautiful moment of nostalgia in the collection as well as allowing us to show these photographs that have never been seen outside a museum before. These specific portraits also are intended to represent a diversity of the arts. We have photographs of architects I.M. Pei, Le Corbusier, Opera singer Jesseye Norman, Dance choreographer Martha Graham, Writer Tennessee Williams (who was said to complete a play in one of the hotel’s rooms), Ernest Hemingway, Musician Pablo Casals, Baritone Paul Robeson, American contralto Marian Anderson, and Painters Georgia O’Keefe and Joseph Albers - whose work inspired contemporary artist Steve Locke and his recent collection of which we have two featured in The Street Bar.

  • Imagination and The Fold painting by Lauren Ewing, at The Newbury Boston
    Imagination and The Fold, 2013
    Oil on Wood Panel
    Lauren Ewing
    Audio file
    Imagination and The Fold, 2013
    Oil on Wood Panel
    Lauren Ewing

    As you enter the Library you’ll see the third in our set of three portraits, it’s a painting by Lauren Ewing called Imagination and The Fold. This is one of a set of four where Lauren matched a painting of Jan van Eyck, a 15th century Northern Renaissance painter with another artist of a different period in art history. In this portrait, some say it is a self-portrait, he has wrapped his head with a flamboyant red ‘chaperone’ - considered an expression of style and social position. Ewing matched this painting with a work by Russian avant-garde artist, Kazimir Malevich. His concept of Suprematism sought to develop a form of expression that moved as far as possible from the world of natural forms and subject matter to access “the supremacy of pure feeling” and spirituality. His work had a profound influence on 20th century abstract art. These two contrasting images in the same painting epitomize the historical relevance and the role of art in a contemporary society. Symbolism, cultural iconography.

  • Book Cover Paintings by Richard Baker at The Newbury Boston.
    Boston Authors Book Cover Paintings, 2020
    Gouache on Paper
    Richard Baker
    Audio file
    Boston Authors Book Cover Paintings, 2020
    Gouache on Paper
    Richard Baker

    Moving a little farther into the Street Bar, you’ll see a set of six paintings commissioned for the Hotel by Richard Baker. Richard Baker is a well-known artist who paints currently in Cambridge, exhibits in New York and Massachusetts and New Orleans and has taught in New York City and in Massachusetts. These paintings depict book covers by Boston authors who lived or wrote in the area.

    Baker actually collects original vintage books and then renders the covers almost exactly on washi tape with watercolor pape

  • Distance Disappearing I by Lauren Ewing at The Newbury Boston
    Distance Disappearing, I, 2016
    Oil on Board
    Lauren Ewing
    Audio file
    Distance Disappearing, I, 2016
    Oil on Board
    Lauren Ewing

    Looking further into the book shelves in the Library, you’ll see a number of carefully curated smaller pieces that are designed to draw you in and create an intimate looking experience. These include a set of three paintings by Lauren Ewing called Distance Disappearing. These three small oil paintings were made in response to the artist thinking about the essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin. It discusses the differences in looking at art before and after images began to be mechanically reproduced. The essay talks about aura-based looking, an in-person event as opposed to how we encounter reproduced images in several places including signs and in media. So, Lauren made small landscape paintings of deep space with the word ‘aura’ suspended in the center of each painting. Lauren Ewing works in her studios in Massachusetts, New York City and Indiana and is well known for her work as a sculptor, educator, and installation artist. She works with light, scale, and on specific sites and often uses materials and subjects that create illumination and beauty.

  • Distance Disappearing II by Lauren Ewing at The Newbury Boston
    Distance Disappearing, II, 2016
    Oil on Board
    Lauren Ewing
    Audio file
    Distance Disappearing, II, 2016
    Oil on Board
    Lauren Ewing

    Looking further into the book shelves in the Library, you’ll see a number of carefully curated smaller pieces that are designed to draw you in and create an intimate looking experience. These include a set of three paintings by Lauren Ewing called Distance Disappearing. These three small oil paintings were made in response to the artist thinking about the essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin. It discusses the differences in looking at art before and after images began to be mechanically reproduced. The essay talks about aura-based looking, an in-person event as opposed to how we encounter reproduced images in several places including signs and in media. So, Lauren made small landscape paintings of deep space with the word ‘aura’ suspended in the center of each painting. Lauren Ewing works in her studios in Massachusetts, New York City and Indiana and is well known for her work as a sculptor, educator, and installation artist. She works with light, scale, and on specific sites and often uses materials and subjects that create illumination and beauty.

  • Distance Disappearing III by Lauren Ewing at The Newbury Boston
    Distance Disappearing, III, 2016
    Oil on Board
    Lauren Ewing
    Audio file
    Distance Disappearing, III, 2016
    Oil on Board
    Lauren Ewing

    Looking further into the book shelves in the Library, you’ll see a number of carefully curated smaller pieces that are designed to draw you in and create an intimate looking experience. These include a set of three paintings by Lauren Ewing called Distance Disappearing. These three small oil paintings were made in response to the artist thinking about the essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin. It discusses the differences in looking at art before and after images began to be mechanically reproduced. The essay talks about aura-based looking, an in-person event as opposed to how we encounter reproduced images in several places including signs and in media. So, Lauren made small landscape paintings of deep space with the word ‘aura’ suspended in the center of each painting. Lauren Ewing works in her studios in Massachusetts, New York City and Indiana and is well known for her work as a sculptor, educator, and installation artist. She works with light, scale, and on specific sites and often uses materials and subjects that create illumination and beauty.

  • Camo by Jeannie Motherwell at The Newbury Boston
    Camo, 2017
    Acrylic on Clay Board
    Jeannie Motherwell
    Audio file
    Camo, 2017
    Acrylic on Clay Board
    Jeannie Motherwell

    Moving from the Library into the Street Bar, the first pieces of art we discover are two paintings from Jeannie Motherwell. Jeannie Motherwell addresses our desire to talk about legacy in the collection. She is Robert Motherwell’s daughter and the stepdaughter of Helen Frankenthaler. Both Robert Motherwell and Helen Frankenthaler were two of the most important American abstract expressionist painters in art history and Jeannie continues that tradition, living and working in Cambridge and Somerville. We chose these two smaller works that are presented in somewhat of a through space but we wanted people to spend a moment between rooms. We really wanted these to be a moment of pure style and a different style of painting than many of the other artworks in the collection. The embellished metallic leaf frames showcased these pieces against the dark midnight blue wall like a beautiful piece of jewelry, or a luxurious broach for the Newbury to wear.

  • Relic by Jeannie Motherwell at The Newbury Boston
    Relic, 2018
    Acrylic on Clay Board
    Jeannie Motherwell
    Audio file
    Relic, 2018
    Acrylic on Clay Board
    Jeannie Motherwell

    Moving from the Library into the Street Bar, the first pieces of art we discover are two paintings from Jeannie Motherwell. Jeannie Motherwell addresses our desire to talk about legacy in the collection. She is Robert Motherwell’s daughter and the stepdaughter of Helen Frankenthaler. Both Robert Motherwell and Helen Frankenthaler were two of the most important American abstract expressionist painters in art history and Jeannie continues that tradition, living and working in Cambridge and Somerville. We chose these two smaller works that are presented in somewhat of a through space but we wanted people to spend a moment between rooms. We really wanted these to be a moment of pure style and a different style of painting than many of the other artworks in the collection. The embellished metallic leaf frames showcased these pieces against the dark midnight blue wall like a beautiful piece of jewelry, or a luxurious broach for the Newbury to wear.

  • Sienna sculpture by Breon Dunigan, at The Newbury Boston
    Sienna, 2020
    Wood and Fabric
    Breon Dunigan
    Audio file
    Sienna, 2020
    Wood and Fabric
    Breon Dunigan

    As you look to the left you’ll see a sculpture by Massachusetts sculptor Breon Dunigan installed above the fireplace. ‘Sienna’ is made of upholstered fabric of an animal head, a ‘trophy head’ if you will, where the antlers have been replaced with furniture armature. We love this moment in the collection because it takes what may have been expected in any given historic space and interjects a moment of joy and pure fun into that by making this friendly animal apparent and giving us an unorthodox idea of what antlers might be made of.

  • The Last Visit by Richard Saja, at The Newbury Boston
    The Last Visit, 2018
    Embroidered Toile
    Richard Saja
    Audio file
    The Last Visit, 2018
    Embroidered Toile
    Richard Saja

    The next piece is by Richard Saja. Richard is an artist from New York City and most recently from upstate New York who for 25 years has made embroidered interjections into existing toile fabric and tapestries . There is a whimsical yet satirical message in his work. This piece is called The Last Visit and it depicts a horse on a journey, either beginning or ending a journey, we can’t quite tell. Richard’s work asks a question about the story rather than telling what the story might be. This particular fabric was designed for a project that Richard was asked to do for Max Mara and is the original design for some fabric designs for accessories that came later. Richard’s work takes these existing fabrics and makes an embroidered interjection with bright colors that changes the story just enough to make something new happen for the viewer.

  • Bounce by breon Dunigan, at The Newbury Boston
    Bounce, 2016
    Hydrocal
    Breon Dunigan
    Audio file
    Bounce, 2016
    Hydrocal
    Breon Dunigan

    Breon Dunigan is a sculptor from a family of art makers who lives and works in Massachusetts. She uses materials that are often used in construction and manufacturing but also used in maintaining a household. So, the idea of the artist studio as a workplace and a daily practice and the idea of a woman in command of that daily practice is a big part of why her practice is interesting. The three sculptures use basically the human or animal form and feel like they are dropping from the sky. She uses basic formal sculptural issues like weight, proportion, volume and in this one case motion and how an object occupies space when it lands there. In a very direct way, she is using the human form as a story and imagining that the human form will just appear or fall from the sky or fall from a dream and interact with some of the existing objects and textures in your house and make a circumstance to delight in.

  • Snoop by Breon Dunigan, at The Newbury Boston
    Snoop, 2016
    Hydrocal
    Breon Dunigan
    Audio file
    Snoop, 2016
    Hydrocal
    Breon Dunigan

    Breon Dunigan is a sculptor from a family of art makers who lives and works in Massachusetts. She uses materials that are often used in construction and manufacturing but also used in maintaining a household. So, the idea of the artist studio as a workplace and a daily practice and the idea of a woman in command of that daily practice is a big part of why her practice is interesting. The three sculptures use basically the human or animal form and feel like they are dropping from the sky. She uses basic formal sculptural issues like weight, proportion, volume and in this one case motion and how an object occupies space when it lands there. In a very direct way, she is using the human form as a story and imagining that the human form will just appear or fall from the sky or fall from a dream and interact with some of the existing objects and textures in your house and make a circumstance to delight in.

  • Siamese sculpture by Breon Dunigan, at The Newbury Boston
    Siamese, 1998
    Hydrocal
    Breon Dunigan
    Audio file
    Siamese, 1998
    Hydrocal
    Breon Dunigan

    Breon Dunigan is a sculptor from a family of art makers who lives and works in Massachusetts. She uses materials that are often used in construction and manufacturing but also used in maintaining a household. So, the idea of the artist studio as a workplace and a daily practice and the idea of a woman in command of that daily practice is a big part of why her practice is interesting. The three sculptures use basically the human or animal form and feel like they are dropping from the sky. She uses basic formal sculptural issues like weight, proportion, volume and in this one case motion and how an object occupies space when it lands there. In a very direct way, she is using the human form as a story and imagining that the human form will just appear or fall from the sky or fall from a dream and interact with some of the existing objects and textures in your house and make a circumstance to delight in.

  • We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue by Lavaughan Jenkins
    We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue, 2020
    Oil Paint with Foam and Modeling Paste Structure
    Lavaughan Jenkins
    Audio file
    We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue, 2020
    Oil Paint with Foam and Modeling Paste Structure
    Lavaughan Jenkins

    You’ll also see some very important small sculptures by an artist named Lavaughan Jenkins, a notable young Black artist who is having a very significant moment in his career right now. Having just finished a 7-month residency at The Fine Arts Work Center in 2022 we selected these two sculptures from Lavaughan’s Duchess Series. His works are made from using and building accumulations of oil paint to depict figures of African Americans throughout American history. Up until the George Floyd incident and the Black Lives Matter movement, Lavaughn had not titled his pieces, simply calling them the Duchess Series. These two have titles from songs. One is ‘We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue’ after a song by Curtis Mayfield and the other is called ‘I Don’t Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing’ after a song by James Brown.

  • I Don't Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing by Lavaughan Jenkins at The Newbury Boston
    I Don’t Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing, 2020
    Oil Paint with Foam and Modeling Paste Structure
    Lavaughan Jenkins
    Audio file
    I Don’t Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing, 2020
    Oil Paint with Foam and Modeling Paste Structure
    Lavaughan Jenkins

    You’ll also see some very important small sculptures by an artist named Lavaughan Jenkins, a notable young Black artist who is having a very significant moment in his career right now. Having just finished a 7-month residency at The Fine Arts Work Center in 2022 we selected these two sculptures from Lavaughan’s Duchess Series. His works are made from using and building accumulations of oil paint to depict figures of African Americans throughout American history. Up until the George Floyd incident and the Black Lives Matter movement, Lavaughn had not titled his pieces, simply calling them the Duchess Series. These two have titles from songs. One is ‘We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue’ after a song by Curtis Mayfield and the other is called ‘I Don’t Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing’ after a song by James Brown.

Discover a well-crafted life.

The Newbury Boston

One Newbury Street, Boston, MA 02116

Phone: (888) 202-2916

Email: [email protected]

Facebook
Instagram
Pinterest
LinkedIn

Footer

  • Contact
  • FAQ
  • Press & Media
  • Careers
  • Terms of Use
  • Global Privacy Policy
  • Accessibility

Copyright 2023 The Newbury BostonTM

Highgate HCF logo
Highgate logo
The Leading Hotels of the World logo
Five Diamond