A new exhibit looks at the role print played in the Age of Enlightenment

This is an illustration representing Diomedes being assaulted be the Trojans. the Trojans are charging at Diomedes with spears, his horse is bucking up on his hind legs and a horseman who has been killed, lies on the ground. — Diomède assailli par les Troyens, son écuyer tué à côté de lui (Diomedes Assaulted by the Trojans, His Horseman Killed at His Side)

Jared Bowen is the Emmy award-winning Executive Arts Editor and host of The Culture Show, a daily radio program and podcast at GBH exploring the creative process through a lively mix of local and national artist profiles, performances and exhibitions.

January 05, 2023

Updated August 07, 2023

Each Thursday, GBH Executive Arts Editor Jared Bowen sits down with Morning Edition to go through the latest in Boston's arts and culture. This week, stories from the stage, screen, and page come to the fore.

'Dare to Know: Prints and Drawings in the Age of Enlightenment'

On view at the Harvard Art Museums through Jan. 15, 2023

We see the back of a woman. It looks as if her skin has been unzipped down the back to expose her red interior and the sinews and nodes that make up her muscular system. — Muscles of the Back

"Dare to Know: Prints and Drawings in the Age of Enlightenment” looks at prints and drawings from the 18th century, a time of revolutions -- both political and idological. The exhibition encourages museum-goers to engage with the Enlightenment’s spirit of inquiry, imagination and curiosity.

“I was completely enlightened,” Bowen said. “I found this show absolutely fascinating for how — as we always discover with the present — nothing is new. What’s past is prologue, and this show really underscores that.”

Bowen says the exhibit illustrates how paper and printed materials were the social media of the day. Selling illustrations of a personal plight was a way to raise money — the predecessor to GoFundMe — and papers were disseminated to spread the news of the Boston Massacre.

“There are actually paper shortages because people rushed into printing, and they were disseminated in books that people would be able to take home and peruse,” Bowen said. “It was a kind of a slower burn, but it still had the same effect.”

“A Man Called Otto”
Now screening in local theaters

“A Man Called Otto” tells the story of Otto Anderson, played by Tom Hanks, who has descended into grumpiness and given up on life after the death of his wife. It’s an American remake of a Swedish hit, the 2015 Oscar-nominated film "A Man Called Ove," which was in turn based on the novel by Fredrik Backman.

Through a series of flashbacks, viewers learn how dependent Otto was on his wife and how she was the force that gave his life meaning. Without her, he turns inward — until a young family moves in next door and draws him out of his despair.

“You could see this movie and say that it’s sappy or sentimental,” Bowen said, “but in this time, where I think a lot of people are wondering what's sustaining them going forward, it’s a great time for this film.”