Displaying items by tag: Acquisitions

The Portland Museum of Art has acquired two major new works: River Cove by Andrew Wyeth and Winslow Homer's An Open Window.
According to the museum, An Open Window, painted in 1872,  fills a gap in its Homer collections, bridging early works from the 1860's and later compositions from the 1890's.

The St. Louis Art Museum has announced a significant acquisition: “Sunday Morning Breakfast,” a 1943 painting by the highly regarded African-American folk artist Horace Pippin.

The painting, the purchase of which was approved by the museum’s board of commissioners on Monday evening, cost $1.5 million.

Within the Museum of Modern Art’s announcement on Tuesday of coming exhibitions were signs of a seismic shift underway in how it collects and displays modern and contemporary art — changes that are expected to have a powerful impact on the museum’s renovation.

While curatorial activities used to be highly segregated by department, with paintings and sculpture considered the most important, the museum has gradually been upending that traditional hierarchy, organizing exhibitions in a more fluid fashion across disciplinary lines and redefining its practice of showing art from a linear historical perspective.

A masterwork of Oceanic art has been added to the collection at the Toledo Museum of Art. Purchased at Christie’s in Paris on Dec. 3, 2015, the mask is one of four known distinguished examples from Saibai Island in the Torres Straits and has been heralded by scholars as the most notable. The Saibai Island Masks are among the rarest and most spectacular works of art created by the artists of the Torres Straits.

he acquisitions policy employed by the Rubens House continues to turn up surprises, and after the announcement of the Clara Serena portrait, the museum has now brought a newly discovered Van Dyck to Antwerp. The work is a study for a portrait that was revealed to be an original Van Dyck during a 2013 episode of the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow. That way the Rubens House has brought the most valuable discovery of this television show to Antwerp on permanent loan. Visitors can see the painting as of today.

In 2013 nothing less than a miracle happened to Jamie MacLeod, a priest from Derbyshire, UK. A painting that he had bought for 500 euros was unveiled as a ‘genuine’ Anthony Van Dyck on the popular TV program Antiques Roadshow.

At its October 2015 Board of Trustees meeting, the National Gallery of Art acquired a large number of drawings, prints and photographs that greatly strengthen its collection. Highlights include extraordinary drawings by Pieter Jansz Saenredam (1597–1665) and Hans Rottenhammer (1564–1625), a bound volume with over 200 15th-century woodcuts, as well as a painting from the Thesaurus series by Mel Bochner (b. 1940). Promised photographs include numerous outstanding gelatin silver prints by Diane Arbus (1923–1971), Richard Avedon (1923–2004), and Robert Frank (b. 1924).

Kim Conaty has been appointed curator for the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University. Conaty comes to the Rose from The Museum of Modern Art in New York, where she was the Sue and Eugene Mercy, Jr., Assistant Curator of Drawings and Prints. In her new position, Conaty will play a key role in planning exhibitions and interpreting the Rose’s exceptional collection of post-war art, undertake significant research, and evaluate potential acquisitions. Conaty will join the Rose staff in December 2015. 

“I am delighted to welcome Kim as a creative partner during an historic period of ambitious growth for the Rose," said Christopher Bedford, Henry and Lois Foster Director of the Rose.

A new exhibit at the Clark Art Institute highlights a 20-year period of growth and expansion for the Williamstown museum.

While the exterior of the Clark may be the museum’s most recognizable change in recent memory thanks to a $145 million expansion unveiled last year, what’s inside is truly the driving force. And the Clark is hoping to hone that message through an exhibition titled An Eye for Excellence.

On Wednesday night at the 10th anniversary gala celebrating the de Young Museum, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco revealed 10 pledged gifts to the de Young’s permanent collection. Of the 10 works, eight were on display at the museum. The gifts are:

The Walker Art Center, in Minneapolis, announced today it has acquired 200 new works through donation and purchase over the past year. The acquisitions include pieces by artists such as Trisha Brown, Beauford Delaney, Chuck Close, Joseph Kosuth, Liz Larner, Allen Ruppersberg, Barry Le Va, Danh Vo, and Akram Zaatari.

Deschenes’s piece Gallery 7 (2015) is a site-specific installation commissioned by the Walker, and an homage to the museum. A year-long production, it utilized the natural light from the gallery’s windows to expose a series of free-standing panels coated with photosensitive paper.