Displaying items by tag: Acquisitions

In keeping with deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum’s goal to become one of the country’s leading sculpture parks, the institution is pleased to announce the addition of new work by Carl Andre, Tom Burr, Paul McCarthy, Jarrett Mellenbruch, Alyson Shotz, and Kenneth Snelson, on view this summer.

A founder of 1960s American minimalism, Carl Andre developed a commitment to making objects that were comprised of an assembly and arrangement of elements. One of the artist’s few outdoor works, Sphinges is comprised of sixteen units of eastern pine placed to form a grid, playing on the riddle of the Sphinx. Like much of Andre’s work, Sphinges is made of raw materials and its arrangement is based on masonry techniques, which assert that the pattern in which the components are placed can determine the durability of the structure. The sculpture reveals the intrinsic beauty of the pine through repetition of forms and the artist’s purposeful placement of units.

Anyone looking to meet the director of the tiny but highly regarded Museum of Contemporary Art here has two choices. Head into the museum, where its interim director, Alex Gartenfeld, has an office. Or go next door to City Hall, where the mayor’s appointee to the same position, Babacar M’Bow, is essentially working in exile.

The dueling directors are just part of the chaos emanating from a bitter showdown that has erupted between MoCA, as the museum is known, and the city that founded it.

The museum’s board wants to leave this working-class city and merge with the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach, its wealthier and more glamorous neighbor. It says that North Miami has neglected the museum building and failed to support a needed expansion.

Nan Rosenthal, a curator who helped bring the 20th century to the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, died on Sunday at her home in Manhattan. She was 76.

The cause was heart failure, her sister-in-law Wendy Mackenzie said.

Over three decades, Ms. Rosenthal organized exhibitions and oversaw the acquisition of contemporary art, first at the National Gallery, which she joined in 1985, and afterward at the Met, with which she was associated from 1993 until her retirement in 2008.

The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California, has purchased two paintings by pioneering 20th-century American artists -- “Lattice and Awning” by Arthur Dove and “Summer Fantasy” by George Bellows. Dove, an early American modernist who spent most of his life in New York, was not previously represented in a public collection in Los Angeles County. The late-career landscape by Bellows, who is best known for his gritty depictions of day-to-day life, will enhance The Huntington’s collection of works by the realist painter.

Kevin Salatino, Hannah and Russell Kully Director of the Art Collections at The Huntington, said, “We have strengthened our collection of great American paintings dramatically with these acquisitions. ‘Lattice and Awning’ is a superb example of the artist’s work at a peak moment in his career, while ‘Summer Fantasy’ is a fascinating, multifaceted painting that eloquently fills a gap in our collection. Each will add invaluable depth to our display of American art.”

The works will go on view on July 19, when The Huntington opens five new rooms in its Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art, which house one of the largest collections of American art in California. The Huntington’s holdings span from the colonial period through the mid-20th century and include works by John Singleton Copley, Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, John Sloan, and Robert Motherwell as well as a selection of American decorative arts.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) acquired ten artworks during the institution’s 29th annual Collectors Committee fundraiser, which began on Friday, April 25 and continued through the weekend. The new additions to the museum’s robust permanent collection include an autograph reduction of Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres’ celebrated “Odalisque,” a print by Pablo Picasso from 1952, and an 18th-century painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe by the important Mexican painter Antonio de Torres. LACMA also acquired contemporary works by Roni Horn, Feng Mengbo, and Mitra Tabrizian.

LACMA’s Collectors Committee Weekend is one of the museum’s most significant fundraising events of the year. Throughout its 29-year history, the event has facilitated 202 acquisitions through donations totaling more than $32 million. Funds for this year’s acquisitions were raised by Collectors Committee membership dues, with additional funds provided by individual members. Another $800,000 was raised by a live auction.

For the sixth consecutive year, LACMA’s Collectors Committee Weekend was led by museum trustee Ann Colgin. Colgin said, “Collectors Committee Weekend is a celebration of LACMA’s timeless artworks, and I am delighted that these new acquisitions will further strengthen the museum’s collection.”

Edward Dolman, the former Chief Executive and Chairman of Christie’s, has announced that he will leave his current post as Executive Director and Acting Chief Executive of the Qatar Museums Authority. Dolman will return to the auction world in July when he assumes the role of Chairman and Chief Executive of Phillips.

During his three-year tenure with the Qatar Museums Authority, Dolman oversaw the construction and opening of several new museums. He also presided over the state’s collections, spearheaded new acquisitions, and organized exhibitions.

Phillips, which sells contemporary art, design, photography, limited edition prints, and jewelry, was founded in 1796 by former Christie’s employee Harry Phillips. The auction house is currently owned by the Russian luxury goods company, the Mercury Group.

In 2013, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art sold 3,290 objects worth a total of $5.4 million -- the institution’s highest revenue from such sales in eight years. So far, $3 million worth of paintings have been sold in 2014.

The works, which were offered at auction, previously resided in the museum’s storage facility. In 2013, the Met reported a $4.4 million operating deficit, which was said to be caused by Hurricane Sandy and other factors. The institution stated that the proceeds from the sales did not go toward its debt. Rather, the museum sold the works to refine its collection and to make room for future acquisitions. Museums are forbidden by the state Board of Regents from selling artworks in order to fund operating costs.

The Met sold Old Master paintings, Renaissance works, and clothing and accessories from its Costume Institute. The museum currently owns upward of 1.5 million objects.

Dennis Kois, the executive director of the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts, will step down from his post this May. Kois will return to his native Wisconsin to serve as the Milwaukee Public Museum’s president and chief executive officer.

Since joining the deCordova in 2008, Kois has expanded the museum’s collection, commissioned works by celebrated artists such as Andy Goldsworthy and Orly Genger, and helped raise millions for the once cash-strapped institution. Following the announcement of Kois’ departure, museum trustee Deborah A. Hawkins donated $1 million to the deCordova to bolster curatorial initiatives in his absence.     

Prior to his time at the deCordova, Kois served as the director of the Grace Museum in Abilene, Texas and before that, he was the chief designer at the Smithsonian Institution’s Freer and Sackler Galleries in Washington, DC. Kois will advise the deCordova on its search for a new executive director. 

The American Folk Art Museum in New York has acquired a number of traditional folk art works as well as pieces by self-taught artists, enhancing its already-expansive permanent collection. With objects dating from the eighteenth century to the present, the museum is devoted to preserving, conserving and interpreting works of traditional and contemporary folk art.

Among the recent acquisitions is ‘The Peaceable Kingdom,’ a painting by the Quaker artist Edward Hicks. Hicks painted at least 62 versions of The Peaceable Kingdom over a period of more than 30 years. This particular version was given to Hicks’ daughter as a wedding present and remained in the Hicks family for many years. It was later represented by Edith Gregor Halpert and her pioneering American Folk Art Gallery, Terry Dintenfass, and the Sidney Janis Gallery. The painting was donated to the Folk Art Museum by Sidney Janis’ son Carroll, and his wife, Donna.

Other highlights include an elaborate architectural portrait by self-taught artist Achilles Rizzoli titled ‘The Kathredal’; a 19th-century watercolor book purchased at the recent Sotheby’s sale of the collection of Ralph O. Esmerian; an ethereal work by Thornton Dial that was gifted to the museum by the artist’s family; and a crayon and pencil drawing on pieced paper by the Mexican-American artist, Martín Ramirez, which was donated to the Folk Art Museum by David L. Davies, a former Museum trustee, and Jack Weeden, who had previously established a $1 million exhibition fund in their names.

The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, AK has acquired a number of works by Andy Warhol. The first acquisition, ‘Coca-Cola (3),’ was purchased at Christie’s for $57.3 million in November. It had previously belonged to a private collection.

The Crystal Bridges’ other Warhol acquisitions were gifts -- an early painting from the artist’s time as a student at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) and a book of 21 dye diffusion transfer prints, which are being donated to the museum by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

‘Coca-Cola (3)’ and the early painting will go on view alongside the Warhol works already in the Crystal Bridges’ collection on December 26. The prints will not be immediately exhibited.