Displaying items by tag: donated

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 North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh has acquired ‘Portrait of Madame X Dressed for the Matinée’ by the American painter Mary Cassatt. The canvas is the first painting by Cassatt to enter the museum’s permanent collection.

‘Portrait of Madame X Dressed for the Matinée’ was executed by Cassatt shortly after she started exhibiting alongside Edgar Degas and other European Impressionists. Cassatt was one of only two women to be accepted into the close-knit circle of artists. Exuding energy and liveliness, ‘Portrait of Madame X Dressed for the Matinée’ illustrates Cassatt’s transition to a fully impressionist style.   

Before joining the North Carolina Museum’s collection, the painting had been owned by the late Winston-Salem-base collector, R. Philip Hanes, and his wife, Charlotte. Anonymous donors and Ms. Hanes gifted the painting to the museum to honor R. Philip’s memory. 

‘Portrait of Madame X Dressed for the Matinée’ will go on view in the North Carolina Museum of Art’s Impressionist Gallery later this month.

The founders of New York’s Dia Art Foundation are suing the organization and Sotheby’s to stop the auctioning of artworks they say were donated with the intention of keeping them readily available to the public. Heiner Friedrich and his ex-wife, Fariha Friedrich, who started the foundation in 1974 with art historian Helen Winkler, filed the suit in the state Supreme Court in Manhattan on November 7, 2013.

The sale, which is scheduled to take place at Sotheby’s on November 13 and 14, includes contemporary artworks by Barnett Newman, Cy Twombly and John Chamberlain – all of which the plantiffs claim were donated or loaned to Dia in the 1970s and 1980. The Friedrichs said in their complaint, “Dia’s proposed auction of the subject works would remove the works from public access and viewing in direct contravention of Dia’s entire intent and purpose and of plaintiffs’ arrangements and understandings with Dia.”

The Friederichs started Dia to help artists bring “visionary projects” to fruition and to make them available to the public. Heiner Friederich has not served on the foundation’s board since 1985; Fariha remains a trustee emeritus. They have asked for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to stop the sale.  

On Wednesday, August 28, 2013, Ann Goldstein announced that she will resign as director of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Goldstein has helmed the museum since 2010 and oversaw its recent expansion, which reached completion in September 2012. Goldstein will leave her post on December 1, 2013.

After announcing her sudden departure, Goldstein released the following statement:

 It has been a privilege to serve this great institution, to oversee its re-opening after nearly nine years of closure, and to live and work in a community that deeply values the vital presence of the Stedelijk Museum in people’s lives. While assuming responsibility for a closed museum presented tremendous challenges, it also offered unexpected opportunities. With The Temporary Stedelijk (2010–12) we were able to reconsider what a museum could be for its publics—open or closed—offering exhibitions, public programs and education initiatives in our unfinished historic museum building and throughout Amsterdam prior to our reopening. Now, nearly a year since our reopening, we have achieved our long-anticipated goal of a fully functioning, international museum with an exhibition schedule that prepared for the next two years. I announced my resignation to the Supervisory Board on June 26, 2013, confident that my work is done and the museum is firmly poised for a new artistic director to lead it into the future. I feel a strong affection for this remarkable institution’s exceptionally devoted staff, board, and community, and have often said that the esteemed and inspiring history of the Stedelijk is part of my DNA as a museum professional. It will surely always remain close to my heart.

During her time at the Stedelijk, Goldstein helped acquire over 1,500 works for the museum’s permanent collection; over 600 of those pieces were donated. There has been some speculation that Goldstein will return to the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art where she served as the senior curator from 1983 to 2009.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. announced that they have acquired 100 photographs from The Irving Penn Foundation. Irving Penn, one of the most celebrated artists of the 20^th century, revolutionized fashion photography and was also well known for his still lifes and portraits that frequently appeared in Vogue.

The recently acquired photographs include rare, mostly unpublished works from the late 1930s and 1940s, images of post-war Europe and iconic portraits of celebrated figures such as Agnes de Mille, Langston Hughes and Truman Capote. The collection also includes commercial photography, self-portraits and some of Penn’s most recognizable fashion images. Penn had donated 61 photographs, spanning from 1944 to 1986, to the Smithsonian during his lifetime. He also gifted 60 works to the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in 1990.

To celebrate the acquisition and the expansion of the Smithsonian’s Penn holdings, the museum will organize a touring exhibition of approximately 160 works that will open at the Smithsonian in the fall of 2015.

On Saturday, July 27, 2013 the Springfield Museum of Art in Springfield, MO will reunite two portraits that have been separated for 100 year. The paintings of Lewis Allen Dickens Crenshaw and his wife, Fanny Smith Crenshaw, are by the lauded 19^th century Missouri artist George Caleb Bingham.

Bingham, a pioneer of the Luminist style, painted the portraits late in his life. Mrs. Crenshaw’s portrait has been in the museum’s collection since 1990 after being donated by the couple’s late daughter. Mr. Crenshaw’s portrait remains in the family and is on loan to the museum through Rachael Cozad Fine Art, a Kansas City-based gallery.

The Crenshaws portraits will be hung side by side as part of a permanent “exhibition” highlighting the Springfield Museum’s collection. Other featured artists include Grant Wood, Charles Sheeler and Thomas Hart Benton.

Boston-based collector, Dorothy Braude Edinburg, has gifted nearly 1,000 works of art to the Art Institute of Chicago, making it one of the most significant donations in the museum’s history. The gift includes approximately 800 works on paper – primarily European prints and drawings from Old Mast to modern – and 150 works of Asian art. The donation will complement the considerable long-term loans and prior gifts made by Edinburg including works by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Henri Matisse (1869-1954).

The most recent gift, along with Edinburg’s previous donations, is part of the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection, which honors Edinburg’s parents. Highlights include nearly 50 extremely rare Japanese volumes, many of which are from the Edo period, a sorely unrepresented period in American museum collections; Chinese celadons from the 12^th and 13^th centuries; and prints and drawings by Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Claude Monet (1840-1926), Edvard Munch (1863-1944) and James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), among many others.

Edinburg said, “I have never thought of my collection as a personal endeavor. I have always believed that it should ultimately enter a major museum and serve a broad public…I have seen the Art Institute as the eventual home for my entire collection for many years, and I am thrilled to taking another step forward with this gift in honor of my parents.”        

Two 10^th century statues that were looted from jungle temples have been returned to Cambodia by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met announced in May 2013 that they would send the Khmer sculptures known as Kneeling Attendants back to Cambodia after being displayed in the museum’s Asian Wing for 10 years.

Hab Touch, director general at the Ministry of Culture, said, “The return of the statues is a historic event for us.” Seven Buddhist monks blessed the life-size statues during a religious ceremony attended by officials from the government and the Met at the airport. Upon their return to Cambodia, the sculptures will be put on display at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh and later kept at either the National Museum in the capital or at a museum in the northwestern city of Siem Reap.

The two statues were looted from the Koh Ker temple site in the early 1970s. At the time, Cambodia was being ravaged by a brutal civil war and looting was rampant. The works were donated piece by piece to the Met in the late 1980s and 1990s. Recent documentary research revealed that the statues were in fact looted from Cambodia.

The Michigan state Senate has taken measures to protect the Detroit Institute of Arts’ (DIA) works from being sold as a means to help revive the city’s grim economy. On Tuesday, June 4, 2013, the Senate’s General Government Committee approved a bill that aims to codify the ethical standards implemented by the American Alliance of Museums, which bans institutions from selling artworks for any reason other than the enhancement of its collection.

The Senate decided to take action after Detroit’s emergency manager Kevyn Orr asked for an appraisal of the DIA’s collection. Orr was considering whether the museum’s multi-billion dollar collection could be considered an asset to Detroit, which could potentially be sold to help cover the city’s $15 billion debt. Orr’s inquiry sparked an immediate reaction and DIA hired bankruptcy lawyer Richard Levin of Cravath, Swaine & Moore to protect the collection from any possible losses.

DIA is a unique public museum as Detroit retains ownership of its building and collection while a separate nonprofit institution manages its day-to-day operations. DIA’s collection includes major works by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569), Henri Matisse (1869-1954), and Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890). Many of these masterpieces were donated by the city’s finest collectors, some of who have put restrictions on the works stipulating what DIA or the city can do with the works.

The bill, which was approved on a 5-0 vote, will now move to the full state Senate where it will be reviewed later this week.

In a last-ditch effort to help revive Detroit’s dismal economy, emergency manager Kevyn Orr has asked for an appraisal of the Detroit Institute of Arts’ (DIA) collection. While nothing has been finalized, Orr is considering whether the museum’s multi-billion dollar collection could be considered an asset to Detroit that could potentially be sold to help cover the city’s $15 billion debt.

Orr’s inquiry sparked an immediate reaction and DIA has hired bankruptcy lawyer Richard Levin of Cravath, Swaine & Moore to advise it in troubling situations and to protect the collection from any possible losses. Orr’s spokesman, Bill Nowling, assured the public that the appraisal is not a sign that they will be selling off the collection, an act that would surely be controversial, complicated, and mired by opposition. DIA is a unique public museum as Detroit retains ownership of its building and collection while a separate nonprofit institution manages its day-to-day operations.

While Nowling is adamant that Orr is not considering selling DIA’s collection, he did say that he would consider the museum’s holdings as assets of the city, especially as Detroit might be filing for bankruptcy. DIA’s collection includes major works by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569), Henri Matisse (1869-1954), and Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890). Many of these masterpieces were donated by the city’s finest collectors, some of who have put restrictions on the works stipulating what DIA or the city can do with the works. If Orr does decide to sell works from DIA’s collection, it will undoubtedly prohibit the institution from receiving future donations and support.