The Brooklyn Museum has purchased 44 works by 26 artists who were part of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and ’70s. The museum acquired the works from Chicago dealers David Lusenhop and Melissa Azzi. The trove includes pieces by Kay Brown, Jeff Donaldson, Wadsworth Jarrell, the AfriCOBRA collective and others. Read More
The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., announced today that it has acquired the archives of Colin de Land’s American Fine Arts gallery and the Pat Hearn Gallery. The acquisition of the archives from the estate of de Land, who died in 2003, at the age of 47, was made possible by the support of collectors Marty and Rebecca Eisenberg and Howard and Barbara Morse. Read More
The Tate has purchased a number of works through its Outset/Frieze Art Fair Fund, which aims to put emerging artists in the museum collection. The news was leaked this morning by Art Market Monitor. Read More
The Frick Collection has acquired a still life by Dutch painter Gerard van Spaendonck (1746–1822). The circa 1793 work is titled Grapes with Insects on a Marble Top and is painted on marble. As the museum noted in a news release, its holdings are filled with impressive portraits and landscapes, making the piece something of an unusual—and welcome!—addition to the collection. It was given by collector Asbjorn R. Lunde. Read More
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has acquired its first oil painting by the Abstract-Expressionist Sam Francis, thanks to a gift from the late artist’s foundation. It is called Blue Balls V.
“We are honored with the Metropolitan’s enthusiastic acquisition of the Sam Francis as it joins a good home with the other prominent postwar holdings in the museum’s collection,” said the acting president of the foundation, Debra Burchett-Lere, in a statement made on its website today. The foundation aims to preserve and perpetuate the legacy of the artist, who died in 1994. Read More
German art dealer Michael Werner is giving 130 works to the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, according to a news release that just landed on our desk. Read More
For much of his career, Color Field painter Morris Louis famously worked out of his home in suburban Chevy Chase, Md., before dying of cancer in 1962 at the age of 49. Now the Baltimore Museum of Art, just a short drive away, has added 21 Louis works to its collection, thanks to a gift from the estate of the Louis’s widow, Marcella Louis Brenner. The donation is comprised of two paintings, Silver III (1953) and Untitled 5-76 (1956), and 19 ink drawings.
The BMA, which has three other paintings by Louis, is planning an exhibition of its holdings by the artist for 2013. Read More
Dutch painter Frans Hals died almost 350 years ago, in 1666, but he is having one incredible day, with Christie’s discovering one of his works in the collection of the late actress Elizabeth Taylor, and the Toledo Museum of Art snapping up one of his prized works. Read More
