New Arrivals: Gifts to the Permanent Collection
James and Audrey Foster Galleries, Fourth Floor Hallway Gallery
Sep 1, 2007 – Jan 13, 2008 (opening reception, Thursday, Sep 6)
DeCordova Museum’s collection has grown substantially since its opening in 1950,
in large part due to the generosity of collectors and artists who have donated artworks to the Museum. The Museum’s collecting mission is to acquire modern and contemporary American art, with an emphasis on the work of New England artists. Currently, there are more than 3200 works in the Permanent Collection, and each year the Museum adds between fifty and several hundred new artworks—some purchased by the Museum through acquisition funds and foundation grants and others donated as gifts.
New Arrivals is the most current in a series of periodic exhibitions featuring artwork acquired by the Museum within the last few years. The exhibition focuses entirely on gifts to the collection, and includes 43 paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, photographs, and digital images by 33 artists. There is no thematic agenda to New Arrivals; rather, the intent is to show the diversity of the collection. Works range from the Asian-inspired abstractions of Ron Ehrlich to the detailed self-portraits of James Aponovich, which often refer to Italian Renaissance paintings, and from the delicate geometric hanging sculpture of William Wainwright, to the large-scale figurative sculpture of Penelope Jencks.
A number of the works have been donated by artists, such as Susan Erony’s painting, September 23, 1973, a moving tribute to the Chilean “disappeared,” and Peter Haines’s Hand Maquette, a model for a larger sculpture on view in DeCordova’s Sculpture Park. Others have been donated by Museum Trustees and benefactors. We are most grateful to all the generous donors whose gifts have enriched the permanent collection.
Rachel Rosenfield Lafo
Director of Curatorial Affairs
Director of Curatorial Affairs Rachel Rosenfield Lafo will lead an Art for Lunch session, Welcoming New Arrivals, on December 13 from 11:30 am - 1:30 pm. Cost for DeCordova Members $15/Non-Members $20 per person Space is limited, call 781/259-3632 or email Susan Diachisin for reservations.
Join DeCordova for Art for Lunch and meet DeCordova experts in an informal setting that provides an intimate, behind-the-scenes view of the exhibitions. Bring your curiosity and questions about art, artists, exhibitions, and the Museum. Participants meet at 11:30 am for a walk-through tour of New Arrivals followed by a discussion over lunch. Program runs about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. Fee includes lunch from The Café @ DeCordova.
Image: Richard Rosenblum, All the World’s a Stage, 1993, Cybermontage, 10 ¼” x 15 ¾” (matted 16 ½” x 21 ¼”), Gift of the Richard Rosenblum Family Collection 2003.88
