Artists represented include Robell Awake, Mary Ellen Crisp, Mark Thomas Gibson, Lubaina Himid, Shahzia Sikander, and Lorna Simpson, among many others.
BALTIMORE, MD – The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) announced today the acquisition of approximately 75 works, spanning time, culture, and geography and capturing a spectrum of artistic innovation. The acquisitions reflect the museum’s ongoing commitment to diversifying its collection with works by artists from the Baltimore region and across the globe, allowing for greater cross-cultural storytelling and reflecting a depth of creative ingenuity. Among the new acquisitions are a textile by Mary Ellen Crisp; paintings by Mark Thomas Gibson and Lubaina Himid; works on paper by Chitra Ganesh, Rania Matar, Natani Notah (Diné), Shahzia Sikander, and Lorna Simpson; photographs by Tamiko Nishimura and Gail Thacker; sculpture by Cheryl Pope and Lucia Hierro; and a new commission by Robell Awake—a rising star of the furniture world, who uses 19th-century African American chairmaking forms and techniques to create contemporary works that speak to the imagination of Black makers across time.
The BMA’s longstanding investment in artists with ties to the Baltimore region continues with the acquisitions of works by Linda Bills, Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, and Sara VanDerBeek. The group also includes Viewfinder Quilt #1 and Viewfinder Quilt #2 (both 2020) by the MICA Pandemic Quilters. Taking the traditional form of a Baltimore Album Quilt, these two quilts were produced after a prompt was sent to individual makers to create quilt squares using appliqué techniques that illustrate what had come into focus for them in 2020. These two works document the experiences of the coronavirus pandemic, the fight for social justice and growing awareness of racial oppression, and the importance of nature and the environment. The quilters first banded together following a public program led by Susie Brandt (now Professor Emerita of the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) Fiber Department) presented in conjunction with the BMA’s 2015 American Crazy Quilts exhibition. Originally comprised of MICA students and faculty, the group later expanded to include other MICA staff, alumni, and friends, members of the African American Quilters of Baltimore, and participants from across the U.S. The MICA Pandemic Quilters produced 14 Viewfinder quilts over two years.
The acquisitions also notably include a significant promised gift of 37 works from the collection of BMA National Trustee Sylvia de Cuevas. The gift includes paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, and decorative arts with outstanding examples of works by modern icons such as Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Fernand Léger, as well as works by important Surrealist artists Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst, Leonor Fini, René Magritte, and Victor Brauner. This is the first representation in the collection of work by Brauner, whose figures are often derived from tarot card imagery and Romanian folklore. The group also includes nine graphic pieces and three sculptures by French feminist artist Niki de Saint Phalle, who is also new to the BMA’s collection. Other artists represented in the gift are Michelangelo Pistoletto, one of the leaders of the “Arte Povera” movement in Italy, and Pavlos Dionyssopoulos, known as Pavlos, who developed his experimental paper sculptures during the emergence of Nouveau Réalisme and Pop Art.
“The acquisitions announced today speak to the BMA’s focus on both acclaimed and under-recognized artistic movements and creative breakthroughs, from our own community and across global cultures,” said Asma Naeem, the BMA’s Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director. “As we consider the growth of our collection, we are particularly attuned to storytelling: how we can deepen commonly understood artistic narratives with a range of voices and bring to the fore those stories that have been obscured or erased. Our collection is core to our work as an institution and allows for ongoing research and innovation in our audience-centered presentations. I am delighted by the thoughtful range of works entering our collection and look forward to sharing them with our visitors.”
More information: https://artbma.org/
