A painted diptych by Lee Lozano, a landmark installation by Kazuko Miyamoto, and a textured piece Howardena Pindell created in 1974-75 are among the works by female artists that the Guggenheim Museum acquired last year, the institute announced Wednesday, coinciding with the International Women’s Day.
Out of 40 artists represented in the museum’s new acquisitions, 26—or 65%—of them are women. Likewise, female artists were behind nearly two-thirds of the 62 new works acquired last year in total.
“The Guggenheim has always been committed to collecting visionary, exemplary artworks but we’ve understood that to bring in an object to the museum meant bringing in a relationship with and to an artist,” says Naomi Beckwith, deputy director and Jennifer and David Stockman chief curator of the Guggenheim Museum.
“We’ve recently focused on women whose reputations garnered attention far too late in their careers and on women who are a part of our exhibitions and programs. From there, we look to a sustained commitment to bolstering our relationships with more amazing women,” she says.
Some of the artists have recently had solo exhibitions at the Guggenheim, including Etel Adnan, Gillian Wearing, and Cecilia Vicuña.
Four works by the late Adnan (1925-2021), a Lebanese-American poet, essayist, and visual artist, were gifted to the Guggenheim by the artist’s personal friend Jeannette Flamm Brockman. Brockman reached out to the museum during the Adnan exhibition from 2021-22 and donated the four pieces so Adnan’s works could remain together, according to the Guggenheim. The four works include two untitled ink-on-paper, one watercolor, and one oil painting, titled In the Syrian Desert.
Many of the 30 female artists whose works were acquired last year are new to the museum’s collections, including Lauren Halsey and Farah Al Qasimi. Four works, created by Qasimi within the last four years, were included in the acquisition. Qasimi, 32, was born in Saudi Arabia and is currently based in Brooklyn.
Overall, approximately 80% of the past year’s new acquisitions were works created by members of communities underrepresented in the museum’s collection, the Guggenheim said.
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