Art Acquisitions

At each of the museums for which I have worked, I have developed acquisitions programs tailored to that institution’s existing collections, audience, and the salient art of that particular moment in time.
Over the decades of my involvement with the visual arts, I have acquired a considerable number of art works.

Milwaukee Art Museum (2005-2008)

At the Milwaukee Art Museum I coordinated a comprehensive collection assessment to develop a collection management plan over all areas of the collection. In my areas of American Art, modern and contemporary art, I helped raise over $2m to realize my acquisition plan to bring up to date the existing strengths in painting and kinetic art and to develop new a collection of film and video.

Bruce Conner, Eve Ray Forever (1965-2006), plus 13 films. Purchased with funds from the Contemporary Art Society. M2008.17.
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Santiago Cucullu, Skins, Rocks, Windows and Walls, 2008, adhesive vinyl, variable dimensions. Purchase with funds from the Contemporary Art Society.
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Robert Duncanson, Minnenopa Falls, 1862, oil on canvas, size. Purchase with funds from an Anonymous Donor.
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Sam Francis Print Archive. 516 prints. Gift of the Sam Francis Estate, with supporting funds from the Contemporary Art Society.
shown above: Sam Francis First Stone 1960 Color lithograph sheet: 25 x 35 1/2 in. (63.5 x 90.17 cm) M2009.173 Photo by John R. Glembin
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Grace Hartigan, Hidden Resources, 1974, oil on canvas, 81 x 114 inches. Gift of Fay Chandler. M2006.53.
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György Kepes, Cosmological Eye, 1941, mixed media collage, 13 5/8 x 10 ¼ inches. Purchase with funds form the Ralph and Cora Obendorfer Family Trust. M2008.62.
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Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #86, 1971, graphite, dimensions variable. Purchase with funds from the Friends of Art.
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Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Photogram, 1925
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Mary Lucier, Polaroid Projection Series, 1970/2006. Ed. 1/3. Digitized version of slide projection piece. Purchase with funds from the Contemporary Art Society.
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Nam June Paik, Ruin, 2001, 32 antique TV cabinets, seventeen 13” color TVs, fifteen 19” color TVs, 2 channel Paik video on DVDs, 164 x 228 x 26 inches.
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Erwin Redl, Matrix XV, 2007, LED light installation, 50 x 50 ft. Purchase Contemporary Art Society, 2008.
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David Reed, #546, 2002-06, oil and alkyd on linen, 40 x 180 inches. Purchase with funds from Friends of Art on their 50^th Anniversary in honor of Elizabeth D. Hoffman. M2008.69.
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Robin Rhode, Color Chart, 2006, video. Purchase with funds from Contemporary Art Society.
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James Siena, Ten to the Minus Thirty First, 2006, enamel on aluminum, 19 5/16 x 15 1/8”. Purchase with funds from Contemporary Art Society.
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Amy Silman, P&H, 2007, oil on canvas, 72 x 80 inches. Purchase with funds from the Contemporary Art Society.
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Sarah Walker, Frostline, 2007, acrylic on paper, 80 x 120 inches. Purchase with funds from Contemporary Art Society. M2008.60
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The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University (1998-2005)

The Rose Art Museum has an extraordinary collection of modern painting. I developed an acquisition plan to acquire contemporary painting and to build the then current fields of photography and video.

Matthew Barney, The Cremaster Suite, 1994-2002, ed. 10, five C-prints in self-lubricating plastic frames, 44 ¼ x 35 /4 inches each. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Rose by exchange, Rose Purchase Fund, 2003.
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Bernd and Hilla Becher, Watertowers, 1982-2000, four silver gelatin photographs, 36 x 29 5/8 inches each. Hays Purchase Fund, 2002.
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George Bellows Print Archive, 65 prints. Gift of Bernice and Joseph Tanenbaum, 2000.
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Harriet Casdin-Silver, Venus of Willendorf, 1991, reflection hologram, 5 ¾ x 3 ¼ inches. 2002.12.
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James Casebere, Nevisian Underground #3, 2001, digital chromogenic print (two panels), 96 x 77 inches. Rose Purchase Fund, 2001. 2001.8
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Gregory Crewdson, Ophelia, 2001, Laser C-print, 47 ½ x 59 ½ inches. Rose Purchase Fund, 2001.
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Thomas Demand, Rechner (Super Computer), 2001, C-print on diasec, 68 7/8 x 172 inches. Rose Purchase Fund, 2002.
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Ralph Goings, Bank of America, 1971, oil on canvas, 40 x 40 inches. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Zachary, 2003.
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Isaac Julien, Vagabondia, 2000, double-screen projection. Rose Purchase Fund, 2000.
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William Kentridge, Tide Table, 2003, video projection, duration 8 minutes. Hays Acquisition Fund, 2004.
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Barry McGee, Untitled, 2003-04, mixed media installation, dimensions variable. Hays Acquisition Fund, 2004.
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Yasumasa Morimura, Futago, 1989-90, photograph, 4 ½ x 135 inches. Rose Purchase Fund, 2000.
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Nam Jun Paik, Charlotte Moorman II, 1995, nine antique TV cabinets, two cellos, one thirteen-inch color TV, two five-inch color TVs, 92 x 68 x 24 inches. Hays Acquisition Fund, 2005.
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Roxy Paine, Poison Ivy Field (Toxicodendron radicans), 1997, PETG and vinyl with lacquer, oil paint, earth, sticks and stones in Plexiglas case, 48 x 66 x 48 inches. Rose Purchase Fund, 1997.
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Richard Prince, Untitled (Cowboy), 2000, Ectacolor, 42 x 96 ¾ inches. Gift of the Artist, Tibet House, New York; N. and L. Horch to the Riverside Museum Collection, by exchange, 2003.
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David Reed, #446, 1999, oil and alkyd on linen, 94 x 56 inches.
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Robin Rhode, Hondjies, 2001, See-Saw, 2001, White Walls, 2002, three DVD animations. Hays Acquisition Fund, 2004.
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Fred Tomaselli, Web for Eyes, 2002, hemp leaves, photo collage, acrylic, resin on wod, 48 x 48 inches. Purchased with Funds provided by Lynn P. Warner, 2002.
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Washington University Gallery of Art (1982-1998)

(Now the Mildred Kemper Museum of Art)

At the Washington University Gallery of Art, St. Louis, I followed in the footsteps of Horst Janson and Frederick Hartt who had built an important collection of modern European and American art up to 1960. At that point the collection had essentially stopped growing. I raised over $2.4m for acquisitions and purchased to fill in gaps in the historical collections, but primarily to build the collections with important works of art since 1960. Especially important was the collection of post-modern art that I assembled.

Glenn Ligon. Two White/Two Black, 1992, portfolio of soft-ground etchings, 25 1/8 x 17 ½ inches each. 1997.04-.09.
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Glenn Ligon. Runaway portfolio, 1993, suite of 10 lithographs, 16 x 12 inches each. 1996.01.01-.10.
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Tim Rollins & K.O.S. The Scarlet Letter-The Prison Door. 1992-93, acrylic and bookpages on linen, 54 x 77 inches. 1995.35.
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Robert Motherwell, Interior with Pink Nude, 1951, oil on masonite, 44 x 55 inches. 1995.9.
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Robert Motherwell, Elegy Study B, 1977, oil on paper mounted on board, 23 x 23 inches. 1995.10.
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Romare Bearden, Black Venus, 1968, mixed media collage on paper, 29 ¾ x 39 ¾ inches. 1994.1.
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Annette Lemieux. Hell Text, 1991, heat on cotton, 54 ¼ x 144 inches. 1993.3.
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Philip Guston. The Patient, 1979, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches. 1992.18.
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John Baldessari, Two Compositions (Formal/Informal), 1990, color photograph, vinyl paint, 96 ½ x 68 ¼ inches. 1992.11.a-b.
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Günther Förg. Untitled, 1989, watercolor on paper, 13 13/16 x 10 7/8 inches. 1991.13.
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William Trost Richards. Gathering Cold, c. 1885, oil on canvas, 25 ¾ x 46 ¼ inches. 1991.9.
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Barbara Kruger, Untitled, 1989-90, photographic silkscreen on vinyl, 140 3/8 x 92 ¼ inches. 1990.15.
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Jenny Holzer, LED from the Survival Series, 1990
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Arakawa. Beneath Untitled #2, 1985-86, oil and acrylic on canvas, 60 x 72 inches. 1990.4.
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Thomas Cole, Aqueducts Near Rome, 1832, oil on canvas, 44 ½ 57 5/16 inches. Purchase, Bixby Fund, by exchange. 1987.4
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Robert Cottingham. Barrera-Rosa’s, 1986, lithograph, 22 ½ x 46 inches. 1986.11.2.
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The Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana (1979-1982)

In my first position as curator of the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana, I built the collection of American Impressionists from Indiana (TC Steele), and pursued an NEA funded program to build the collection of prints, taking advantage of the tremendous growth in art prints during the 1970s purchasing prints by Chuck Close, Richard Estes, James Rosenquist, and Andy Warhol.

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