COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Coinciding with the release of a quasi-confession from Bill Cosby, whose art collection is on view until early 2016 at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African art, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden announced Tuesday the acquisition of new works by a dozen artists and artist groups from Iran, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, the U.K., and the United States.
The works include Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian’s 1975-76 Untitled geometric mosaic; Senga Nengudi’s nylon sculpture R.S.V.P. X; two triptychs by Charles Gaines; Susan Philipsz’s multimedia installation Part File Score; Hans-Peter Feldmann’s installation Shadowplay; David Claerbout’s Travel; Michael Todd’s postwar assemblage of found objects, titled Cluster (a gift from the artist); The Art Workers’ Coalition’s antiwar Q. And babies? A. And babies. (a gift from David Platzker); C.T. Jasper and Joanna Malinowska’s video installation Halka/Haiti 18°48’05″N 72°23’01″W (a gift from the Julis family); Héctor Zamora’s performance video O Abuso da História [The Abuse of History]; and Gerco de Ruijter’s stop-frame animation CROPS.
Melissa Chiu, director of the Hirshhorn, said in a statement,
“The Hirshhorn is acquiring works that enable broader, deeper narratives of the history of modern and contemporary art. We’re adding another dimension to a story that was previously the domain of European and American artists. These acquisitions speak to the Hirshhorn’s increased international focus. At the same time, our collection gains depth in underexplored areas of American art over the past few decades, particularly the work of African American artists.”