Acquisitions of the month: November 2016

Our round-up of the best works of art to enter public collections recently

Pérez Art Museum, Miami

Over 200 Cuban works of art from the collection of Jorge M. Pérez

Jorge M. Pérez has made a sizeable new donation to the museum that already bears his name. Some 200 works of Cuban art from his personal collection will go on display at PAMM next year. In addition to this gift, the real estate developer and philanthropist has promised the museum $10m to expand its collection – half of which must be spent on the procurement of Latin American art. PAMM has an exceptional collection of Cuban art, and in the past has staged exhibitions dedicated to artists from the country including Wifredo Lam, Ana Mendieta and Enrique Martinez Celaya.

¡Ay Tatá! ¿Hasta cuándo? (1995), José Bedia

Dallas Museum of Art

Leaf (1970), Sam Gilliam

This 1970 work is an outstanding example of Gilliam’s ‘Drape’ paintings. To create these works, the artist would pour acrylic paint directly onto the canvas, which was liberated from its frame and manipulated in ways that blurred the distinctions between painting and sculpture. This is the first work by Gilliam to enter the DMA’s permanent holdings and complements its strong collection of postwar abstraction. It is among the first acquisitions under the museum’s new director, Agustín Arteaga.

Leaf (1970), Sam Gilliam. Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Timothy C. Headington

Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle

‘In the end we all succumb to the pull of the molten core’ (2016), Glenn Brown

The Laing Art Gallery has become the first UK museum to hold a Glenn Brown work in their collection. Donated through the Contemporary Art Society’s Great Work scheme, which aims to address the lack of major works by leading British artists in regional museum collections, this piece was produced specifically for the gallery. In Brown’s drawing the turning heads of two men seem to merge. They gesture both towards the past in their evoking of studies by Giovanni Domenico Teipolo and Andrea del Sarto, as well as the future, in the complex arrangements of abstract lines.

‘In the end we all succumb to the pull of the molten core’ (2016), Glenn Brown.

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Five major sculptures by Cy Twombly

These five sculptures: Untitled, Rome (1980), Rotalla, Zurich (1990), Untitled, Rome (1997), Victory, (conceived 1987 and cast 2005), and Anabasis (Bronze) (2011), were originally selected by the artist to be exhibited at the museum in 2011 to complement his Fifty Days of Iliam (1978) suite. The sculptures make a significant addition to the museum’s holdings, which already includes one of the country’s most important collections of Twombly’s work. Varying in size and shape they reflect the artist’s fascination with classical art and the ancient world.

Rotalla, Zurich (1990), Cy Twombly. © Cy Twombly Foundation

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

On Form and Fiction (1990), Steven Campbell (jointly acquired by National Galleries Scotland and Glasgow Life)

Comprised of nine large framed paintings, 105 unframed ink drawings, and a combination of 3D objects, this immersive and ambitious installation engages with paradoxes and problems that preoccupied artists in a time of rapid change. First exhibited in 1990, the installation marks a seminal moment for contemporary art in Scotland and inspired the work of many young artists who emerged in the following decade. This is the second work to be jointly acquired by National Gallery Scotland and Glasgow Life. On Form and Fiction featured in Scotland’s GENERATION project in 2014, for which it was restaged at the Scottish National Gallery.

On Form and Fiction (1990), Steven Campbell. Installation view: ‘GENERATION: 25 Years of Contemporary Art in Scotland’, at the Scottish National Gallery, 2014. Photo: John McKenzie

Watts Gallery

Portrait of Violet Lindsay, later Marchioness of Granby and Duchess of Rutland (c. 1879), G. F. Watts (Art Fund, the ACE/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, and donors), and over 40 drawings made by Violet Lindsay (gifted by John Julius Norwich)

Regarded as one of the artist’s most important portraits, this celebrated painting has been acquired by the Watts Gallery just in time for the artist’s bicentenary celebrations in 2017. Watts painted Violet Lindsay on several occasions but this is considered the prime version, which the artist kept to ensure that it would be available for public exhibition around the world. Inspired by the acquisition, John Julius Norwich (a prominent historian and Lindsay’s grandson) has donated over 40 of Lindsay’s own drawings – she was a respected portrait artist in her own right.