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Collection

The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection is the Museum’s permanent collection of two- and three-dimensional art. This international collection boasts over 14,000 works and spans seven centuries, with strengths in works on paper and contemporary craft, and includes notable holdings by artists from Arkansas, the Mid-South region, and across the United States.

Diego Rivera (Guanajuato, Mexico, 1886 - 1957, Mexico City, Mexico), "Dos Mujeres (Two Women)," 1914, oil on canvas, 77 3/4 x 63 1/2 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Gift of Abby Rockefeller Mauzé. 1955.010.
Elaine de Kooning (New York, New York, 1918 - 1989, Southampton, New York), "Standing Bull," 1958, oil and acrylic on canvas, 78 1/4 x 108 1/4 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Gift of Robert Mallary. 1973.024.
Georgia O'Keeffe (Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, 1887 - 1986, Santa Fe, New Mexico), "Special No. 30 (Banana Flower)," 1934, charcoal on paper, 22 x 15 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Purchase, Tabriz Fund and Museum Purchase Plan of the NEA. 1974.011.008.
Roy Lichtenstein (New York, New York, 1923 - 1997, New York, New York), "Study for 'Aviation,'" 1967, graphite, crayon, and paper collage on paper, 22 3/4 x 27 1/4 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Purchase, Tabriz Fund and Museum Purchase Plan of the NEA. 1976.019.
Louise Nevelson (Kyiv, Ukraine (formerly Russia), 1899 - 1988, New York, New York), "Tide Garden IV," 1964, painted and assembled wood construction, 91 x 140 x 10 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Gift of Sidney Singer, Sr., Stephens Inc., Gerald Cramer, Martin Oppenheimer, Edward Rosenthal, and John Rosenthal. 1983.030.
Peter Voulkos (Bozeman, Montana, 1924 - 2002, Bowling Green, Ohio), "Cruciform Vase," 1958, glazed and underglaze-painted stoneware, 28 1/2 x 21 x 7 1/2 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Purchased with an anonymous gift. 1992.080.
Berthe Morisot (Bourges, France, 1841 - 1895, Paris, France), "Girl Leaning on her Elbow," 1887, charcoal on laid paper mounted to brown kraft paper, 17 1/2 x 21 5/8 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Purchased with a gift from Helen Porter and James T. Dyke in memory of Frances C. Dyke. 1998.016.
Thomas Moran (Bolton, Lancashire, England, 1837 - 1926, Santa Barbara, California), "Venetian Scene," 1897, watercolor on paper, 14 3/4 x 10 1/2 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Purchase, Tabriz Fund. 1998.021. Photography by Edward C. Robison III.
Paul Signac (Paris, France, 1863 - 1935, Paris, France), "Nature morte (Still Life)," circa 1926, watercolor and graphite on paper, 10 1/4 x 16 1/16 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Gift of James T. Dyke. 1999.065.062.
Leon Niehues (Seneca, Kansas, 1951 - ), "Chan Juan #63," 2001, white oak, emery cloth, and brass bolts, 16 x 12 1/2 x 11 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Purchased with a gift from John and Robyn Horn. 2002.018. Photography by Edward C. Robison III.
Thomas Hart Benton (Neosho, Missouri, 1889 - 1975, Kansas City, Missouri), "Clay County Farm," 1971, oil on canvas, 32 x 22 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Bequest from the Estates of Louise and Fred Dierks. 2012.008.001.
Barbara Hepworth (Wakefield, Yorkshire, England, 1903 - 1975, St. Ives, Cornwall, England), "Two Heads (Christmas)," 1970, white polished marble on artist-designed wood base, 17 x 20 1/4 x 15 1/4 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Bequest from the Estates of Louise and Fred Dierks. 2012.008.005. Photography by Edward C. Robison III.
John Marin (Rutherford, New Jersey, 1870 - 1953, Cape Split, Maine), "Palisades, Hudson River, New Jersey," 1923, watercolor and charcoal on textured watercolor paper, 19 3/4 x 16 1/2 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Gift of Norma B. Marin. 2013.018.234.
Victor Ekpuk (Eket, Nigeria, 1964 - ), "Composition #2," 2009, pastel and graphite on paper, 50 x 50 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Purchase, Tabriz Fund. 2014.019.
Carroll Cloar (Earle, Arkansas, 1913 - 1993, Memphis, Tennessee), "The Draught of Fishes," August 1965, casein tempera on Masonite, 23 x 34 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Gift of Egon R. Gerard. 2017.002.
George Romney (Beckside, Lancashire, England, 1734 - 1802, Kendal, Westmorland, England), "Lady Willoughby de Broke," 1779 - 1781, oil on canvas, 50 x 40 1/4 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Gift of the Winthrop Rockefeller Charitable Trust. 2019.006.001.
Edgar Hilaire Germain Degas (Paris, France, 1834 - 1917, Paris, France), "Danseuse bleue (Avant la classe, trois danseuses), Blue Dancer (Before Class, Three Dancers)," 1886 – 1890, pastel on paper, 21 1/4 x 19 3/4 in., On loan from the Jackson T. Stephens Charitable Trust for Art. XL.2000.001.001. Photography by Edward C. Robison III.
Claude Monet (Paris, France, 1840 - 1926, Giverny, France), "Effet de Soleil Couchant sur la Seine à Port-Villez (Effect of the Sun Setting on the Seine at Port-Villez)," 1883, oil on canvas, 29 x 36 3/8 in., On loan from the Jackson T. Stephens Charitable Trust for Art. XL.2000.002.004. Photography by Edward C. Robison III.

On View: April 22, 2023 - Ongoing

The inaugural installation in the Harriet and Warren Stephens Galleries contains more than 150 diverse works of art from the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection. AMFA is the only art museum in Arkansas that collects internationally and possesses more than seven centuries of artistic production.

An intimately direct artistic expression, drawing is a defining strength of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection. In the early 1970s, AMFA made the strategic decision to focus its collecting activities to drawings and other works on paper. Among the first works purchased were those by three living American artists—Andrew Wyeth’s Snowflakes, Willem de Kooning’s Untitled and Morris Graves’s Animal—all of which laid the foundation for future growth and are on view in these galleries. In the time since, the drawing collection has grown considerably and now contains more than 5000 examples.

The inaugural installation fills more than 15,000 square feet across five galleries. Greeting guests is a recently conserved, nearly life-sized bull painting by Elaine de Kooning, who gave a workshop in 1972 at the Museum’s Art School. The first gallery introduces guests to highlights from the collection, including a dense, floor-to-ceiling installation of contemporary craft—fiber, wood, ceramics, glass, and metal-based art, another focus of the collection—mirrored on the opposite wall by a monumental, assembled wood sculpture by Louise Nevelson.

Drawings and other works of art by Arkansas and regional artists illustrate their contributions to the broad arc of art history. John Miller Howard was a major figure in an artistic revival in the mid-South. Howard founded the art department at the now University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and taught such notable students as Tarrence Corbin, Kevin Cole, and Jeff Donaldson—who later moved to Chicago and became a founding member of the AfriCOBRA movement. Similarly, paintings by Carroll Cloar, born in Earle, Arkansas, and photographs by William Davis, noted Arkansas photographer, uniquely illustrate the Southern landscape.

Andrew Wyeth (Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, 1917 - 2009, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania), "Snowflakes," circa 1966, watercolor on paper, 8 7/8 x 11 7/8 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Purchase, Tabriz Fund and Museum Purchase Plan of the NEA. 1971.009.001.
Francesco Bassano II (Bassano del Grappa, Italy, 1549 - 1592, Venice, Italy), "Adoration of the Shepherds," circa 1580, oil on canvas, 37 x 52 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. 1934.001.
Titus Kaphar (Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1976 - ), "The Jerome Project (Asphalt and Chalk) VII," 2014, white chalk on asphalt paper, 49 x 35 1/2 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Purchase, Tabriz Fund. 2015.005. Photo by Edward C. Robison III.
Lee Krasner (New York, New York, 1908 - 1984, New York, New York), "Earth #1," 1969, gouache on heavy wove paper, 18 3/8 x 22 3/4 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Purchase, Tabriz Fund. 1984.017.
Raven Halfmoon (Norman, Oklahoma, 1991 - ), "Do You Practice Your Culture?," 2019, stoneware and glaze, 62 x 20 x 38 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Purchase. 2021.007.001. Photography by Edward C. Robison III.
Peter Pincus (Rochester, New York, 1982 - ), "A Familiar Kind of Riddle," 2018, colored porcelain and luster mounted on wood, 52 x 89 x 5 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Purchase, Contemporaries Fund. 2021.008.001. John Polak Photography, courtesy of Ferrin Contemporary.

As guests move into the adjacent gallery, they encounter the oldest works in the collection, ranging from the fourteenth through nineteenth centuries. These include prints, drawings, and paintings from Europe and America, including drawings by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn and Peter Paul Rubens, as well as two Italian paintings, gifts to the museum from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, which laid the foundation for the international scope of the collection. Several of these works are juxtaposed with those by contemporary artists, showing the broad continuum of artistic traditions.

Recently conserved, George Romney’s portrait of Lady Willoughby de Broke is paired with a large-scale ceramic figural sculpture by Peter VandenBerge. On the far wall, an array of portraits and artists’ self-portraits illustrate the varied approaches to depicting the human figure.

The third gallery features American and European Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings and drawings, many from the Jackson T. Stephens Trust for Art Collection. These include paintings and drawings by such artists as Claude Monet, Pierre-August Renoir, Camille Pissarro, and Edgar Degas, among others. In stark contrast to the colorful palette used by the Impressionists in their paintings, a large-scale clear, blown glass still life by contemporary American artist Beth Lipman anchors one end of the gallery.

The fourth gallery is devoted to modernist works, centered around Diego Rivera’s 1914 cubist painting Dos Mujeres. An adjacent wall features a floor-to-ceiling, salon-style installation of modern sculpture and works on paper by twentieth-century artists from the United States, Russia, France, and the Netherlands.

As guests complete their diagonal path through the galleries, they end in a spacious, light-filled gallery that celebrates the AMFA’s holdings of contemporary art—many of which are large scale and complement the generous space. Recent acquisitions by ceramicists Raven Halfmoon and Peter Pincus make their debut, surrounded by paintings and works on paper by Robert Colescott, Kerry James Marshall, Gronk, Titus Kaphar, Victor Ekpuk, and Marietta Hoferer, among others.

Also in this gallery is a site-specific installation by Houston-based artist Natasha Bowdoin in the Art Perch, which features an inviting bench for guests and a picturesque 32-foot-long window overlooking Ninth Street and a sculpture installed on the north grounds.

More than 70 drawings and paintings have undergone cleaning and conservation. Additionally, an audio tour will introduce new discoveries about the art on display and enhance the visitor experience in the galleries, throughout the building, and the surrounding landscape.

On View: April 22, 2023 - Ongoing

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