Tang receives contemporary works from Anne, Arthur Goldstein

The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore has received a gift of 40 contemporary works on paper from the collection of Anne and Arthur Goldstein. The gift includes works by a diverse group of leading and emerging artists, including Stephen Balkenol, Huma Bhabha, Nicole Eisenman, Josephine Halvorson, Mary Reid Kelley, David Korty, Atta Kwami, Jack Pierson, Sterling Ruby, Amy Sillman and Gary Simmons.
 
The majority of the works in the Goldstein gift represent the Tang’s first acquisition from the artist’s oeuvre in the Tang’s growing collection, and several of the works were created by artists who were featured in exhibitions at the Tang Museum early in their careers. The drawings and other works on paper included in the gift provide an intimate view into the studio practice of these artists, and add to the deep collection of works available for research and study by students and scholars from a variety of disciplines.
 

“On behalf of the Tang, our visitors, and the students and faculty with whom we collaborate, I would like to thank Anne and Arthur Goldstein for this generous gift,” said Ian Berry, Dayton Director of the Tang Teaching Museum. “We are excited to welcome into our collection this group of diverse artists, so many of whom we have worked with previously. The range of perspectives and practices represented in this gift will serve as a tremendous resource for the interdisciplinary investigations that are at the heart of everything we do.”
 
Said Arthur Goldstein, “From the first time Anne and I learned about the Tang, we were struck by the innovative ways the Museum engages people with objects and ideas. We knew we had found a perfect place for works from our collection. We are so pleased to make this gift and to foster the Tang’s outstanding programming, teaching, and exhibitions.”
 
Highlights from the gift include the following:
 
-- Beth Campbell,My Potential Future Based on Present Circumstances (2/12/06), 2006. This text-based, systematic, graphite drawing explores a set of possible futures arising out of everyday encounters and was created the same year the artist was included in the Tang exhibition And Therefore I Am.
 
-- Nicole Eisenman,École d'Abject, 2007. In addition to her 2009 solo exhibition Nicole Eisenman: The Way We Weren’t—the 17th project in the Opener series at the Tang—Eisenman has been a featured artist in the Whitney Biennial and Carnegie International.
 
-- David Korty,Untitled, 2006. This watercolor and pencil on paper work depicts a lakeshore scene with geometric shapes and flowing outlines creating a dreamlike reflection. Based in Los Angeles, Korty is known for his post-impressionist images of California.
 
-- Amy Sillman,Untitled (#6), 2007. This brightly colored, hand-drawn over etching represents a pivotal series of drawings and paintings that originated from life studies of couples. This body of work was shown at the Tang in the 2008 solo exhibition Amy Sillman: Third Person Singular— the15th project in the Opener series—and traveled to the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C.
 
-- Richard Tuttle,Deep in the Snow, 2005. This extensive edition by the master printmaker and influential figure in post-minimalist art of the 1970s includes 12 individual prints made in a range of techniques from color drypoint with hand-dropped aquatint, to photogravure and embossing, presented as a wall-mounted work with prints suspended from a small copper basket.
 

-- Jack Whitten,Study for Lapsang and Chinese Sincerity #6, 1975. The addition of this pastel on paper drawing to the Tang’s collection supports the museum’s mission to collect and present the work of artists who merit a reassessment of their work and impact.
 
In its 15th anniversary year, the Tang continues to grow its collection and recently received a $100,000 challenge grant from the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation to establish an endowment to support conservation and care of the more than 7,000 works in the collection.
 
Exhibitions during the anniversary celebration include Opener 29: Arturo Herrera (through Aug. 23, 2015), featuring new works from the Berlin-based artist’s recent body of abstract paintings for which he manipulated small books found at flea markets; The Tang Museum Field Guide to Machine Project, Volume 1 (Sept. 19, 2015–Jan. 3, 2016), which will feature a series of interventions, performances, and happenings created for the Tang by Skidmore alumnus Mark Allen in collaboration with his Los Angeles-based collective Machine Project; Affinity Atlas (Sept. 5, 2015–Jan. 3, 2016), inspired by the work of pioneering cultural theorist and art historian Aby Warburg, charts an exploratory path built upon idiosyncratic treasures and contemporary art culled from the Tang’s and Skidmore’s collections; and Alma Thomas: A Retrospective (Feb. 6–June 5, 2016), which will explore this influential but sometimes overlooked artist in the first museum survey of her work since 2001.

In 1992, Anne and Arthur Goldstein began collecting contemporary art, first focusing on works on paper and photography and later incorporating contemporary sculpture. Works from their collection have been exhibited throughout the United States, Japan, and Europe, including at the 2012 Whitney Biennial and the 2015 Venice Biennale, as well as in retrospectives for Mel Bochner, Rackstraw Downes, Nicole Eisenman, Dana Schutz, and Kara Walker. The Goldsteins' photography collection was the subject of a traveling exhibition titled A New Reality: Black and White Photography in Contemporary Art organized by the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University. The Goldsteins have donated work to museums across the United States, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston; and the Norton Museum of Art, Florida.