Brooklyn Museum Adds Art by Black and Asian-American Artists

Brooklyn Museum acquired more than 300 works of art for the current project. Overall, the institution wants to increase the number of Black artists it advocates. Also, to close any voids in the museum’s portrayal of Asian American cultural identity and heritage. The first acquired art comes from an Asian American woman, Hisako Hibi.

The purchases cover a range of genres and platforms. The go from Dyani White Hawk’s radiant painting Untitled (Pink and Blue) (2022) to María Magdalena Campos-Pons’s Polaroid work Voyeurs and Beholders of… (2008). There is also Gim Jeong-hui’s calligraphic work Letter (1830). The museum’s American Art galleries are going to open in 2024 and will house the latest assets.

“Significantly, 2023 saw the acquisition of our very first artwork made by an Asian American woman–Hisako Hibi”, Stephanie Sparling Williams, the museum’s curator of American art, said. Ibuki Hibi Lee presented the piece, Satoshi Studying, which originated circa 1945. She is the daughter of the artist and Matsusaburo Hibi.

Her son, donor Ibuki Hibi Lee’s sibling, appears in the piece. After the family relocated to New York, he is sitting at his desk reading above a bustling street. The Brooklyn Museum is not releasing the cost or funding for any of the new acquisitions it acquired. However, Williams—the most recent addition to the American art team—briefly talked about the team’s buying approach.

Many Donations to the Institution

He emphasised that a large number of them were donations to the museum. “Direct partnership with artist estates and gifts of art have been a hugely impactful way to broaden the American Art collection to include works by Asian Americans, African Americans, and women, in particular”, Williams said.

He also stated that the American art agency’s plan is to “expand and amplify” its holdings in order to get ready for the collection displays to be reinstalled in October 2024. The museum hinted at this change last year when it announced that it acquired 200 items. It also emphased female-created art and textiles from the indigenous people. The renovation’s complete specifications are still pending.

But according to the museum, the entire American Art wing will be put back in place. The Marie Bernice Bitzer Fund allowed White Hawk to purchase Untitled (Pink and Blue),  dubbed “an emblematic example” of her method of abstract and research into ancestral styles of art. The artist combines European American canvas painting with ancient forms and Lakota beading.

“We are grateful for the generous support of our benefactors, who help us build a collection that sparks awe and wonder, bridges our humanity, and illuminates important historical stories”, museum director Anne Pasternak said in a statement.