{"id":2122381,"date":"2026-08-31T21:11:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T18:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2122381"},"modified":"2026-08-31T21:11:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T18:11:14","slug":"baltimore-museum-of-art-announces-new-acquisitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2122381","title":{"rendered":"Baltimore Museum of Art Announces New Acquisitions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\tThe Baltimore Museum of Art has announced the acquisition of approximately 118 artworks over the past six months. The new additions to its collection\u2014purchases, gifts, and promised gifts\u2014span periods, cultures, and mediums, strengthening the BMA\u2019s holdings of art from around the globe as well as work by Baltimore-area artists.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe acquisitions include 64 works gifted by Baltimore resident Constance R. Caplan, a former BMA board chair who has been actively engaged with the institution for more than 50 years. Her gift includes pieces by Janine Antoni, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Fernanda Gomes, Robert Morris, Stephen Parrino, Richard Tuttle, Lee Ufan, Jack Whitten, Lisa Yuskavage, and others.<\/p>\n
\n\tOther acquisitions include paintings by Oswaldo Guayasam\u00edn, Amy Sherald, Louis Fratino, and Stanton MacDonald-Wright; sculptures, mixed-media works, and installations by Rina Banerjee, Ali Eyal, Sanaa Gateja, and Reverend Joyce McDonald; ceramics by Siphiwe Nala and Heidi Lau; photographs by Curran Hatleberg and Oumar Ka; and works on paper by Tarsila do Amaral, Margaret Burroughs, and Ben Shahn.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cOver the past several years, the BMA has invested strongly in several important strategies: enhancing the scope and meaning of collection diversification; developing deep relationships with private and public collaborators who share our institutional ideals; and uplifting Baltimore\u2019s vibrant and growing artistic community. The acquisitions announced today are a beautiful and exciting encapsulation of those priorities,\u201d said Asma Naeem, the BMA\u2019s Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director.<\/p>\n
\n\tBelow, a look at seven works newly acquired by the Baltimore Museum of Art.<\/p>\n
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Myrlande Constant,\u00a0Agou Zeclaire<\/em>, 1999<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Artwork copyright \u00a9 Myrlande Constant.\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\n\tBorn in Port-au-Prince in 1968, Myrlande Constant emerged in the early 2000s as one of the first women makers of devotional Haitian\u00a0drapo Vodou<\/em>\u00a0(Vodou flags). Her contemporary interpretations of these beaded and sequined artworks are often larger and more ornate than customary. They generally take as their subject the intersection of terrestrial and spiritual worlds, as in this piece dedicated to Agaou, the Vodou\u00a0loa<\/em>\u00a0(spirit) of storms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
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Louis Fratino,\u00a0Studio Nude<\/em>, 2025<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Artwork copyright \u00a9 Louis Fratino.\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\n\tDrawing on the work of modernist masters such as Matisse, Picasso, Marsden Hartley, and Georgia O\u2019Keeffe, Louis Fratino (b. 1993) creates figurative paintings and drawings depicting everyday life and intimate moments from a queer male perspective. His emotive artworks, based on personal memories and experiences, range from tender portraits of friends and family to explicit images of sexual encounters and, as here, variations on the time-honored subject of the nude model.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
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Reverend Joyce McDonald,\u00a0Momma\u2019s Love<\/em>, 1998<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Artwork copyright \u00a9 Joyce McDonald.\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\n\tArtist, activist, and \u201cspiritual nurse\u201d Reverend Joyce McDonald (b. 1951) was ordained as a minister in 2009, following a long battle with addiction and a 1995 HIV diagnosis. She began working with clay in 1997 while enrolled in an art-therapy program, creating figurative sculptures on themes of survival, love, and healing. McDonald considers her art inseparable from her advocacy: she has founded an HIV-awareness and creative-arts group for young girls and teens; worked with women in shelters and hospitals; written letters to incarcerated women; and coordinated her church\u2019s AIDS ministry while serving as director of its children\u2019s choir. She is also an active artist-member of Visual AIDS.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
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Rina Banerjee,\u00a0Contagious Migrations<\/em>, 1999\u20132023<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Artwork copyright \u00a9 Rina Banerjee, courtesy the artist and \nPerrotin. Photo: Guillaume Ziccarelli.\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\n\tIn her sculptures, drawings, and installations, Indian-born artist Rina Banerjee (b. 1963) addresses migration, diaspora, and the construction of identity. First presented at the 2000 Whitney Biennial,\u00a0Contagious Migrations<\/em>\u00a0considers the fear of disease\u2014from flu outbreaks to the AIDS crisis\u2014in relation to the aversion to difference. Layering unconventional materials such as false fingernails, spices, and Silly Putty, Banerjee evokes bodies on the move despite systems designed to contain them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
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Oswaldo Guayasam\u00edn,\u00a0Atahualpa<\/em>, 1946<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. \t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\n\tBorn in Quito to a Quechua father and mestiza mother, Ecuadorian painter Oswaldo Guayasam\u00edn (1919\u201399) is best known for his unflinching meditations on the struggles of Indigenous and other marginalized communities across Latin America. This depiction of a historical subject\u2014the last Inca emperor, Atahualpa\u2014is thus something of a rarity in his oeuvre. Guayasam\u00edn achieved significant recognition during his lifetime for both his art and activism, receiving a UNESCO special prize in 1994 for his career-long defense of human rights.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
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Oumar Ka,\u00a0Reclining Woman<\/em>, 1959\u201368 (printed 2024)<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. \t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\n\tDuring the independence-era heyday of African portrait photography, itinerant Senegalese photographer Oumar Ka (1930\u20132020) developed a distinctive approach to the form. Unlike urban studio photographers of the time, such as Mali\u2019s Seydou Ke\u00efta and Burkina Faso\u2019s Sanl\u00e9 Sory, Ka worked outdoors, incorporating the edges of his portable backdrops and the scenery behind them into his compositions. In\u00a0Reclining Woman<\/em>, for example, the subject is captured from a respectful distance, allowing details of her environment to enter the frame.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
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Siphiwe Nala,\u00a0Ukhamba (Drinking Vessel), c. 1960s<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art.\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\n\tMarried into a South African family famed for its ceramics, Siphiwe Nala (1914\u20132003) was a renowned maker of traditional Zulu\u00a0beer pots (izinkamba<\/em>).\u00a0Izinkamba<\/em>\u00a0and their contents are believed to attract ancestors to important life events such as births, marriages, and deaths, and Nala\u2019s aesthetically refined examples were much sought after by community members. This burnished and incised vessel showcases her technical skill, while evident signs of use speak to its ritual and aesthetic value for its owners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Banerjee_Contagious-Migrations2-copy-1.jpg?w=1024″] The Baltimore Museum of Art has announced the acquisition of approximately 118 artworks over the past six months. The new additions to its collection\u2014purchases, gifts, and promised gifts\u2014span periods, cultures, and mediums, strengthening the BMA\u2019s holdings of art from around the globe as well as work by Baltimore-area artists. The acquisitions include […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2122381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2122381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122381\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2122381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2122381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2122381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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![\"Rina](\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Banerjee_Contagious-Migrations2-copy.jpg?w=400\")
![\"Oswaldo](\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Guayasamin_Atahualpa-copy.jpg?w=400\")
![\"Oumar](\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Ka_Reclining-Woman-copy.jpg?w=400\")
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