DALLAS MUSEUM OF ART ESTABLISHES $1 MILLION FUND FOR LATIN AMERICAN ART
Following several gifts from local arts patrons, the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) will strengthen its holdings of Latin American art through a new $1 million acquisition fund, establish a new curatorial position, and add five new works to its collection.
Linda Marcus, a former DMA trustee, donated $1 million to the institution and has promised her collection of Latin American art, which was amassed with her late husband, Stanley. As a former trustee of the DMA for more than sixty years, Stanley gave more than three hundred works to the institution, including the 1953 mural painting El Hombre by Rufino Tamayo and the Nora and John Wise Collection of Ancient South American Art.
“As a leading museum in the country, it is vital that the Dallas Museum of Art formally collect, present, and study Latin American art and that local, national, and international audiences have opportunities to explore the connections between these artists and the rest of the DMA’s outstanding collection,” Linda Marcus said. “I am pleased to have the opportunity to be part of this important landmark for the DMA as it continues to strengthen the global scope of its collection.”
In addition, five works of art will enter the DMA’s collection through gifts from Jorge Baldor; the Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc.; the de Unger family; a trustee of the Keir Collection of Islamic Art; an anonymous donor; and DMA trustees Nancy and Jeremy Halbreich. They include a 1954 full-scale preparatory drawing by Mexican artist Miguel Covarrubias for the mural Genesis, The Gift of Life, which is installed outside of the museum’s main entrance; pastels by Diego Rivera and Roberto Matta; a Peruvian textile likely from the seventeenth century; and the painting Mannikins, 1930, by José Clemente Orozco.
Commenting on the gifts, director Agustín Arteaga said: “With Latino and Latin American culture embedded in the fabric of Dallas, as well as the United States, the DMA’s strength in Latin American art is core not only to expanding the narrative of art history, but to reflecting the histories of the museum’s audiences, locally and nationally. These gifts form the cornerstone of an exciting new chapter in the history of the DMA’s engagement with Latin American art, and position the museum to excel in bringing underrecognized narratives of art history to the fore.”
