Faces and Figures: Recent Acquisitions
Faces and Figures features a selection of recent gifts and purchases of artwork that demonstrate the Museum’s ongoing commitment to making our collections more inclusive and representative of the communities we serve.
Emma Amos (American, 1937–2020). Identity, from Femfolio, 2006. Digital print with hand-lithography (AP 4/5). Published by The Brodsky Center at PAFA, Philadelphia. Museum Purchase with funds donated by Betty Krulik, Lidia G. Fouto, and Steven M. Cancro, 2023 (2023.3). © Emma Amos / VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.
Art that depicts the human figure has a distinct ability to attract our attention. From infancy, we respond to faces, and for millennia artists have created portraits and scenes of human activity to express identity and shared experience. Faces and Figures features a selection of recent gifts and purchases of artwork that demonstrate the Museum’s ongoing commitment to making our collections more inclusive and representative of the communities we serve.
Choosing an artwork for acquisition involves careful consideration of its quality and its relevance to our mission, including its ability to relate to our visitors and tell many stories. From the oldest painting in the exhibition, Seymour Joseph Guy’s 1881 portrait of his daughters with a kitten, to the most recent, Larissa De Jesús Negrón’s self-portrait expressing a desire for boundaries, these works remind us that artists’ subjects and themes depicting their own and others’ lives can be timeless. Anna Walinska’s lively sketch of her flamenco teacher recalls a period in the 1930s when she traded art for dance lessons, while Andrew Stevovich’s precise drawing of people absorbed in their cellphones is a perceptive commentary on twenty-first-century life.
We are excited to welcome into the collection Julie Heffernan’s mythologically inspired Study for Self-Portrait with Mutts and Emma Amos’s print Identity, in which she adorns her hair with symbols reflecting her African, Cherokee, Norwegian, and Irish roots. Scherezade García and Shuai Yang also probe connections to place, from homelands to the universe. John Sonsini, with two thoughtful portraits of Latino day laborers, and Derrick Adams, with a colorful painting of a child on a pool float, explore opposite but interrelated aspects of our lives—finding dignity in our work and joy in our leisure.
The exhibition celebrates these exciting new additions to our collection as well as the patrons who made them possible. Since 2020, the HRM has acquired more than 200 artworks and historical objects from 64 generous donors, many of which are displayed in our collection galleries as well as our new West Wing.
Exhibitions are made possible by assistance provided by the County of Westchester.
Featured Artists
Derrick Adams • Emma Amos • Larissa De Jesús Negrón • Scherezade García • Seymour Joseph Guy • Julie Heffernan • John Sonsini • Andrew Stevovich • Anna Walinska • Shuai Yang
Selected objects
Emma Amos (American, 1937–2020). Identity, from Femfolio, 2006. Digital print with hand-lithography (AP 4/5). Published by The Brodsky Center at PAFA, Philadelphia. Museum Purchase with funds donated by Betty Krulik, Lidia G. Fouto, and Steven M. Cancro, 2023 (2023.3). © Emma Amos / VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.
Scherezade García (American, b. Dominican Republic, 1966). In Search of Paradise, from the Súper Trópico series, 2014. Silkscreen, acrylic, charcoal, and ink on canvas. Gift of the artist, 2023 (2023.7).
Seymour Joseph Guy (American, b. England, 1824–1910). The New Arrival, 1881. Oil on canvas. Gift of Shelley and Felice Bergman, 2023 (2023.15.4). Photo: Steven Paneccasio.
Larissa De Jesús Negrón (American, b. Puerto Rico, 1994). ¿No sabes cuando parar o qué? (You don’t know when to stop or what?), 2023. Acrylic and oil on canvas. Gift of the artist, 2024 (2024.2).
Shuai Yang (Chinese, b. 1998). Cosmos, 2022. Gouache, graphite, markers, and screen print on paper. Gift of the artist, 2024 (2024.1).
