Looking at the Collection: Recent Acquisitions and a Celebration of African-American History Month

The Huntsville Museum of Art is pleased to present the latest version of this recurring exhibition, showcasing artworks added to its permanent collection within the past year. Some were purchased for the collection, while others were gifts from generous donors. All were carefully reviewed by the Museum’s Collections and Acquisitions Committee to fit the criteria established for the collection, and are compatible with the Museum’s collecting objectives and goals.

Recent acquisitions exhibitions are by nature a wonderful hodgepodge. Works of different styles and media are displayed together, sometimes with no unifying characteristic other than the fact that they came into the collection within a given period of time. But these shows serve an important purpose – they demonstrate the scope of the Museum’s collecting interests and provide us the opportunity to acknowledge generous donors whose gifts help our collection grow.

Exhibition highlights include an important large portrait of a peasant girl by American artist Frank Duveneck, painted in Italy in the mid-1880s, as well as a selection of original hand-colored lithographs by John James Audubon, donated by Mr. & Mrs. William H. Told, Jr. of Vermont. Recent purchases for the Museum’s signature collection of regional contemporary art include a moody nocturnal landscape by Memphis painter Marc Rouillard; an exquisite oil on copper painting by Benjamin Shamback, purchased in memory of long-time Museum employee Linda Berry; and Aimee Perez’s haunting mixed media sculpture, Rare Harvest, which received a Merit Award in the recent Red Clay Survey.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website