The Cleveland Museum of Art Presents: Recent Acquisitions 2014–2017

Cleveland, OH (March 17, 2018) – Since 2014, the Cleveland Museum of Art has acquired more than 2,000 works of art through purchase, gift, or bequest. Recent Acquisitions 2014–2017 highlights 29 of these works, which were created for devotional, social, aesthetic, or practical purposes. The museum seeks out works of art that tell the stories of cultural achievement through time and across the globe to provide visitors with a more complete picture of a shared heritage. Recent Acquisitions 2014–2017 is on view March 17 through June 10, 2018, in the Julia and Larry Pollock Focus Gallery.  

“Recent Acquisitions features a selection of our major acquisitions of the past four years—a type of show that we plan to organize periodically in the years ahead to call attention to our ever-changing collection,” said William Griswold, director of the Cleveland Museum of Art. “These rare works have enriched numerous aspects of our collection, and we’re excited that our visitors have the opportunity to enjoy them.”

In conjunction with Recent Acquisitions 2014–2017, the permanent collection galleries will feature more than 50 recent acquisitions, each identified by a “Recent Acquisition” icon on its label. A brochure and new features on the ArtLens App will help visitors explore the museum and discover these objects. The Recent Acquisitions 2014–2017 ArtLens App multimedia tour highlights the newly acquired works on view in the Pollock Focus Gallery and in permanent collection galleries. Featuring insights from Deputy Director and Chief Curator Heather Lemonedes, who also curated the exhibition, the app tour begins in the Focus Gallery and moves through the Byzantine, British, Islamic, American, African, Contemporary, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Modern European, Cleveland and Ancient Americas galleries.

Among the featured recent acquisitions is the museum’s first work of performance art, Name Announcer, by Pierre Huyghe. Visitors can experience Name Announcer in Toby’s Gallery for Contemporary Art (229A) on Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. through September 30, 2018. Two of the most recent acquisitions in the permanent collection are two sculptures by contemporary African artists Kendell Geers and Hervé Youmbi, on view in gallery 108. These works demonstrate the fascinating ways that living artists take inspiration from historical objects while simultaneously addressing issues pertinent to the here and now. 

“Adding to the Cleveland Museum of Art’s extraordinary collection is a great responsibility and honor. Our curators seek out works of art that are rare, historically significant, well-preserved, finely crafted, aesthetically powerful, and emotionally gripping,” said Heather Lemonedes. “Recent Acquisitions 2014–2017 invites visitors to compare works of art made by artists from different cultures over many centuries. We hope that these unconventional juxtapositions will prompt visitors to discover common themes in art from around the world.”

Recent Acquisitions in ArtLens App

ArtLens now includes a Recent Acquisitions feature that identifies all artworks acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art since 2014. Within the app, press the search bar at the top of the main landing screen to find a scrollable list of all recent acquisitions; each object has images, information, gallery locations, and multimedia content. If a visitor is in a gallery, and they push the “Find Me” button, the new acquisitions in that gallery will appear at the top of the list. Visitors may enjoy these new features before, during or after their museum visit.

For more information on using the ArtLens app, visit ClevelandArt.org. ArtLens is free to download to iPads or iPhones running iOS9 or higher, or an Android device (4.4+), from the iTunes App Store or Google Play.

Programming

Curator Talk: Recent Acquisitions
In this series of tours, curators introduce visitors to works of art acquired by the museum in recent years. The experience begins in the Julia and Larry Pollock Focus Gallery and continues in the permanent collection galleries. Free; registration required. Space is limited.

• Wednesday, April 4, 6:00 p.m., Heather Lemonedes, Chief Curator
• Wednesday, May 2, 6:00 p.m., Stephen Fliegel, Curator of Medieval Art
• Wednesday, May 9, 6:00 p.m., Emily Liebert, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art
• Wednesday, May 16, 6:00 p.m., Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi, Curator of African Art