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Independent Celebrates More Than 50 Museum Acquisitions

November 26, 2024

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Independent Celebrates More Than 50 Museum Acquisitions - Features - Independent Art Fair

Karel Appel, Personage, 1969, oil on canvas, 36 x 28 1/2 in, photography by Ana Drittanti © Karel Appel Foundation c/o ARS 2024

Independent marks the close of its 15th anniversary year by highlighting the artists and galleries who have achieved significant institutional acquisitions of works following their participation at past editions of the fair. 

Since 2010, Independent’s mission has been to introduce the work of contemporary artists to a well-informed and engaged audience in New York City. Independent 20th Century premiered in 2022 to contribute to the ongoing reassessment of the art historical canon, championing global artists and avant-garde movements between 1900–2000. Together the invitation-only fairs have a track record of launching emerging artists to a new level of curatorial and market recognition, spotlighting lesser-known narratives, or featuring underrepresented aspects of a canonical artist’s practice.

As part of its anniversary initiatives this year, Independent has surveyed exhibitors from the past 15 years of the fairs to compile data about the works they have presented at Independent and Independent 20th Century that subsequently entered museum and institutional collections. Respondents to the survey highlighted more than 50 works that have joined the collections of museums including the Brooklyn Museum, the Morgan Library & Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; the Dallas Museum of Art; Harvard Art Museums; and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; as well as international collections such as the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the LUMA Foundation, Arles, France; and the Olivia Foundation, Mexico City.

The featured acquisitions reflect Independent’s commitment to creating an innovative and non-hierarchical platform for 20th-century and contemporary art that is inclusive and representative of women artists, BIPOC artists, self-taught artists, and those from geographical territories and communities outside the major cultural capitals of the world. 

“The diverse range of works that have been ushered into numerous museum collections is a testament to Independent’s role in discovering and rediscovering talent over the past 15 years and the fair’s ongoing collaboration with gallerists who are doing the invaluable work of nurturing artists at all stages of their careers,” states Elizabeth Dee, Founder and CEO of Independent.

A selection of highlights is below. View the complete list of reported institutional acquisitions from Independent’s fairs in 2010–2024.

 

Personage (1969) by Karel Appel, Olivia Foundation, Mexico City. Presented by Almine Rech at Independent 20th Century in 2024.

The Dutch-born artist Karel Appel (1921–2006) was a founding member of the short-lived but highly influential European avant-garde group CoBrA, active from 1948 to 1951. Based between Paris and New York from 1957 onwards, he consistently moved back and forth between abstraction and figuration throughout his long career. Appel’s early interest in the spontaneous, self-taught expressions of folk art, children’s art, and art by the mentally ill left a lasting imprint on his visual language. A lifelong experimenter, he found fresh inspiration in the 1960s in the flattened aesthetics of Pop Art, which infused not only paintings but also monumental reliefs, sculptures, and lithographs.

Independent Celebrates More Than 50 Museum Acquisitions - Features - Independent Art Fair

Liam Gillick, Hamilton: A Film by Liam Gillick, 2014, film, duration: 27:43 minutes, screen: 69 x 122.5 cm - 27 1/8 x 48 1/4 in, edition of 3 + 2 AP, © Liam Gillick, courtesy Maureen Paley, London

Hamilton: A Film by Liam Gillick (2014) by Liam Gillick, LUMA Foundation, Arles, France. Presented by Maureen Paley at Independent in 2014.

Working across diverse media, including sculpture, installation, video, sound, and the exhibition as a form, Liam Gillick b. 1964) reflects on the conditions of production in a post-industrial landscape. His 2014 documentary blends animation, computer modeling, live action footage, and first-person narrative in a tribute to the work of British artist Richard Hamilton, who has influenced Gillick’s own practice. A forerunner of Pop art, Hamilton is examined through his various publications and books, his involvement with early computer graphics, and his pioneering exhibition design in the 1950s.

Independent Celebrates More Than 50 Museum Acquisitions - Features - Independent Art Fair

Yu-Wen Wu, Walking to Taipei, 2010–2021, ink on white and brown paper, mounted on Dura-lar, with acrylic rollers, 20 × 300 in, © Yu-Wen Wu, courtesy Praise Shadows

Walking to Taipei (2010–2021) by Yu-Wen Wu, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA. Presented by Praise Shadows at Independent in 2022.

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, and based in Boston, Yu-Wen Wu (b. 1958) examines themes of migration and identity in her interdisciplinary art practice, spanning drawings, site-specific video installations, and community-engaged projects. In 2010, Wu was searching for a flight to visit her sick grandmother in Taipei, she impulsively asked Google for the instructions to make the journey on foot. To her surprise, it generated an intricate set of 2,052 directions, including crossing the Pacific Ocean by kayak and swimming the Taiwan Strait. Wu spent the following decade meticulously transforming this 95-page document into a 20ft-long paper collage that reinvents the traditional Chinese handscroll, evoking the expansive psychogeographical terrains of an impossible journey between continents.

Independent Celebrates More Than 50 Museum Acquisitions - Features - Independent Art Fair

Rande Cook, Last Ancient Breaths, 2020, CMT blocks and blown glass, 16 x 30 in each, © Rande Cook, courtesy of Fazakas Gallery

Last Ancient Breaths (2020) by Rande Cook, Kimball Art Center, Park City, Utah. Presented by Fazakas Gallery at Independent in 2021.

Born in Alert Bay, British Columbia, the First Nations Kwakwaka’wakw artist Rande Cook (b. 1977) responds to the traditional lands and cultural heritage of his ancestors through his multimedia practice. Last Ancient Breaths was part of the artist’s MFA thesis exhibition at the University of Victoria in 2021, which explored Indigenous land sovereignty and colonial resource extraction. Cook raises awareness of the cultural erasure caused by industrial logging of old-growth forests on the Pacific Northwest coast, which removes the trees that were stewarded by Indigenous people over generations as part of sacred ceremonies and sustainable woodland management practices.

Independent Celebrates More Than 50 Museum Acquisitions - Features - Independent Art Fair

Jameson Green, In hopes that we find what we need, 2021, oil on canvas, 108 x 132 in, © Jameson Green, courtesy Derek Eller Gallery

In hopes that we find what we need (2021) by Jameson Green, Dallas Museum of Art. Presented by Derek Eller Gallery at Independent in 2021.

Acutely aware of both the art historical canon and American history, Jameson Green (b. 1992) engages in critical dialogue with the legacies of painters such as Philip Guston, Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Francisco de Goya, along with early influences from comics and illustration. In hopes that we find what we need (2021) responds in particular to the third panel of Jacob Lawrence’s 60-strong Migration Series (1940–41), which portrays the Great Migration of over 1 million African Americans from the rural South to major US industrial centers in the first decades of the 20th century. Green’s narrative-rich scenes often deal with questions of social and political injustice, human struggle, freedom, and the eternal connection of life and death.

Independent Celebrates More Than 50 Museum Acquisitions - Features - Independent Art Fair

Juanita McNeely, Woman’s Psyche, 1968, oil on linen, 146 x 126 in, courtesy of James Fuentes

Woman’s Psyche (1968) and On the Edge (1970s) by Juanita McNeely, Rubell Museum, Miami, FL and Washington DC. Presented by James Fuentes at Independent 20th Century in 2022.

A pioneer of New York’s second-wave feminist art movement, the expressionist painter Juanita McNeely (1936–2023) explored the vitality and suffering of the human figure for more than 50 years. Driven by a need to “make the ugly and the terrible beautiful,” McNeely portrayed women’s resilience as informed by her personal experiences of sexuality, sexism, illness, and abortion. Blood frequently appeared in her bold and visceral paintings, such as Woman’s Psyche (1968), a four-panel depiction of menstruation and birth that paired nude female figures with wild animals, a metaphor for intense emotion. The frank vaginal imagery of On the Edge (early 1970s) evokes McNeely’s participation in feminist collectives including Fight Censorship, which advocated for the acceptance of sexually explicit art by women on equal terms with male artists.

Independent Celebrates More Than 50 Museum Acquisitions - Features - Independent Art Fair

Winfred Rembert, Looking for Rembert, 2012, dye on carved tool leather, 31 5/16 × 31 1/2 in, © Estate of Winfred Rembert, courtesy James Barron Art

Looking for Rembert (2012) by Winfred Rembert, Brooklyn Museum, New York. Presented by James Barron Art at Independent 20th Century in 2023.

Self-taught artist Winfred Rembert (1945–2021) portrayed memories from his childhood in Jim Crow-era rural Georgia and his young adulthood spent on a prison chain gang in colorful, textured works in tooled and painted leather. Rembert learned leather craft while incarcerated and returned to the technique in the 1990s to build a unique body of autobiographical paintings evoking moments of both joy and suffering in his early life. Looking for Rembert (2012) is among his important series of chain gang paintings, in which the kaleidoscopic scenes of figures working with hammers in black-and-white uniforms functioned as a form of self-portraiture.

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Chase Hall, The Away Team (Little League), 2021, acrylic and coffee on cotton canvas, 60 x 48 in., photography by Sylvia Ross, courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Collection of the High Museum. 

Chase Hall, The Away Team (Little League), 2021, acrylic and coffee on cotton canvas, 60 x 48 in., photography by Sylvia Ross, courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Collection of the High Museum. 

Robert Lostutter, Kyōsei 14, 2017, graphite on paper, 10 x 10 in., courtesy the Artist and Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago.

Robert Lostutter, Kyōsei 14, 2017, graphite on paper, 10 x 10 in., courtesy the Artist and Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago.

Reginald Sylvester II, Welded Tribute, 2024, aluminum blackener on aluminum, 66 x 90 x 1.375 in., photography by Daniel Greer, courtesy the artist and Maximillian William, London.

Reginald Sylvester II, Welded Tribute, 2024, aluminum blackener on aluminum, 66 x 90 x 1.375 in., photography by Daniel Greer, courtesy the artist and Maximillian William, London.

Leopold Strobl, Untitled (2015-211), 2015, Pencil and colored pencil on printed paper, cut-and-mounted on paper, 3 × 5 5/8 in., © Leopold Strobl, courtesy Ricco/Maresca, New York.

Leopold Strobl, Untitled (2015-211), 2015, Pencil and colored pencil on printed paper, cut-and-mounted on paper, 3 × 5 5/8 in., © Leopold Strobl, courtesy Ricco/Maresca, New York.

George Platt Lynes, Portrait of Ruth Ford, 1936, Courtesy of Mitchell Algus Gallery.

George Platt Lynes, Portrait of Ruth Ford, 1936, Courtesy of Mitchell Algus Gallery.

Antonius-Tín Bui, like my desire now for the life stars have. to be fixed. to be luminous. I knew what I wanted but I didn't know how I'd achieve it, 2022, hand cut paper, ink, and paint, 83 x 42 in., photography by Mikhail Mishin, courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery. Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation. 

Antonius-Tín Bui, like my desire now for the life stars have. to be fixed. to be luminous. I knew what I wanted but I didn't know how I'd achieve it, 2022, hand cut paper, ink, and paint, 83 x 42 in., photography by Mikhail Mishin, courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery. Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation. 

Peter Nadin, Curt and Mert Landscaping, 2020, oil on panel, 77 3/8 x 48 1/2 in., © Peter Nadin, courtesy Off Paradise. 

Peter Nadin, Curt and Mert Landscaping, 2020, oil on panel, 77 3/8 x 48 1/2 in., © Peter Nadin, courtesy Off Paradise. 

Audie Murray, Take Root Among the Stars, 2022, glass seed beads and copper, 12 × 5 in., © Audie Murray, courtesy Fazakas Gallery.

Audie Murray, Take Root Among the Stars, 2022, glass seed beads and copper, 12 × 5 in., © Audie Murray, courtesy Fazakas Gallery.

Robert Zehnder, The Violin, 2023, oil on canvas on panel, 48 x 38 x 1 1/2 in., courtesy of Robert Zehnder and Mrs., Maspeth, New York.

Robert Zehnder, The Violin, 2023, oil on canvas on panel, 48 x 38 x 1 1/2 in., courtesy of Robert Zehnder and Mrs., Maspeth, New York.

Joseph Tisiga, Precocious instincts instrumentalized by need, 2022, watercolour on paper, 27½ x 27½ in., © Joseph Tisiga, courtesy Bradley Ertaskiran.

Joseph Tisiga, Precocious instincts instrumentalized by need, 2022, watercolour on paper, 27½ x 27½ in., © Joseph Tisiga, courtesy Bradley Ertaskiran.

Sally Tisiga, Grandmother Wind The Messenger, 2020, paper clay, acrylic paint, wire form, horsehair, feathers, cloth, beads, 10 x 14 x 18 in., © Sally Tisiga, courtesy Bradley Ertaskiran.

Sally Tisiga, Grandmother Wind The Messenger, 2020, paper clay, acrylic paint, wire form, horsehair, feathers, cloth, beads, 10 x 14 x 18 in., © Sally Tisiga, courtesy Bradley Ertaskiran.

Maia Cruz Palileo, The Mountain Pool, 2024, oil on canvas, 72 x 64 in., photography by Mikhail Mishin, courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery. Collection of the TANG Art Foundation, Hong Kong.

Maia Cruz Palileo, The Mountain Pool, 2024, oil on canvas, 72 x 64 in., photography by Mikhail Mishin, courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery. Collection of the TANG Art Foundation, Hong Kong.

Complete List of Museum Acquisitions

List of Museum Acquisitions Reported by Independent Exhibitors 2010–2024

Karel Appel, Personage, 1969, Olivia Foundation, Mexico City, Mexico. Presented by Almine Rech at Independent 20th Century in 2024.

Cecil Beaton, Charles Henri Ford wearing a costume designed by Salvador Dali for the 1936 Paper Ball at the Wadsworth Atheneum, 1936, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York City. Presented by Mitchell Algus Gallery at Independent 20th Century in 2024.

Antonius-Tín Bui, like my desire now for the life stars have. to be fixed. luminous. I knew what I wanted but I didn't know how I'd achieve it, 2022, Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, Portland, OR. Presented by moniquemeloche at Independent in 2023.

Antonius-Tín Bui, that a moment can be a monument, that the monumental can be this momentary, 2022, Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, Portland, OR. Presented by moniquemeloche at Independent in 2023.

André Cadere, Six Willowy Round Bars of Wood, 1970, Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA), New York City. Presented by Galerie Hervé Bize at Independent in 2017.

Rande Cook, Last Ancient Breaths, 2020, Kimball Art Center, Park City, UT. Presented by Fazakas Gallery at Independent in 2021.

Liam Gillick, Hamilton: A Film by Liam Gillick, 2014, LUMA Foundation, Arles, France. Presented by Maureen Paley at Independent in 2014.

John Giorno, Dial-A-Poem (Push-Button Edition), 1968–2019, Collection Fonds de dotation Kervahut, Finistère, France. Presented by Galerie Hervé Bize and Nicole Klagsbrun at Independent 20th Century in 2022.

Jameson Green, In hopes that we find what we need, 2021, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX. Presented by Derek Eller Gallery at Independent in 2021.

Chase Hall, Major Taylor, 2020, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD. Presented by moniquemeloche at Independent in 2021.

Chase Hall, Intramural Portrait, 2021, Rubell Museum, Miami, FL and Washington DC. Presented by moniquemeloche at Independent in 2021.

Chase Hall, Private School (Physical Education), 2021, Brooklyn Museum, New York City. Presented by moniquemeloche at Independent in 2021.

Chase Hall, The Away Team (Little League), 2021, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA. Presented by moniquemeloche at Independent in 2021.

Melissa Joseph, Getting Reuben’s tuition book, 2023, Brooklyn Museum, New York City. Presented by REGULARNORMAL at Independent in 2023.

Dorothy Antoinette LaSelle, Provincetown no. 5, 1948, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City. Presented by Inman Gallery at Independent 20th Century in 2022.

Dorothy Antoinette LaSelle, Provincetown no. 6, 1948, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City. Presented by Inman Gallery at Independent 20th Century in 2022.

Robert Lostutter, Kyōsei 14, 2018, The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY. Presented by Corbett vs. Dempsey at Independent in 2024.

Robert Lostutter, Kyōsei 15, 2018,The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY. Presented by Corbett vs. Dempsey at Independent in 2024.

George Platt Lynes, Portrait of Ruth Ford, 1936, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York City. Presented by Mitchell Algus Gallery at Independent 20th Century in 2024.

Juanita McNeely, Woman's Psyche, 1968, Rubell Museum, Miami, FL and Washington DC. Presented by James Fuentes at Independent 20th Century in 2022. 

Juanita McNeely, On the Edge, 1970s, Rubell Museum, Miami, FL and Washington DC. Presented by James Fuentes at Independent 20th Century in 2022. 

Roscoe Mitchell, Big Ra Shu, 2023, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA. Presented by Corbett vs. Dempsey at Independent in 2023.

Audie Murray, Spirit Bear With Children, 2022, Forge Project, Taghkanic, NY. Presented by Fazakas Gallery at Independent in 2022.

Audie Murray, Take Root Among the Stars, 2022, Forge Project, Taghkanic, NY. Presented by Fazakas Gallery at Independent in 2022.

Peter Nadin, Hurricane, 1985, Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY. Presented by Off Paradise at Independent 20th Century in 2023.

Peter Nadin, View II or The Artist, 1986, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France. Presented by Off Paradise at Independent 20th Century in 2023.

Peter Nadin, Curt and Mert Landscaping, 2020, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France. Presented by Off Paradise at Independent in 2022.

Eamon Ore-Giron, Infinite Regress VII, 2016, Art in Embassies, U.S. Department of State. Presented by Fleisher/Ollman at Independent in 2017.

Eamon Ore-Giron, Infinite Regress VIV, 2016, Mandeville Gallery, Union College, Schenectady, NY. Presented by Fleisher/Ollman at Independent in 2018. 

Eamon Ore-Giron, Infinite Regress LXV, 2019, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA. Presented by Fleisher/Ollman at Independent in 2019.

Maia Cruz Palileo, Engkanto, 2024, TANG Art Foundation, Hong Kong. Presented by moniquemeloche at Independent in 2024.

Maia Cruz Palileo, The Mountain Pool, 2024, TANG Art Foundation, Hong Kong. Presented by moniquemeloche at Independent in 2024.

Winfred Rembert, Hamilton Ave, 2006, The Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA. Presented by James Barron Art at Independent 20th Century in 2023.

Winfred Rembert, Looking for Rembert, 2012, Brooklyn Museum, New York City. Presented by James Barron Art at Independent 20th Century in 2023.

Maximilian Schubert, Untitled (Smoke), 2024, JPMorgan Chase Art Collection, New York City. Presented by Off Paradise at Independent in 2024.

Katie Stout, Cuckoo Clock, 2024, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA. Presented by Nina Johnson at Independent in 2024.

Leopold Strobl, Untitled (2015-196), 2015, Museum of Modern Art, New York City. Presented by Ricco/Maresca at Independent in 2018.

Leopold Strobl, Untitled (2015-211), 2015, Museum of Modern Art, New York City. Presented by Ricco/Maresca at Independent in 2018.

Leopold Strobl, Untitled (2016-002), 2016, Museum of Modern Art, New York City. Presented by Ricco/Maresca at Independent in 2018.

Leopold Strobl, Untitled (2016-206), 2016, Museum of Modern Art, New York City. Presented by Ricco/Maresca at Independent in 2018. 

Leopold Strobl, Untitled (2016-215), 2016, Museum of Modern Art, New York City. Presented by Ricco/Maresca at Independent in 2018.

Reginald Sylvester II, Welded Tribute, 2024, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN. Presented by Maximillian William at Independent in 2024.

Joseph Tisiga, An apocalyptic scenario haunted by the imagined feats of ancestors, about which I can only speculate, 2022, Forge Project, Taghkanic, NY. Presented by Bradley Ertaskiran at Independent in 2022.

Joseph Tisiga, Precocious instincts instrumentalized by need, 2022, Forge Project, Taghkanic, NY. Presented by Bradley Ertaskiran at Independent in 2022.

Sally Tisiga, Grandmother Wind The Messenger, 2020, Forge Project, Taghkanic, NY. Presented by Bradley Ertaskiran at Independent in 2022.

Carl Van Vechten, Portrait of Charles Henri Ford, 1935, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York City. Presented by Mitchell Algus Gallery at Independent 20th Century in 2024.

Hana Ward, But in fact Le Douanier had most likely never left France, 2021, X Museum, Beijing, China. Presented by Mrs. at Independent in 2021.

Gillian Wearing, Me as Necklace, 2013, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA. Presented by Maureen Paley at Independent in 2013.

Yu-Wen Wu, Walking to Taipei, 2010-2021, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA. Presented by Praise Shadows at Independent in 2022.

Nate Young, Votive Offering, 2019, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI. Presented by moniquemeloche at Independent in 2019. 

Jack Youngerman, Tiger, 1961, Fondation Gandur pour l'Art, Geneva, Switzerland. Presented by Galerie Hervé Bize at Independent in 2020.

Robert Zehnder, The Violin, 2023, Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC. Presented by Mrs. at Independent in 2023.