Art of the Americas
Ranging from the art created in both the British and Spanish colonies to the work of contemporary artists, the Art of the Americas has been a particular collecting interest of the Museum since its founding. Paintings by Robert Henri and John Sloan were among the first pieces donated to the museum, and they were soon joined by the works of George Bellows, Mary Cassatt, William Merritt Chase, and Thomas Eakins.
These canonical American artists would later be complemented by the work of Asher B. Durand, Eastman Johnson, Albert Bierstadt, Stuart Davis, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Thomas Hart Benton. Latin American art is well represented by important examples of Mexican modernism by painters such as Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, and Alfredo Ramos Martínez. Likewise, the work of local artists has been an interest of the Museum since its inception with particular attention to California plein air paintings by Maurice Braun, Nicolai Fechin, Charles Fries, Alfred Mitchell, Charles Reiffel, Guy Rose, and others.
Image © 2012 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York