CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Museum of Art has announced new acquisitions to some of its permanent collections, including a rare Korean Buddhist painting, photographs from a well-known contemporary Ohio artist and French drawings.
Rare Goryeo period Buddhist painting
The museum acquired The Fourth King of Hell from a series of paintings depicting the 10 Buddhist kings of hell. Painted scrolls with Buddhist subjects reached the pinnacle of achievement in Korea during the Goryeo period (918-1392.)
There are only about 160 paintings from that era, and very few have come on the market in the United States and Europe in the past 25 years, according to the museum. Prior to Cleveland, The Fourth King of Hell has been exhibited in prestigious institutions such as National Museum of Korea.
New works on paper
The museum has acquired works on paper by French artist Henri Fantin-Latour and leading Antwerp artist Maarten de Vos. The rarity and quality of Fantin-Latour’s drawing Fairy of the Alps builds upon the musuem's existing collection of 19th-century French works on paper. This work will be highlighted in a 2022 exhibition.
The work by Maarten de Vos titled Adoration of the Magi strengthens the museum’s collection of 16th-century Northern European works on paper. This work features the artist's characteristic pen and ink and wash technique. The Adoration of the Magi may be shown in the CMA's upcoming collaboration with Albertina Museum in Vienna, focusing on 16th-century Dutch and Flemish art.
Photographs by Ohio artist Ann Hamilton
The museum acquired five photographs by the influential and widely recognized contemporary artist Ann Hamilton. The group of photos represents her inaugural photographic project, the body object series, which she began in 1984. The collection of photos will join the museum’s other holdings of Hamilton’s art, which includes fiber sculpture and a print.
In the body object photographs, the artist used her own body as a site of modifications. For example, a shoe replaces her nose, a suit of seeds her skin, a sagebrush her head.
Because ... art.
RELATED: The public now has digital access to nearly 30,000 pieces of artwork from Cleveland Museum of Art
