The Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) announces the acquisition of 264 artworks through purchase and gift in 2024. Encompassing works from the 12th through 21st centuries and spanning six continents, these acquisitions are integral to the museum’s ambitious reinstallation project (scheduled for completion in 2027), reflecting its commitment to presenting a more nuanced and interconnected narrative of global art history.

“Our team’s acquisitions from this past year highlight the museum’s dedication to showcasing the full spectrum of human creativity,” said Adam Levine, the Edward Drummond and Florence Scott Libbey President, Director, and CEO of the Toledo Museum of Art. “These works reflect our belief that a rigorous pursuit of quality across chronology, geography, and culture results in a truly global and inclusive art history.”

Key highlights include the addition of a remarkable group of 18th-century Eastern Woodlands objects acquired in consultation with the Great Lakes Research Alliance for the Study of Aboriginal Arts and Cultures as well as a significant collection of Pueblo pottery, expanding the representation of Indigenous artwork from North America. The museum’s holdings of African and Oceanic art also have been significantly enhanced by exemplary carved wooden works purchased from the Barbier-Mueller collection. Notable acquisitions include a late 19th- to early 20th-century Korwar Statue from Indonesia; an early 20th-century Baga Nimba Shoulder Mask from Guinea; and the zoomorphic Toussian Mask from Burkina Faso, which gained prominence as the cover image for the second volume exhibition catalogue for The Museum of Modern Art’s 1984 exhibition Primitivism in 20th Century Art.

Several acquisitions have directly supported the museum’s exhibition programming. Helina Metaferia’s Crown (Taytu) and the complete portfolio of Aida Muluneh’s 99 Series were acquired in conjunction with TMA’s presentation of Ethiopia at the Crossroads, co-organized with the Walters Art Museum and Peabody Essex Museum, Salem. Wole Lagunju’s The Lugard Masquerade, currently on view in Strategic Interplay: African Art and Imagery in Black and White, and Beth Lipman’s ReGift exemplify the museum’s focus on partnerships with artists through commissions and exhibitions.

TMA’s growing commitment to technological innovation is evident in its acquisitions of time-based media and digital art. The museum’s small collection of time-based media expands with important acquisitions of works by Isaac Julien and Sabrina Gschwandtner. Following the launch of the museum’s Digital Artist in Residence Program in 2023, TMA acquired its first NFT, ABITT-The Second Renaissance is Coming by Osinachi. The museum also became the first major institution to purchase a digital work of art, Abyssinian Queen by Yatreda : ያጥሬዳ, using cryptocurrency on the Ethereum blockchain, which was shortly followed by their purchases of Super Punk #198 by Nina Chanel Abney and CryptoPunk #9833 by Larva Labs.

In addition to contemporary acquisitions, a number of significant historical works also entered TMA’s collection. A rare Seljuk Mother and Child sculpture from 12th-century Iran stands out as a poignant example of early Islamic figural art. The acquisition of a richly illustrated Book of Hours by the Masters of the Zwolle Bible from the 15th century adds a rare illuminated medieval manuscript art written in Dutch to the collection. Additionally, a 16th-century Mexican Blue and White Talavera de Puebla vase complements the museum’s strong decorative arts collection as an exquisite exemplar of the Early Modern Trans-Pacific trade.

Notable additions of 20th - and 21st-century glass, ceramics, and textiles include works by Kelly Akashi, Gilbert Baker, Teresita Fernandez, Maria Martinez, Preston Singletary, and Lenore Tawney. The museum’s works on paper collection also expanded significantly with the acquisition of 33 prints by Marisol and photographs by Dawoud Bey, Imogen Cunningham, F. Holland Day, Stephanie Syjuco, and Brett Weston.

From South Korea to New Guinea and Madagascar to Mexico, the museum’s 2024 acquisitions represent TMA’s global vision, bridging historical traditions with contemporary practices to tell a more comprehensive and interconnected narrative of human artistic expression while laying the groundwork for a transformative reinstallation in 2027.

Highlight acquisitions include:

• Igshaan Adams’s large-scale tapestry, Aan die anderkant van die blou veld hoor ek haar lag (2023), is a provocative contemplation on race, place, and identity in post-apartheid South Africa. Drawing on his lived experiences as a queer Muslim artist born and raised in Bonteheuwel, Adams weaves discarded remnants into intricate, abstract representations of marginalized communities residing in the sprawling, historically segregated, and economically depressed township area on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa, known as the Cape Flats. 

• A large Baga Nimba Shoulder Mask (20th century) offers one vision of the ideal woman in the Baga society of Guinea. It features an exaggerated head and hairstyle, an elongated neck and breasts that hang down loosely, together suggesting a figure most capable of nurturing. Once worn as part of biannual masquerade performances corresponding with the growing and harvest seasons, the Nimba masks are now performed at weddings, funerals, and even sporting events.

• F. Holland Day aimed to prove photography could create sacred imagery as well as any other medium. In The Seven Words (1898) Day himself takes on the role of Christ in this series of sensitive self-portraits depicting the final moments of the crucifixion, directly inspired by Renaissance artworks. Controversial for arguing that photography could stand shoulder to shoulder with religious painting, The Seven Words reveals a moment when new technology and the history of art collide.

• Nicholas Galanin’s Ancestral Map of Return (2023) features a vast and intricate star map filled with countless white stars against a dark background. Each speck of light represents an Indigenous person whose cultural heritage is unwillingly held in a collection, the jagged edges of the hide encouraging us to reflect on Indigenous histories and futures. Bridging the celestial and earthly realms, this artwork poetically engages with timely conversations around cultural patrimony and the responsibilities of museums. 

• In the 1960s, Mexican-American artist Virginia Jaramillo found inspiration in Ma, a Japanese philosophy that emphasizes the importance of empty space. As an aesthetic concept, Ma also refers to the harmony between space, color, line, and form. Jaramillo’s interest in these ideas coupled with her commitment to abstraction and minimalism influenced one of her most significant series of works, known as the Curvilinear paintings (1969-1974), which includes Untitled (1969). 

• Once Again... (Statues Never Die) (2022) by filmmaker and installation artist Isaac Julien explores the longstanding relationship between cultural critic Alaine Locke, often called the “Father of the Harlem Renaissance,” and collector and businessperson Alfred C. Barnes, who was an avid, early collector of African art and material culture. The two-screen film installation in black and white is a consequential meditation on historical issues such as the ethics of display, ethics of institutional collections and their collecting practices, and restitution and repatriation. 

• TMA commissioned Beth Lipman to create ReGift (2023), a multi-faceted artwork encompassing a site-specific mixed-media installation. Created as a three-quarter life-sized depiction of the parlor in the home of TMA founders Edward and Florence Libbey, Lipman created glass elements for the installation during her 2022 guest artist residence at the TMA Glass Pavilion. The project’s intent is to accentuate the impact of the Libbeys and reaffirm the museum’s position as a catalyst within the community. 

• The Orchid Pavilion Gathering (1768) is the first 18th-century panel painting by the exceptional Maruyama Ōkyo to enter the museum’s collection. Its nine panels are painted in monochrome ink with gold pigment added to provide both atmospheric ambience and an ethereal, otherworldly enchantment. The work marks a major shift in Ōkyo’s practice from his earlier training with the Kano school to a more radically realistic style achieved under the tutelage of Enman’in Yūjo (1723-1773), a prince-abbot who was his major patron during the years 1768-1773.

• Giuseppe Rusconi’s bronze Portrait of Beatrice Caracciolo (1730) depicts Beatrice Caracciolo (1615–1703), the matriarch of a noble family from Naples, Italy. Following her death, her son, Cardinal Innico Caracciolo, commissioned the sculpture from Rusconi, a Rome-based sculptor, on July 18, 1730. Extraordinarily well-documented and kept within the family for centuries, this bust portrays the strong-willed personality of the Duchess of Martina, honoring her familial legacy after death. 

• A Persian carpet, formerly in the Rothschild collection, was crafted in a royal workshop during the reign of Shah Tahmasp I (1524-1576). It is a brilliant example of Safavid art. Its design with flowing spirals, palmettes, blossoms, and birds brings to life the essence of a Persian garden—a symbol of paradise. These carpets graced royal palaces and were gifted to foreign dignitaries as symbols of Persian cultural prestige. This work carried artistic beauty and diplomatic weight, representing the splendor of the Safavid court.

• Commonly displayed as a grave marker, Male and Female Couple (19th/20th century) created by the Sakalava People, is from the coastal region of Madagascar, where a rich variety of southern, eastern, and Indian Ocean cultures intersect. Rendered as a couple entwined in an intimate embrace, the figures exude sensuality and eroticism. The elongated proportions achieve a harmonious balance that captures the couple’s unity and inspired a 1987 meditation on the sculpture by James Baldwin. 

• Along with the vibrancy and materials of which Mickalene Thomas is best known, she also bridges key facets of her practice—photography and painting—in this work, Qusuquzah Une Tres Belle Negresse #4. Thomas often draws from canonical paintings in this instance referencing Manet’s paintings of Laure, famously depicted as the maid in Olympia (1863).