Inaugural Newsletter from the O’Brien Art Foundation
Welcome to the O’Brien Art Foundation Newsletter
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
We are thrilled to inaugurate our newsletter at the start of Spring with exciting updates from the O’Brien Art Foundation. In these communications, we look forward to sharing with you our recent activities in acquisitions, exhibitions, and scholarship as well as information about the ongoing resources and opportunities we provide.
This season, mark your calendars for the Initiatives in American Art & Culture (IAC)’s 29th Annual American Art Conference for which we are proudly the Lead Sponsor. IAC is the premier gathering of collectors, curators, dealers, museum professionals, academics, artists and anyone else interested in American Art. Since 1996, the Conference has been at the forefront of critical inquiry in the field, pushing the boundaries of accepted thinking and spotlighting pioneering perspectives on American Art.
This year’s event will be held from May 7–10 at Heritage Auctions in New York. Complete details follow below, and you can register here to attend.
We are pleased to share with you twelve new works highlighted from our annual acquisitions, which represent only a fraction of the nearly 100 additions made to our holdings this past year. You will also find online newly published acquisition features telling the story of a major Aaronel deRoy Gruber (1918–2011) kinetic sculpture from 1973 and recently acquired assemblage by Hannelore Baron (1926–1987) made in 1974.
Thank you for your continued engagement and stay tuned for a new Collection Story essay about experimental printmaking at mid-century, new grant recipients, details on a forthcoming publication on American printmaker and educator Fred Becker (1913–2004).
Sincerely,
The O’Brien Art Foundation team
For a selection of 2024 acquisition highlights, please visit us here.
The O’Brien Art Foundation and The Marty O’Brien Collection of American Art sustain active acquisition programs. Each year, additions to the collections expand the stories of American Art that build on our mission. These highlights of acquisitions made in recent years offer a snapshot of the evolving range and depth of our holdings, which span over 1,100 objects.
We are thrilled to announce the new acquisition of nearly 100 works to the collections in 2024. Representing only a fraction of these diverse works across mediums and generations, the selection includes the above 1926 portrait by Fourteenth Street Group urban realist Kenneth Hayes Miller (1876–1952); a set of geometric gouaches from 1968 by Tamara Melcher (b. 1939), the only woman among nine male artists who constituted the historic Park Place Group, a prominent artists’ cooperative in 1960s New York; and Seong Moy’s (1921–2013) The Bathers (1946), a painter-printmaker born in Canton, China who came to the US in 1941 and whose work was included the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition American Painting 1950.
If you would like additional information about our 2024 acquisitions, please be in touch with us by email at info@obrienartfoundation.org.
Kenneth Hayes Miller (1876-1952). Finishing Touches. 1926. Oil on canvas. 33 x 38 ½ in. The Marty O’Brien Collection of American Art.
We are thrilled to announce the new acquisition of nearly 100 works to the collections in 2024.
Initiatives in American Art & Culture’s 29th Annual American Art Conference
IAC is the premier gathering of collectors, curators, dealers, museum professionals, academics, academics, artists and anyone else interested in American Art. The 2025 Conference (May 7–10) coincides with the American Art Fair (May 10–13), TEFAF (May 9–13) and Frieze Art Fair (May 7–11) and is made possible by Leadership Funding from O’Brien Art Foundation and Anchor Sponsorship from Heritage Auctions.
The conference this year is titled Crafting the Dream. It will examine American Art through the twin lenses of “dream” and “craft,” acknowledging an incontrovertible connection between the two. The Conference boasts an impressive list of speakers including major scholars and celebrated artists, and attendees can expect a compelling and wide-ranging series of talks, panels, and conversations. Speakers include: Mary Ann Caws, Robert Cozzolino, Marie Difilippantoni, Erika Doss, Jacqueline Francis, Tracy Gill, Stephen W. Hannock, Eugene Hecht, Katie Jentleson, Valerie Ann Leeds, Larry List, John P. Murphy, Jennifer Samet, Kathleen Skolnik, Suzanne Smeaton, Jennifer Thompson, James W. Tottis, and Stephanie Sparling Williams.
Attendees will also attend a private reception for the American Art sale at Heritage Auctions and will receive an invitation to the Gala Opening of the American Art Fair at the landmarked Bohemian National Hall. Don’t miss your chance to contribute to the discussion at the most important annual forum for American Art.
Learn more here about attending the conference in May or click below to register for tickets now.
Primarily self-taught, Hannelore Baron (1926–87) experimented with a wide range of media, working with wood and wire beginning in the 1960s to make intricate assemblages. Baron’s use of found and handmade objects from disparate sources reflects the ways her work brought together multiple belief systems and personal perspectives. Learn more.
Aaronel deRoy Gruber was a prolific sculptor who, from the late 1960s through the mid 1980s, employed processes and materials of modern industry to fantastical effect. Primed for work that was technological in nature, Gruber received a Bachelor of Science from Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in 1940, while also studying at the College of Fine Arts. In the late 1960s, she began incorporating acrylic into sculptures in complex geometric shapes. Learn more.
The O’Brien Art Project Foundation (DBA O’Brien Art Foundation) is a charitable organization under Section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The Foundation is located in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. We are dedicated to the preservation, understanding, and appreciation of American Art beyond the accepted canon.
