Recent Acquisitions

In the past few years, over 500 artworks have entered the Smart’s collection through the generosity of individual patrons and strategic purchases. Together, these artworks indicate how an institutional collection grows and changes. A major grouping of acquisitions tied to exhibitions The Time Is Now! and Solidary & Solitary expanded the Museum’s intergenerational holdings of works by Black artists, particularly on the South Side of Chicago; a breadth of works on paper added richness to the collection of prints and photographs; and a transformative gift of over 100 works by critic, scholar, and UChicago alumnus Dennis Adrian, bolstered the collection of works by the Chicago Imagists and other Chicago-based artists, and joined previous gifts from his illustrious collection.