Carnegie Museum of Art’s permanent collection has been bolstered by the acquisition of several significant works of art in line with its collecting strategies. Included in these plans are the purchase of art from and related to the Carnegie International; adding to areas of strength, such as contemporary art, photography, regional art, and art after 1985; and acquiring works of art that contribute to the museum’s exhibition program.

A selection of recent acquisitions includes:

Department of Contemporary Art

Aaronel deRoy Gruber

American (b. 1918)

Spherical Plateaus, c. 1968

Acrylic with 1 or 1 1/2 rpm bogey motor and 3 vertical fluorescent tubes

73 1/2 x 15 x 21 in.

Gift of the Gruber Family

A kinetic sculpture, Spherical Plateaus consists of five layered orbs that are vertically hung within an acrylic exterior. These colorful orbs rotate slowly, blending their colors with each other and with the interior light. Gruber is a distinguished Pittsburgh-based artist, and has been active with Associated Artists of Pittsburgh since 1957.

Thomas Schütte

German (b. 1954)

Zombie VIII, 2008

Bronze

29 1/2 x 33 1/2 x 41 5/16 in.

The Henry L. Hillman Fund

Zombie VIII reflects Schütte’s ongoing exploration of the grotesqueries of figuration, here manifested in the dismembered and subsequently reanimated parts of his earlier Grosse Geister, or big spirit sculptures. The work is currently installed, along with two other Zombie sculptures and a series of watercolor drawings by the artist, in Life on Mars, the 2008 Carnegie International.

Christopher Wool

American (b. 1955)

Untitled, 2007

Enamel on linen

126 x 96 in.

The Henry L. Hillman Fund

In the large-scale painting Untitled, the artist’s technique creates a complex illusion of depth in which the black lines disappear and reappear as if behind many layers. As with all of Wool’s works, the turbulent appearance belies an underlying harmony within the composition. Christopher Wool’s work was included in the 1991 Carnegie International. This piece complements six other works by Wool

already in the collection.

Department of Decorative Arts

Michelle Erickson

American (b. 1960)

Made in China, 2008

Porcelain

15 x 8 x 8 in.

Gift of Charlotte and Stanley Bernstein, by exchange

Made in China is a visually striking figure that creates a link between the museum’s contemporary and historic ceramic collections. Erickson takes inspiration from 18th-century Chinese Guanyin figures and English sweetmeat dishes, both of which exist in the museum’s collection for comparison. By imbuing historic forms with immediately recognizable modern symbols, such as the Shell Oil logo or Olympic rings, Erickson presents a commentary on contemporary wealth, luxury, vanity, corruption, and international relations through a porcelain medium that embodied the same themes more than 300 years ago.

Harvey K. Littleton

American (b. 1922)

Blue/Lemon Sliced Descending Form, 1989

Glass

13 1/4 x 12 1/2 x 5 in.

5 x 5 x 3 1/2 in.

Bequest of Maxine H. Block

Harvey K. Littleton is considered the father of the American Studio Glass movement. This is the first work in the museum’s collection by Littleton. Since 1996, William and Maxine Block have given or bequeathed 93 contemporary glass objects to Carnegie Museum of Art, including this work; their gifts comprise nearly half of the contemporary glass collection for which the museum is nationally recognized.

Department of Fine Art

Wassily Kandinsky

Russian (1866–1944)

Radierung / No. 4, 1916

Drypoint on wove paper

Image # IV, impression 7 of 10

Image: 3 9/16 x 3 1/4 in.

Edward N. Haskell Family Acquisition Fund

Wassily Kandinsky made this aesthetically powerful drypoint in the chaotic period of World War I, when he concentrated on printmaking, drawing, and watercolor while moving from Germany to Switzerland to Russia to Stockholm and then back again to Russia. This is the third Kandinsky in the museum’s collection, and the earliest; it will also augment the museum’s holdings in 20th-century abstraction. Kandinsky participated in the 1939 Carnegie International.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Italian (1720–1778)

The Triumphal Arch, plate: c. 1747–1749, impression: c. 1750–1759

From the series Grotesques (Grotteschi)

Engraving, etching, drypoint, and burnishing on paper

State 1 of 5

Second edition, first issue

Sheet: 20 1/8 x 27 1/2 in.

Image: 15 1/8 x 21 1/4 in.

Charles J. Rosenbloom Fund

This is a strong, first-state impression of a rare print by Piranesi from Grotesques (Grotteschi), an intriguing, small series of imaginary, fantastical, and conceptual works. The unifying themes in the series are human and architectural decay, decline, and ruin, as well as the intermixing of the past with the present. Though there are 23 prints by Piranesi in the museum’s collection, this is the first from the Grotteschi series.