Out of the Crate: New Gifts & Purchases

The next rotation of Out of the Crate: New Gifts & Purchases will open on June 8, 2019. DIA Director Salvador Salort-Pons selects the artwork in this gallery that showcases some of the museum’s newest acquisitions. Visitors will gain a behind-the-scenes look into the art acquisition process.

Before the DIA acquires a work of art, it goes through a rigorous assessment to ensure its quality and authenticity. Informational materials in the gallery provide an overview of the entire process, from initial research to approval by the board of directors, and the roles various experts play along the way, among them curators, conservators, registrars and technicians.

The artworks represent various time periods, cultures, and mediums, underscoring the DIA’s commitment to diversifying the collection, having art that reflects topical issues, and providing opportunities for visitors to connect with both their own and other cultures.

Highlights from the exhibition include Archibald J. Motley Jr.’s 1929 painting, Café, Paris that documents the experiences of American visual artists in Paris during the Jazz Age and represents the work of an artist influenced by the tenets of the Harlem Renaissance; Arrival, a 1965 painting by Philip Guston that adds to the artist’s works already owned by the DIA and illustrates the artist’s transitions from semi-abstraction back to figurative work, and 348 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011, a 2017 “thread drawing” by Do Ho Suh in which the artist memorializes his longtime New York City apartment with colorful, overlapping lines.

In addition, the DIA will showcase The Doria Commode, designed and painted by Lorenzo De Ferrari around 1737. This commode, featuring elaborate mythological scenes relating to themes of courtship, love, and family, was commissioned in honor of a marriage and has remained in the Doria family since its creation.