Recent Acquisitions

CRMA Receives Important Painting by Grant Wood
 
The Estate of Virginia B. Cherry (of the famous Cedar Rapids Cherry family) recently donated an important painting by Grant Wood of a house facade in Munich. Created in 1928 during Wood's pivotal trip to that city to oversee the fabrication of the Veterans Memorial stained glass window, this is the Museum's only painting of a Munich scene by Wood. This extremely rare work joins his painting of Nuremberg from the Save-the-Art campaign last year as the Museum's sole works from his trip to Germany. Red and Yellow House in Munich will be displayed when the Museum reinstalls its permanent collection.

CRMA Receives Gift of Seven Kollwitz Prints

This past year, retired University of Iowa professor Samuel Becker donated on behalf of himself and his late wife Ruth seven important prints by German artist Käthe Kollwitz. These works, which date from the early 1890s through 1912, represent some of the highlights of this artist’s achievements in the medium of printmaking. Kollwitz is considered by many to be one of the greatest printmakers of all time. Often mentioned in discussions of German Expressionism, Kollwitz actually belongs to an earlier generation of artists. Her imagery frequently incorporates poverty-stricken, sickly women, barely able to care for themselves let alone their children. Her work was a compassionate appeal on behalf of them and all the working poor, serving as an indictment of the social conditions in Germany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Sam and Ruth Becker’s donation of these seven prints are the first Kollwitz prints in the CRMA collection and nicely compliment the Museum’s extensive print collection. The Becker’s also donated several Kollwitz prints to the University of Iowa Museum of Art collection.

If you are interested in donating a work of art to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, please get in touch with Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, Sean Ulmer at 319.366.7503 ext. 202 or via email at sulmer@crma.org.

Interested in starting or expanding an art collection of your own? Consider joining the CRMA's Collectors' Circle.