Loans and Acquisitions

Long-term Loans

From time to time long-term loans come into the museum's collection, giving additional scope to the permanent holdings. One of the star loans that arrived this year is Andy Warhol's Diamond Dust Shoes, created with silkscreen ink, paint, and diamond dust on canvas. This literally "glittering" example of Warhol's later work, created in 1980, recalls his early drawings of shoes made when he was a fashion illustrator. Bob Colacello, editor of Interview magazine, remembers how Diamond Dust Shoes began. A big box of shoes was sent down to Warhol to be photographed for an ad campaign of Halston's shoe licensee Garalini. An assistant turned the box upside down and dumped the shoes out. "Andy liked the way they looked spilled all over the floor," recalls Colacello. "So he took a few Polaroids….

The diamond-dust idea was stolen from Rupert Smith, who had been using the industrial-grade ground-up stones on some prints of his own. He was foolish enough to tell Andy where to buy it and foolish enough to be surprised when it turned up as Andy's art. 'Oh, it fell on my painting and stuck.' said Andy."

Other long-term loans have come as well. A group of very fine Renaissance and Baroque paintings, from a lender who has chosen to remain anonymous, significantly augments the collection and is providing excellent teaching opportunities. In addition, the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation has invited the museum to select ceramics and sculpture from its outstanding reserve of Asian and Near Eastern art. To be kept for at least three years, these loans will enrich the gallery displays and likewise deepen teaching resources. A future newsletter will include details.

Recent Acquisition

Alfred Leslie Holyoke Range, near Oxbow

In 1972 Alfred Leslie painted his monumental View of the Connecticut River as Seen from Mount Holyoke, now in the Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna. A deliberate updating of Thomas Cole's View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm (The Oxbow), Leslie's large canvas shows modern changes to the landscape, particularly the intrusion of the busy interstate highway which now borders the river.

Eleven years later he returned to the theme, this time reversing his vantage point and depicting the full mountain range from the dark highway at night. Executed in the Japanese notan technique which balances dark and light in one composition, this watercolor represents one of many places that Leslie saw while driving across the country. He exhibited and published them together as 100 Views along the Road in 1988. Holyoke Range was included in the recent exhibition Changing Prospects: The View From Mount Holyoke (Fall 2002) and was purchased from the artist at the conclusion of the show.

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