SOUTH BEND, IND.- The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art announced important recent acquisitions to the Museum’s collection. These works add to the Museum’s ever-growing, nationally-distinguished collection-adding both important historical and contemporary voices to the collection. All gifts are cornerstone to the Museum’s sesquicentennial campaign, highlighting the origins of the collection in 1875.
An important three-quarter portrait by the iconic American ex-patriot painter John Singer Sargent adds to the strength of the Museum’s collection of nineteenth-century paintings. Portrait of George Frederick McCorquodale (1902) provides a potent counterpoint to the academic practice exemplified by such artists as Jean-Léon Gérôme and Léon Bonnat, currently on view at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art.
“Sargent is renowned for his high-society portraits that are drawn with color, or more accurately with tone, rather than with line,” said Cheryl Snay, curator of European and American art before 1900. “Sargent’s teacher, French artist Carolus Duran, encouraged his students to disregard the rigorous practice of studies and sketches in preparation for a composition. Instead, he invited them to paint alla prima—directly onto the canvas without the benefit of underdrawings or studies. Sargent became a master of this technique, which imbued his sitters with verve and personality,” Snay continued.
Commissioned by the sitter’s daughter for her 21st birthday, it shows George Frederick McCorquodale, the director of a printing company in Scotland. Exhibited at the Royal Academy in London and at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool in 1903, the painting caught the attention of a critic writing in the Saturday Review (1903, p. 586) who praised its “accuracy and masterful execution.”
Another addition to the Museum’s esteemed photography collection is this important monumental photo by the celebrated photographer Andreas Gursky.
This is the first Gursky photograph added to the Museum’s collection. Gursky is a German photographer who lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany. From 2010 to 2018, he was a professor of the Liberal Arts at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf, Germany. His work has been in solo and group art exhibitions in the US, Europe, Korea, Japan, and Australia.
Typical of his style, Gursky often photographs a detailed and multifaceted landscape or interior from a high vantage point. His printing process meticulously maintains or enhances all the minute details and colors. The resulting large photographic print illustrates the complexity and interconnectedness of the world we live in and often overlook. The work also compliments the strength of French art in the Museum’s collection.
Andreas Gursky (German, b. 1955), Tour de France I, 2007 (printed in 2023). Inkjet print (latex), 120 7/8 x 85 7/8 x 2 ½ in. Gift of Ricki Conway, Rebecca Martinez, and Caroline Conway, in memory of Robert Conway ND’66 2023.021
An important work by the critically acclaimed Polish painter Ewa Juszkiewicz is the gift from the Lance Kulick Collection. The global importance of the gift represents a significant opportunity for broadening the permanent holdings of the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. The collection was formed by the Kulick family interested in a global understanding of contemporary painting. Judicious in their selections, Lance Kulick has long been eager to share these collections-especially with academic art museums that impact future generations.
Ewa Juszkiewicz (Born in Gdansk, Poland, and lives and works in Warsaw. She has both an MA in painting and a PhD in art history. She has received widespread critical acclaim for her paintings that challenge the masters and monuments of art history, juxtapose historical and contemporary painting techniques, and attempt to upend traditional notions of beauty and often disrupt the "male gaze.").
This extremely important painting references a work critical to the Italian, 16th century painter, Caravaggio, that was lost in WWII. Here, Juszkiewicz plays traditional notions of figuration against passage of Abstract Expressionist-styled brush work.
Ewa Juszkiewicz (Polish, b. 1984), Untitled (By Michaelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio), 2021. Oil on canvas, 45 7/8 x 35 5/8 in. Kulick Collection 2024.003.010
Finally, the Museum has also acquired from the Kulick Collection of Contemporary figurative paintings, 19 primarily by African and African American artists in mid-career. Long committed to supporting and exhibiting under-represented artists, Kulick has committed great enthusiasm and support to broadening Museum collections.
The artists included in this gift are:
• Juwon Aderemi (Nigerian born, the artist focuses on figures that reflect and comment on Nigerian, Yoruba culture and looks at African traditions of representation within a global heritage of portraiture. He has exhibited extensively in Lagos, Ghana, Los Angeles, and London.)
• Tiffany Alfronseca (A mixed media artist, Alfonseca celebrates Black and Afro-Latinx diasporic culture. Pattern, color, and texture are frequently a vibrant part of her painted narratives. Born in the Bronx of Dominican heritage, she is an honors graduate of the School of the Visual Arts.)
• Debra Cartwright (Born in Annapolis, Maryland, Cartright works primarily as a painter. She is interested in exploring the relationship between the Black female body and medical science. She has a BA in art history from the University of Virginia, an AA from Parsons, and an MFA from Rutgers.
• Auudi Dorsey (Frequently focused on Black figures and narratives from the American South, he is committed to honoring those who try to raise families and lead a good life, often in the context of difficult circumstances. Based in New Orleans, his work is often biographical but towards the universal.)
• Conrad Egyir (Born in Accra, Ghana, Egyir has a BFA from Judson University and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Now based in the United States, he is heavily influenced by rich forms of storytelling and the visual vibrancy of life and culture in West Africa.)
• Yoyolander (Based in Los Angeles, the painter works from a variety of photographs she has taken of the subject. The combination of references woven together in the painting often isolates the figure against a plain background. She often uses layers of stained and cut watercolor to develop form.)
• Lauren Pearce (Born and based in inner-city Cleveland, Pearce has developed a provocative style frequently based on focused and cropped portraits and a vibrant palette. Her images can convey a surrealist edge. Her scale varies from easel-scale to monumental murals.)
• Barry Yusufu (Born in the Nasaraw State, Nigeria, he is now based in Abuja. The artist is largely self-taught and focuses on individuals he knows or has known. Often the intense focus and frontality of the sitter suggests the impact of religious icons on his repertoire.)
Juwon Aderemi (Nigerian, b.2000), Bode Thomas, 2022. Oil on canvas, 54 x 72 in. Kulick Collection 2024.003.001
The extraordinary generosity of Lance Kulick greatly enhances the Museum’s commitment to understanding and appreciating the dynamic dimensions of the global world.
“Founded in 1875, the University of Notre Dame is fortunate to have one of the earliest academic art museums in the nation” states Joseph Antenucci Becherer, director, Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. “Celebrating this event with strategic acquisitions looks towards the future while embracing our storied past.”
