CHARLOTTE, NC.- The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art announced the acquisition of three significant artworks for its permanent collection. These additions to the museum’s holdings, made possible through the support of generous donors, reinforce the Bechtler’s commitment to presenting modern and contemporary art that sparks conversation and inspiration. “These acquisitions mark an exciting next chapter for the Bechtler,” said Todd D. Smith, executive director of the museum. “By adding works by these important contemporary artists, we are not only expanding our collection, but also deepening our engagement with evolving narratives of modern and contemporary art.”
The acquisitions have been featured in The Charlotte Observer newsletter, as well as in Axios Charlotte.
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The newly acquired works include:
Clare Rojas, Untitled, 2019, oil on linen.
Museum purchase with funds provided by Barrie Benson, Sheryl Bucci, Lisa Dargan, Liz Faison, Olga Faison, Molly Froelich, Laura Grace, Lucy Hardison, Chandra Johnson, Mary Margaret Porter, Linda Foard Roberts, and Liz Simmons. 2025.02.001
With its bold use of color and dynamic play of form, Untitled is a signature example of Clare Rojas’s abstract vernacular. The painting, which was featured in Bechtler’s 2024 exhibition Clare Rojas: Past the Present, demonstrates the ways in which the artist extends the legacies of 20th century abstraction. This is the first purchase of an artwork the museum, which opened in January 2010, has ever made.
This purchase was made possible through the generosity of a dedicated group of 12 supporters, reflecting a shared commitment to expanding the museum’s collection. Mary Margaret Porter, a member of the museum’s Board of Directors, spearheaded the museum’s campaign to raise funds for the purchase. “We are so pleased that the community came together to make this happen,” Porter noted.
Julie Curtiss, Wicked, 2022, gouache and acrylic on paper.
Gift of Ligon Contemporary Art Foundation, 2024.01.001
Wicked exemplifies Julie Curtiss’ surreal and playful exploration of identity and the subconscious. As in this striking painting on paper, Curtiss centers the female body in her work, often presenting fragmented details that complicate stereotypical notions of femininity. This artwork was donated by the Ligon Contemporary Art Foundation, Charlotte, and is on view at the museum in the exhibition Chance Encounters: Surrealism Then and Now through March 30.
Dario Robleto, I’m Not So Sure The World Deserves You, 2022, antique music/powder boxes created from melted vinyl records, and mixed media.
Gift of Kerry Inman and Denbe Auble, Houston, Texas, in honor of Bechtler Executive Director Todd D. Smith, 2024.01.002-005.
A poetic and deeply personal mixed media sculpture, Dario Robleto’s assemblage of antique music boxes — crafted from melted vinyl records — highlights the artist’s steadfast exploration of art, music, science, and popular culture.
In work such as I’m Not So Sure The World Deserves You, Robleto calls attention to empathy and the emotional significance of technology, highlighting the physical and perceptual aspects of the scientific record. This artwork was donated by Kerry F. Inman and Denby Auble of Houston, Texas in honor of Bechtler Museum of Modern Art’s Executive Director Todd D. Smith.
Clare Rojas (b. Columbus, Ohio, 1976) has work in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (New York); Hammer Museum (Los Angeles); Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Orange County Museum of Art (Costa Mesa, CA); San Jose Museum of Art (CA); Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (CA); Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago (IL); Dakis Joannou Collection (Athens, Greece); and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (León, Spain), among other museums. She has been awarded grants and residencies from Artadia, the Eureka Fellowship, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, Joan Mitchell Foundation, and Headlands Center for the Arts; and has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (IL); IKON Gallery (Birmingham, England); Museum Het Domein (Sittard, Netherlands); Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University (Waltham, MA); Savannah College of Art and Design (GA); Knoxville Museum of Art (TN); Belkin Satellite (Vancouver, Canada); and CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art (San Francisco).
Julie Curtiss (b. Paris, France, 1982) has work in a number of museum collections, including the High Museum, Atlanta (GA); the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (CA); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (IL); the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (MN); and the Yuz Museum, Shanghai. Her work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions across the United States and abroad, including at the Dallas Museum of Art (TX); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (IL); White Cube (Hong Kong and London); the Yuz Museum, Shanghai, and the Nice Biennial (France). Curtiss is the recipient of several fellowships and awards, among them the Youkobo Art Space Returnee Residency Program, Tokyo (Japan); the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, New York (NY); Contemporary Art Center at Woodside Residency Program, New York (NY); Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy’s Young Artists Award; and Erasmus European Exchange Program Grant, Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Dresden (Germany).
Dario Robleto (b. San Antonio, TX, 1972) is represented in the permanent collections of the Nasher Museum at Duke University (NC); the Menil Collection, Houston (TX); the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (TX); the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge (MA); the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (CA); the Museum of Contemporary Art, SanDiego (CA); and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (NY); among many other museums. His work has been exhibited extensively, with recent solo exhibitions at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth (TX); the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University (MI); the Menil Collection, Houston (TX); and an upcoming project at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. He was the recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant and the USA Rasmuson Fellowship, and has been a research fellow and artist in resident at institutions such as the Smithsonian Museum of American History, Washington,D.C.; Rice University, Houston (TX); the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Captiva (FL), and the SETI Institute, Mountain View (CA). In 2016 and 2017 he was a co-organizer of the International Conference on Mobile Brain-Body Imaging and the Neuroscience of Art, Innovation, and Creativity in Cancun, Mexico and Valencia, Spain. He has also served as visiting artist and lecturer at several universities and institutions including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute.
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