BRUNSWICK, ME.- The Bowdoin College Museum of Art today announced its receipt of two major collections of artworks that will significantly expand its holdings: nearly 350 works from the estate of Marion Boulton “Kippy” Stroud (1939 – 2015), founder of the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia and the Acadia Summer Arts Program (ASAP) on Maine’s Mount Desert Island, known as “Kamp Kippy”; and an archive of visual art by the artist, scholar, and curator Walter Pach (1883 – 1958), numbering approximately 1,200 works from the gallerist and scholar Francis M. Naumann and his wife Marie T. Keller. Totaling over 1,500 objects, the Stroud and Pach Collections will greatly enhance the BCMA’s encyclopedic collection with additions across media, including highlights such as Pach’s painted portraits of Frida Kahlo and Rufino Tamayo, and works by contemporary artists Dawoud Bey, Willie Cole, Cai Guo-Qiang, Roni Horn, Abelardo Morell, Carrie Mae Weems, and William Wegman, among others.
Advancing the Museum’s collection goals, a significant portion of works included in the Pach and Stroud gifts are by artists or of historic periods and geographic regions that are not represented in current holdings. Accessioning these objects furthers the Museum’s commitment to recognizing Maine as a site of excellence in the arts, honoring Kippy Stroud’s history of nurturing creative communities in the state and Pach’s relationship with Bowdoin College, from which his son, Raymond, graduated in 1936 and where he himself taught the same year. Upon receipt, the Museum will develop an exhibition dedicated to the legacy of the ASAP program and will make the Walter Pach Collection available to scholars, both on campus and beyond.
“We are thrilled to welcome the collections of Kippy Stroud and Walter Pach to the Museum,” said BCMA co-director Anne Goodyear. “These new contributions to our holdings reflect the remarkable vision of two individuals who have had a transformative impact on how art has been experienced, practiced, and interpreted from the early twentieth century to the present. The addition of landmark works by a significant range of modern and contemporary masters will allow us to tell new stories that both enliven our interpretation of our historic collections and enhance our ability to present the art of the recent past.”
“Both the Stroud and Pach Collections contribute enormously to our mission to further innovative scholarship and offer ambitious exhibitions that speak to our students, faculty and local audience, and the world at large,” said BCMA co-director Frank Goodyear. “We hope to honor and advance the legacy of both collectors, and we are looking forward to showcasing the work of artists not previously represented in our collection.”
The Stroud Collection
Marion Boulton “Kippy” Stroud was the founder of the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia and Acadia Summer Arts Program (ASAP) on Maine’s Mount Desert Island in the 1980s, known as “Kamp Kippy.” Stroud was both an important patron of the arts and innovative museum leader, whose philanthropic and curatorial efforts advanced the endeavors of leading artists and arts professionals globally. The BCMA will receive a selection of approximately 350 works from Stroud’s collection, including pieces of intimate scale, multiples, works on paper, and sculptures, many of which were given to Stroud as gestures of appreciation from artists who participated in “Kamp Kippy,” and frequently include personal inscriptions that commemorate their time in Maine.
The Stroud Collection bolsters BCMA’s existing holdings of works by key contemporary artists, such as Ann Hamilton, Jenny Holzer, Abelardo Morell, Alison Saar, Kiki Smith, and William Wegman. A significant portion of the gift features artists not currently represented in the Museum’s permanent collection, including Charles Juhàsz Alvarado, Dawoud Bey, Willie Cole, Wendy Ewald, Cai Guo-Qiang, Roni Horn, Alfredo Jaar, Robert Kushner, Sharon Lockhart, Ray Metzker, Mathew Ritchie, Lucas Samaras, Jean Shin, Kazumi Tanaka, Robert Venturi, Carrie Mae Weems, and Tetsuya Yamada. The Museum will also receive historic works, which reflect Stroud’s interest in the Alfred Stieglitz circle and Dadaism; and archival materials, such as audio recordings of artist presentations from “Kamp Kippy” and a selection of books resulting from projects carried out at ASAP and the Fabric Workshop and Museum.
The Archival Collection of Marion Boulton Stroud and Acadia Summer Arts Program, Mt. Desert Island, Maine promises students of art and art history exposure to the work of major artists of the present and recent past.
The Pach Collection
Best known today as one of the organizers and the curator of the vanguard European section of the Armory Show, which introduced European and American modernism to audiences across the United States, Walter Pach was a prolific artist, curator, and author and was instrumental in shaping the notion of modernism in the United States. The archival collection of visual art by Pach includes approximately 420 prints, 4,000 drawings (included within many multipage notebooks), 213 watercolors, and 427 paintings, as well as 24 books written and translated by Walter Pach, providing the most comprehensive record of Pach’s career as an artist. The archive also includes 34 paintings by his wife, painter and printer Magdalene Frohberg Pach (1884 – 1950), as well as numerous drawings and sketchbooks. The collection, which features works from 1905 to 1958, traces his encounters with and adaptations of Impressionism and Postimpressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, and the Neoclassicism that followed World War I and captures his early recognition of the importance of Mexican modernism, epitomized by his efforts to bring to the attention of the American public artists Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, José Orozco, and Frida Kahlo.
In addition to detailing Pach’s significance within the history of modernism, the collection also sheds light on aspects of the BCMA’s institutional history, such as its longstanding and innovative commitment to the study of the history of art. In 1927, Pach participated in the Institute for Art at Bowdoin, which included other leading figures in the field, such as Alfred Barr, William Ivins, and Violet Oakley. In 1936, Pach taught at Bowdoin College and Pach’s son, Raymond, graduated from Bowdoin in the same year.
The accessioning of the Pach Collection will provide opportunities for both students and faculty to explore how modernism has been understood artistically and intellectually.
