WASHINGTON, DC.- The Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies announced the 2016 contributions to its Original Print and Photography Collections by artists Frank Gehry, Ellen Phelan, Wayne Thiebaud and Diana Walker. These works will be unveiled for the first time at a reception and dinner in honor of FAPE’s 30th Anniversary at the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Reception Rooms on Monday, April 18, 2016. Gehry, Phelan, Thiebaud and Walker join fellow American artists who have donated original works to FAPE for display in U.S. embassies around the world.
“Wayne Thiebaud is one of the most beloved and respected artists of the 21st century, and we are thrilled to be able to add his work to our Original Print Collection. For five decades, Thiebaud’s iconic paintings have given us new appreciation for some of life’s simplest joys,” said FAPE Chairman Jo Carole Lauder.
Gehry and Thiebaud are the 25th and 26th artists to donate works to the Original Print Collection, FAPE’s longest-running program. It began in 1989, when Frank Stella donated The Symphony in an edition large enough for a print to be sent to every American embassy. Since 1995, each year a distinguished American artist has donated a new edition of original prints to the Collection, including: John Baldessari; Louisiana Bendolph; Mary Lee Bendolph; Loretta Bennett; Vija Celmins; Chuck Close; Jasper Johns; Alex Katz; Ellsworth Kelly; Jeff Koons; Roy Lichtenstein; Sylvia Plimack Mangold; Robert Mangold; Brice Marden; Julie Mehretu; Elizabeth Murray; Loretta Pettway; Robert Rauschenberg; James Rosenquist; Susan Rothenberg; Ed Ruscha; Joel Shapiro and Terry Winters.
“We are pleased to add Frank Gehry’s spectacular etching to the Original Print Collection. It is particularly fitting since he is being honored with FAPE’s Annenberg Award this year,” said Mrs. Lauder. “We are also tremendously grateful to Sidney Felsen and Gemini G.E.L. for donating the publishing of this work, the 10th edition they have contributed to the Collection. We deeply value our longstanding partnership, and thank them for their support.”
In 2013, FAPE launched a collection of American photography with donations by Tina Barney and William Wegman. The Collection expanded in 2014 and 2015 with donations by Richard Benson, Sidney Felsen, Cindy Sherman, Carrie Mae Weems and Brett Weston. Ellen Phelan and Diana Walker are the 8th and 9th artists to contribute to FAPE’s newest initiative.
“As Time’s White House photographer for two decades, Diana Walker had unprecedented access to some of the most memorable, intimate moments of five presidential administrations. We are honored to add her amazing and historically significant photographs to our Collection,” said FAPE President Eden Rafshoon.
“We are also extremely grateful to artist and long-time FAPE supporter Ellen Phelan for her continued support and generosity to FAPE through her extraordinary gift. It is a wonderful complement to Diana’s work featuring an iconic image of America’s landscape,” said Mrs. Rafshoon. Phelan donated a set of prints to the U.S. Embassy in Berlin in 2008, and in 2010, a second portfolio to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York City.
The Original Print and Photography Collections, as well as the Site-Specific and GIFT TO THE NATION Collections, support FAPE’s mission of cross-cultural understanding within the diplomatic community and the international public. Together, the works showcase the diversity, creativity and strength of America’s culture.
