NAPLES, FLA.- The estate of Olga Hirshhorn has gifted her Naples Art Collection to the Artis—Naples, a cultural organization equally dedicated to the visual (The Baker Museum) and performing arts (Naples Philharmonic Orchestra) located in Naples on the West Coast of Florida.

With more than 400 works, the Olga Hirshhorn collection represents a lifetime of amassing art by one of the most important collecting couples in American history. Idiosyncratic and specific, the works donated come from Hirshhorn’s Naples home represent the art with which she chose to surround herself. From pre-Columbian artifacts to whimsical drawings by friend Pablo Picasso, along with work from Willem de Kooning, Josef Albers, Ed Ruscha and Kara Walker, the gift represents a substantial addition to The Baker Museum’s permanent collection.

Key works can define an artist, a style or an era. But more importantly, they define a collecting aesthetic that celebrated the personal joy art can provide. The Artis—Naples holdings from Hirshhorn’s collection offer a unique and intimate window on many seminal artists of the 20th century and on the specific nature and profile of an art collector reflecting a period of collecting when the relationships between artists and collector were less removed by galleries and auction houses.

Olga Hirshhorn and Naples, Florida
The iconoclastic art collector Olga Hirshhorn amassed a unique collection primarily based on small and intimate works, often created especially for her and stemming from her personal relationships with many major figures of the 20th century. Apart from homes in Washington, D.C., Greenwich, Connecticut, New York City and Martha’s Vineyard, most dear to her was her 40-plus-year relationship with Naples, Florida. She and her husband, Joseph, were part of a small cadre of pioneering individuals helping to transform a nascent beach hamlet in the late 1960s into a thriving and vibrant Florida west coast community.

Artis—Naples Salutes a Major Benefactor and Friend
For the duration of Artis—Naples’s 2016-17 season, the institution will pay tribute to Olga and her abiding love and support for Naples, Florida and the institution she helped to establish nurture and grow. Beginning Sept 6, 2016, The Baker Museum will dedicate its entire third floor (10,000 sq. ft) to a scholarly exhibition display stemming from the Mouse House collection, recent estate and previous gifts, and loans from the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C, including works by Man Ray and Picasso donated directly by Olga. The exhibition will include personal correspondences and photographs of Olga with artists whom she called friends and the works they created specifically for her help tell the story of this important figure in 20th century art.

Artis—Naples’ mission of cross-pollinating the visual and performing arts will be realized in a series of complementary lectures and collaborative musical offerings, including a themed program—Scale: A Tribute to Olga Hirshhorn—showcasing three commissioned works by its own Naples Philharmonic, complimenting a key element mirrored in many pieces in Olga’s collection throughout the exhibition.

Artis—Naples’ tribute is an opportunity for the public to not only learn about artistic impulses and personalized gestures of some of the 20th century masters, but also to learn about a rare individual who represents a period of collecting not commonly present in today’s monetary-driven global art market.

A Deep and Abiding Relationships: Collector and Institution
In 2013, under the leadership of President and CEO Kathleen van Bergen and Museum Director and Chief Curator Frank Verpoorten, Artis—Naples secured Olga’s sought-after and prized Mouse House collection. It consisted of over 220 objects prominently displayed in her tiny carriage house behind the couple’s main residence on Embassy Row in Washington, D.C. The collection of small-scale paintings, drawings and sculptures, many by artists that became personal friends of the couple, includes Calder, Cornell, Giacometti, de Kooning, Motherwell and Man Ray.

Prior to her gift in 2013, Olga had made smaller donations. But her largest commitment is her 2016 Naples estate gift, establishing Artis—Naples as the largest holder of works from the entire Olga Hirshhorn collection.

History of Artis—Naples
Olga’s history with Artis—Naples is long and storied, dating back to its origins when the Naples Philharmonic first performed in Hayes Hall in 1989 to the addition of The Baker Museum in 2000 to present, as the organization now operates under a single and unified brand as a unique cultural institution equally dedicated to both the performing and visual arts. Physically, the cultural institution resides on the 8.5-acre Kimberly K. Querrey and Louis A. Simpson Cultural Campus, comprising two performance halls (Frances Pew Hayes Hall and Myra J. Daniels Pavilion), The Baker Museum, the Toni Stabile Education Building and the Kohan Administration Building.

The Baker Museum of Artis—Naples
The Baker Museum is one of the foremost fine arts museums in Southwest Florida. The museum features a permanent collection of 4,000-plus works and is comprised of 35,000-plus sq. ft. of exhibition space on three stories in a stand-alone building along with two additional gallery spaces in Hayes Hall. The Baker Museum hosts several traveling exhibitions annually to complement installations of works from its permanent collection and other curated offerings. The museum is dedicated to stewardship and scholarship, generating travelling exhibitions from both its permanent collection and outside sources.

Notable recent gifts to the museum include an impressive selection of modern and contemporary art from the collection of Paul and Charlotte Corddry. Recent critically acclaimed exhibitions include Gods and Heroes: Masterpieces from the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris and Painting Women, from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.