The Heckscher Museum Celebrates 100: Tracing History, Inspiring the Future

100 Year Brochure.PRESS:Layout 1

5/21/21

7:21 AM

Page 1

The Heckscher Museum of Art opened on July 10, 1920. This exhibition traces its history and points to the future by celebrating the art, people, and events that shaped the Museum. Unfolding chronologically, the show explores the development of the collection from 185 paintings and sculptures in 1920, to 2,300 artworks today.

The exhibition weaves together masterworks spanning six centuries, archival material, and rarely exhibited objects.

Each gallery illuminates a defining chapter of the Museum’s story: its founding by civic leaders August and Anna Atkins Heckscher, the transformational directorship of Eva Gatling, its role in preserving the legacies of American modernists Arthur Dove and Helen Torr, and the donation of hundreds of artworks from the Baker/Pisano Collection. Outstanding individual acquisitions punctuate the exhibition, which culminates with new purchases and gifts that advance the Museum’s commitment to a more equitable and inclusive future.

You will find some things to admire, some to criticize.

In 1921, a newspaper covering the Museum reported: “people come and come again to this treasure house of theirs.” We invite you to do the same as we embark on the next 100 years.

The more the opinions differ the healthier the discussion,

1920–1941

the greater the interest, the more educational the outcome.

Founding the Museum

—August Heckscher, 1920

People come and come again to this treasure house of theirs.

—The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1921 SPONSORS

Robin T. Hadley | The Cunniff Family | Andrea B. and Peter D. Klein | PRIVATE BANK, Bank of America George Forster, Still Life with Fruit and Bird's Nest, n.d. Heckscher Museum, Gift of Theresa A. Cwierzyk and Sidney Gordon; Maurice Prendergast,

The Promontory, c. 1907-10. Heckscher Museum, Gift of Mrs. Charles Prendergast; Rubens Santoro, Grand Canal, Venice, n.d. Heckscher Museum, August Heckscher Collection; Daniel Ridgway Knight, Waiting for the Ferry, 1885. Heckscher Museum, August Heckscher Collection; Arthur G.

Dove, Untitled, 1941. Heckscher Museum, Bequest of Mary Torr Rehm; Helen Torr, Oyster Stakes, 1929. Heckscher Museum, Gift of Mrs. Mary Rehm.

Brochure text by Karli Wurzelbacher, Ph.D., Curator

#Heckscher100 Heckscher Museum Interior Views, c. 1920-early 1940s. Huntington Historical Society.

Heckscher.org

The Heckscher Museum of Art | 2 Prime Avenue | Huntington, NY 11743 | 631.380.3230

June 5, 2021 – January 9, 2022

When the Museum opened in 1920, it was one of the first suburban art museums in the country.

After creating Heckscher Park, progressive citizens August and Anna Atkins Heckscher funded the Museum’s construction and donated the founding collection. In the Museum’s early decades, dense groupings of art with similar subject matter encouraged visitors to make comparisons based on style, composition, and color.

The Heckschers purchased art with the Museum in mind. Although focused solely on European and American art, they aimed to represent multiple time periods, nationalities, and genres.

The founding collection included European portraits, landscapes, and paintings of religious, allegorical, and historical themes. The Heckschers also favored American Hudson River School painting from the 19th and early 20th centuries, but their taste did not extend to modern art.

Thomas Moran, Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, 1911. Heckscher Museum, August Heckscher Collection; Lucas Cranach, The Elder, Virgin, Child, St. John the Baptist and Angels, 1534. Heckscher Museum, August Heckscher Collection. Conserved in 2013 through the Adopt a Work of Art Program with funds donated by Andrea B. and Peter D. Klein.

100 Year Brochure.PRESS:Layout 1

5/21/21

7:21 AM

Page 1

The Heckscher Museum of Art opened on July 10, 1920. This exhibition traces its history and points to the future by celebrating the art, people, and events that shaped the Museum. Unfolding chronologically, the show explores the development of the collection from 185 paintings and sculptures in 1920, to 2,300 artworks today.

The exhibition weaves together masterworks spanning six centuries, archival material, and rarely exhibited objects.

Each gallery illuminates a defining chapter of the Museum’s story: its founding by civic leaders August and Anna Atkins Heckscher, the transformational directorship of Eva Gatling, its role in preserving the legacies of American modernists Arthur Dove and Helen Torr, and the donation of hundreds of artworks from the Baker/Pisano Collection. Outstanding individual acquisitions punctuate the exhibition, which culminates with new purchases and gifts that advance the Museum’s commitment to a more equitable and inclusive future.

You will find some things to admire, some to criticize.

In 1921, a newspaper covering the Museum reported: “people come and come again to this treasure house of theirs.” We invite you to do the same as we embark on the next 100 years.

The more the opinions differ the healthier the discussion,

1920–1941

the greater the interest, the more educational the outcome.

Founding the Museum

—August Heckscher, 1920

People come and come again to this treasure house of theirs.

—The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1921 SPONSORS

Robin T. Hadley | The Cunniff Family | Andrea B. and Peter D. Klein | PRIVATE BANK, Bank of America George Forster, Still Life with Fruit and Bird's Nest, n.d. Heckscher Museum, Gift of Theresa A. Cwierzyk and Sidney Gordon; Maurice Prendergast,

The Promontory, c. 1907-10. Heckscher Museum, Gift of Mrs. Charles Prendergast; Rubens Santoro, Grand Canal, Venice, n.d. Heckscher Museum, August Heckscher Collection; Daniel Ridgway Knight, Waiting for the Ferry, 1885. Heckscher Museum, August Heckscher Collection; Arthur G.

Dove, Untitled, 1941. Heckscher Museum, Bequest of Mary Torr Rehm; Helen Torr, Oyster Stakes, 1929. Heckscher Museum, Gift of Mrs. Mary Rehm.

Brochure text by Karli Wurzelbacher, Ph.D., Curator

#Heckscher100 Heckscher Museum Interior Views, c. 1920-early 1940s. Huntington Historical Society.

Heckscher.org

The Heckscher Museum of Art | 2 Prime Avenue | Huntington, NY 11743 | 631.380.3230

June 5, 2021 – January 9, 2022

When the Museum opened in 1920, it was one of the first suburban art museums in the country.

After creating Heckscher Park, progressive citizens August and Anna Atkins Heckscher funded the Museum’s construction and donated the founding collection. In the Museum’s early decades, dense groupings of art with similar subject matter encouraged visitors to make comparisons based on style, composition, and color.

The Heckschers purchased art with the Museum in mind. Although focused solely on European and American art, they aimed to represent multiple time periods, nationalities, and genres.

The founding collection included European portraits, landscapes, and paintings of religious, allegorical, and historical themes. The Heckschers also favored American Hudson River School painting from the 19th and early 20th centuries, but their taste did not extend to modern art.

Thomas Moran, Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, 1911. Heckscher Museum, August Heckscher Collection; Lucas Cranach, The Elder, Virgin, Child, St. John the Baptist and Angels, 1534. Heckscher Museum, August Heckscher Collection. Conserved in 2013 through the Adopt a Work of Art Program with funds donated by Andrea B. and Peter D. Klein.

100 Year Brochure.PRESS:Layout 1

5/21/21

7:21 AM

Page 1

The Heckscher Museum of Art opened on July 10, 1920. This exhibition traces its history and points to the future by celebrating the art, people, and events that shaped the Museum. Unfolding chronologically, the show explores the development of the collection from 185 paintings and sculptures in 1920, to 2,300 artworks today.

The exhibition weaves together masterworks spanning six centuries, archival material, and rarely exhibited objects.

Each gallery illuminates a defining chapter of the Museum’s story: its founding by civic leaders August and Anna Atkins Heckscher, the transformational directorship of Eva Gatling, its role in preserving the legacies of American modernists Arthur Dove and Helen Torr, and the donation of hundreds of artworks from the Baker/Pisano Collection. Outstanding individual acquisitions punctuate the exhibition, which culminates with new purchases and gifts that advance the Museum’s commitment to a more equitable and inclusive future.

You will find some things to admire, some to criticize.

In 1921, a newspaper covering the Museum reported: “people come and come again to this treasure house of theirs.” We invite you to do the same as we embark on the next 100 years.

The more the opinions differ the healthier the discussion,

1920–1941

the greater the interest, the more educational the outcome.

Founding the Museum

—August Heckscher, 1920

People come and come again to this treasure house of theirs.

—The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1921 SPONSORS

Robin T. Hadley | The Cunniff Family | Andrea B. and Peter D. Klein | PRIVATE BANK, Bank of America George Forster, Still Life with Fruit and Bird's Nest, n.d. Heckscher Museum, Gift of Theresa A. Cwierzyk and Sidney Gordon; Maurice Prendergast,

The Promontory, c. 1907-10. Heckscher Museum, Gift of Mrs. Charles Prendergast; Rubens Santoro, Grand Canal, Venice, n.d. Heckscher Museum, August Heckscher Collection; Daniel Ridgway Knight, Waiting for the Ferry, 1885. Heckscher Museum, August Heckscher Collection; Arthur G.

Dove, Untitled, 1941. Heckscher Museum, Bequest of Mary Torr Rehm; Helen Torr, Oyster Stakes, 1929. Heckscher Museum, Gift of Mrs. Mary Rehm.

Brochure text by Karli Wurzelbacher, Ph.D., Curator

#Heckscher100 Heckscher Museum Interior Views, c. 1920-early 1940s. Huntington Historical Society.

Heckscher.org

The Heckscher Museum of Art | 2 Prime Avenue | Huntington, NY 11743 | 631.380.3230

June 5, 2021 – January 9, 2022

When the Museum opened in 1920, it was one of the first suburban art museums in the country.

After creating Heckscher Park, progressive citizens August and Anna Atkins Heckscher funded the Museum’s construction and donated the founding collection. In the Museum’s early decades, dense groupings of art with similar subject matter encouraged visitors to make comparisons based on style, composition, and color.

The Heckschers purchased art with the Museum in mind. Although focused solely on European and American art, they aimed to represent multiple time periods, nationalities, and genres.

The founding collection included European portraits, landscapes, and paintings of religious, allegorical, and historical themes. The Heckschers also favored American Hudson River School painting from the 19th and early 20th centuries, but their taste did not extend to modern art.

Thomas Moran, Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, 1911. Heckscher Museum, August Heckscher Collection; Lucas Cranach, The Elder, Virgin, Child, St. John the Baptist and Angels, 1534. Heckscher Museum, August Heckscher Collection. Conserved in 2013 through the Adopt a Work of Art Program with funds donated by Andrea B. and Peter D. Klein.

100 Year Brochure.PRESS:Layout 1

5/21/21

7:21 AM

Page 2

2002–Today

1942–1968

Renewing our Mission

Advocating for George Grosz’s Art

The Museum began to make space for rotating exhibitions in the early 1940s and, a decade later, partnered with the Huntington Township Art League to present annual exhibitions of contemporary art. These projects led to the Museum’s connection with George Grosz, a local artist and teacher of international renown. Documenting Grosz’s Long Island legacy, the exhibition features signature examples of his work spanning two countries and four decades. After fleeing Nazi Berlin, Grosz lived and worked in Huntington from 1947 to 1959. His political art satirized the rich and powerful and criticized violence. The painting Eclipse of the Sun (1926), which the Museum acquired through a remarkable crowdfunding campaign, remains one of the most significant artworks in the collection.

1969–1988

Improving the Collection

After the purchase of George Grosz’s Eclipse of the Sun, the collection grew rapidly in size and scope. The Museum refined its holdings by selling art unrelated to its mission to establish a fund to buy significant paintings. The exhibition highlights additions to the historic American art collection, as well as an expansion into abstraction, photography, and prints. The Museum kept pace with the present through the acquisition of recent work by living artists including Romare Bearden and Risaburo Kimura. Through the acquisition and exhibition of more art by women, African Americans, and Asian Americans, the Heckscher began to present a richer history of art.

Students from Huntington High School present Museum Director Eva Gatling with a check to help with the purchase of Grosz's Eclipse of the Sun. The Long-Islander, April 25, 1968; Risaburo Kimura, New York, 1973. Heckscher Museum, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Samuel S. Mandel.

1989–1998

Studying Arthur Dove and Helen Torr

The Heckscher has long played a central role in interpreting the art of Arthur Dove and Helen Torr. In 1989, building on earlier shows and acquisitions, the institution organized an exhibition that explored the deep local ties of these major American modernists. The Museum remains unique in its ability to situate the couple’s art in the place they called home. Dove and Torr were immersed in the Long Island landscape. In the 1920s and 1930s, they lived aboard a boat docked in Huntington Harbor, sailed the Long Island Sound, and visited the Heckscher Museum on occasion. In their final decades, they lived and worked in a cottage in nearby Centerport. The Museum acquired their home in 1998 and continues to preserve it as a meaningful historic site.

1997–2001

Making Connections, Making History

The Museum’s collection developed alongside its temporary exhibition program and through the institution’s close relationships with artists, their families, and private collectors.

Donations of artwork by Maurice Prendergast and John Rogers show that the Heckscher’s collection of historic American art has remained a priority. The Museum has also sustained its dedication to postwar and contemporary art in recent decades. As befitting the first institution to recognize the achievements of Helen Torr, the Museum continued with a series of groundbreaking acquisitions and exhibitions of internationally recognized Long Island artists, including Betty Parsons, Howardena Pindell, Esphyr Slobodkina, and Jane Wilson.

Arthur G. Dove, Untitled Centerport #3, 1941. Heckscher Museum, Gift of Mr. William C. Dove; Esphyr Slobodkina, Levitator #1, 1950.

Heckscher Museum, Gift of Martin, Richard, Nancy, and James Sinkoff in loving memory of their parents, Alice and Marvin Sinkoff.

2001

Living with Art

Over four decades, D. Frederick Baker and Ronald G. Pisano gave work by hundreds of artists to the Heckscher. In 2001 alone, they contributed 289 artworks, affirming American modernism as central to the Museum’s program. Presented in a gallery named in their honor, this section of the exhibition showcases the collectors’ pioneering interest in the Tile Club, William Merritt Chase, Long Island artists, and an expansive range of early 20th-century American art.

The Heckscher was the first art museum that Ron Pisano, who grew up nearby, ever visited. Later a curator at the Museum, he became an expert on American art with a distinguished career as a scholar, curator, and museum director. Collector and philanthropist Fred Baker, who served on the Board of Trustees and the Collections Stewardship Committee, remains involved with the Museum today.

Winslow Homer, Resting Shepherdess, 1877. Heckscher Museum, Partial Gift of Karen H. Bechtel in memory of Ronald G. Pisano and Partial Museum Purchase with funds from the Acquisition Fund, the Eva Gatling Fund, and the Baker/Pisano Fund; Florine Stettheimer, Portrait of Louis Bouché, 1923. Heckscher Museum, Gift of the Baker/Pisano Collection; Joseph Stella, Water Lily, c. 1944. Heckscher Museum, Gift of the Baker/Pisano Collection.

The Museum collects in the areas set out by our founders: historic European art, 19th- and 20th-century American art, and the art of our time, with a special focus on understanding Long Island’s culture in national and international contexts. Dynamic recent acquisitions include those that advance the Museum’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

At least once a year for many decades, the Museum has changed the collection artwork on view, bringing together objects made in different places and at different times to explore wide-ranging ideas.

Revisiting the collection on the occasion of its 100th anniversary invites us to view the past through new eyes, to understand our present in connection with what has come before, and to reimagine the future.

Gabriela Gonzalez Dellosso, Homage Ode: Rachel Ruysch, 2018. Heckscher Museum, Museum Purchase; Odili Donald Odita, Horizon, 2001. Heckscher Museum, Gift from the Collection of Ninah and Michael Lynne.

100 Year Brochure.PRESS:Layout 1

5/21/21

7:21 AM

Page 2

2002–Today

1942–1968

Renewing our Mission

Advocating for George Grosz’s Art

The Museum began to make space for rotating exhibitions in the early 1940s and, a decade later, partnered with the Huntington Township Art League to present annual exhibitions of contemporary art. These projects led to the Museum’s connection with George Grosz, a local artist and teacher of international renown. Documenting Grosz’s Long Island legacy, the exhibition features signature examples of his work spanning two countries and four decades. After fleeing Nazi Berlin, Grosz lived and worked in Huntington from 1947 to 1959. His political art satirized the rich and powerful and criticized violence. The painting Eclipse of the Sun (1926), which the Museum acquired through a remarkable crowdfunding campaign, remains one of the most significant artworks in the collection.

1969–1988

Improving the Collection

After the purchase of George Grosz’s Eclipse of the Sun, the collection grew rapidly in size and scope. The Museum refined its holdings by selling art unrelated to its mission to establish a fund to buy significant paintings. The exhibition highlights additions to the historic American art collection, as well as an expansion into abstraction, photography, and prints. The Museum kept pace with the present through the acquisition of recent work by living artists including Romare Bearden and Risaburo Kimura. Through the acquisition and exhibition of more art by women, African Americans, and Asian Americans, the Heckscher began to present a richer history of art.

Students from Huntington High School present Museum Director Eva Gatling with a check to help with the purchase of Grosz's Eclipse of the Sun. The Long-Islander, April 25, 1968; Risaburo Kimura, New York, 1973. Heckscher Museum, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Samuel S. Mandel.

1989–1998

Studying Arthur Dove and Helen Torr

The Heckscher has long played a central role in interpreting the art of Arthur Dove and Helen Torr. In 1989, building on earlier shows and acquisitions, the institution organized an exhibition that explored the deep local ties of these major American modernists. The Museum remains unique in its ability to situate the couple’s art in the place they called home. Dove and Torr were immersed in the Long Island landscape. In the 1920s and 1930s, they lived aboard a boat docked in Huntington Harbor, sailed the Long Island Sound, and visited the Heckscher Museum on occasion. In their final decades, they lived and worked in a cottage in nearby Centerport. The Museum acquired their home in 1998 and continues to preserve it as a meaningful historic site.

1997–2001

Making Connections, Making History

The Museum’s collection developed alongside its temporary exhibition program and through the institution’s close relationships with artists, their families, and private collectors.

Donations of artwork by Maurice Prendergast and John Rogers show that the Heckscher’s collection of historic American art has remained a priority. The Museum has also sustained its dedication to postwar and contemporary art in recent decades. As befitting the first institution to recognize the achievements of Helen Torr, the Museum continued with a series of groundbreaking acquisitions and exhibitions of internationally recognized Long Island artists, including Betty Parsons, Howardena Pindell, Esphyr Slobodkina, and Jane Wilson.

Arthur G. Dove, Untitled Centerport #3, 1941. Heckscher Museum, Gift of Mr. William C. Dove; Esphyr Slobodkina, Levitator #1, 1950.

Heckscher Museum, Gift of Martin, Richard, Nancy, and James Sinkoff in loving memory of their parents, Alice and Marvin Sinkoff.

2001

Living with Art

Over four decades, D. Frederick Baker and Ronald G. Pisano gave work by hundreds of artists to the Heckscher. In 2001 alone, they contributed 289 artworks, affirming American modernism as central to the Museum’s program. Presented in a gallery named in their honor, this section of the exhibition showcases the collectors’ pioneering interest in the Tile Club, William Merritt Chase, Long Island artists, and an expansive range of early 20th-century American art.

The Heckscher was the first art museum that Ron Pisano, who grew up nearby, ever visited. Later a curator at the Museum, he became an expert on American art with a distinguished career as a scholar, curator, and museum director. Collector and philanthropist Fred Baker, who served on the Board of Trustees and the Collections Stewardship Committee, remains involved with the Museum today.

Winslow Homer, Resting Shepherdess, 1877. Heckscher Museum, Partial Gift of Karen H. Bechtel in memory of Ronald G. Pisano and Partial Museum Purchase with funds from the Acquisition Fund, the Eva Gatling Fund, and the Baker/Pisano Fund; Florine Stettheimer, Portrait of Louis Bouché, 1923. Heckscher Museum, Gift of the Baker/Pisano Collection; Joseph Stella, Water Lily, c. 1944. Heckscher Museum, Gift of the Baker/Pisano Collection.

The Museum collects in the areas set out by our founders: historic European art, 19th- and 20th-century American art, and the art of our time, with a special focus on understanding Long Island’s culture in national and international contexts. Dynamic recent acquisitions include those that advance the Museum’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

At least once a year for many decades, the Museum has changed the collection artwork on view, bringing together objects made in different places and at different times to explore wide-ranging ideas.

Revisiting the collection on the occasion of its 100th anniversary invites us to view the past through new eyes, to understand our present in connection with what has come before, and to reimagine the future.

Gabriela Gonzalez Dellosso, Homage Ode: Rachel Ruysch, 2018. Heckscher Museum, Museum Purchase; Odili Donald Odita, Horizon, 2001. Heckscher Museum, Gift from the Collection of Ninah and Michael Lynne.

100 Year Brochure.PRESS:Layout 1

5/21/21

7:21 AM

Page 2

2002–Today

1942–1968

Renewing our Mission

Advocating for George Grosz’s Art

The Museum began to make space for rotating exhibitions in the early 1940s and, a decade later, partnered with the Huntington Township Art League to present annual exhibitions of contemporary art. These projects led to the Museum’s connection with George Grosz, a local artist and teacher of international renown. Documenting Grosz’s Long Island legacy, the exhibition features signature examples of his work spanning two countries and four decades. After fleeing Nazi Berlin, Grosz lived and worked in Huntington from 1947 to 1959. His political art satirized the rich and powerful and criticized violence. The painting Eclipse of the Sun (1926), which the Museum acquired through a remarkable crowdfunding campaign, remains one of the most significant artworks in the collection.

1969–1988

Improving the Collection

After the purchase of George Grosz’s Eclipse of the Sun, the collection grew rapidly in size and scope. The Museum refined its holdings by selling art unrelated to its mission to establish a fund to buy significant paintings. The exhibition highlights additions to the historic American art collection, as well as an expansion into abstraction, photography, and prints. The Museum kept pace with the present through the acquisition of recent work by living artists including Romare Bearden and Risaburo Kimura. Through the acquisition and exhibition of more art by women, African Americans, and Asian Americans, the Heckscher began to present a richer history of art.

Students from Huntington High School present Museum Director Eva Gatling with a check to help with the purchase of Grosz's Eclipse of the Sun. The Long-Islander, April 25, 1968; Risaburo Kimura, New York, 1973. Heckscher Museum, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Samuel S. Mandel.

1989–1998

Studying Arthur Dove and Helen Torr

The Heckscher has long played a central role in interpreting the art of Arthur Dove and Helen Torr. In 1989, building on earlier shows and acquisitions, the institution organized an exhibition that explored the deep local ties of these major American modernists. The Museum remains unique in its ability to situate the couple’s art in the place they called home. Dove and Torr were immersed in the Long Island landscape. In the 1920s and 1930s, they lived aboard a boat docked in Huntington Harbor, sailed the Long Island Sound, and visited the Heckscher Museum on occasion. In their final decades, they lived and worked in a cottage in nearby Centerport. The Museum acquired their home in 1998 and continues to preserve it as a meaningful historic site.

1997–2001

Making Connections, Making History

The Museum’s collection developed alongside its temporary exhibition program and through the institution’s close relationships with artists, their families, and private collectors.

Donations of artwork by Maurice Prendergast and John Rogers show that the Heckscher’s collection of historic American art has remained a priority. The Museum has also sustained its dedication to postwar and contemporary art in recent decades. As befitting the first institution to recognize the achievements of Helen Torr, the Museum continued with a series of groundbreaking acquisitions and exhibitions of internationally recognized Long Island artists, including Betty Parsons, Howardena Pindell, Esphyr Slobodkina, and Jane Wilson.

Arthur G. Dove, Untitled Centerport #3, 1941. Heckscher Museum, Gift of Mr. William C. Dove; Esphyr Slobodkina, Levitator #1, 1950.

Heckscher Museum, Gift of Martin, Richard, Nancy, and James Sinkoff in loving memory of their parents, Alice and Marvin Sinkoff.

2001

Living with Art

Over four decades, D. Frederick Baker and Ronald G. Pisano gave work by hundreds of artists to the Heckscher. In 2001 alone, they contributed 289 artworks, affirming American modernism as central to the Museum’s program. Presented in a gallery named in their honor, this section of the exhibition showcases the collectors’ pioneering interest in the Tile Club, William Merritt Chase, Long Island artists, and an expansive range of early 20th-century American art.

The Heckscher was the first art museum that Ron Pisano, who grew up nearby, ever visited. Later a curator at the Museum, he became an expert on American art with a distinguished career as a scholar, curator, and museum director. Collector and philanthropist Fred Baker, who served on the Board of Trustees and the Collections Stewardship Committee, remains involved with the Museum today.

Winslow Homer, Resting Shepherdess, 1877. Heckscher Museum, Partial Gift of Karen H. Bechtel in memory of Ronald G. Pisano and Partial Museum Purchase with funds from the Acquisition Fund, the Eva Gatling Fund, and the Baker/Pisano Fund; Florine Stettheimer, Portrait of Louis Bouché, 1923. Heckscher Museum, Gift of the Baker/Pisano Collection; Joseph Stella, Water Lily, c. 1944. Heckscher Museum, Gift of the Baker/Pisano Collection.

The Museum collects in the areas set out by our founders: historic European art, 19th- and 20th-century American art, and the art of our time, with a special focus on understanding Long Island’s culture in national and international contexts. Dynamic recent acquisitions include those that advance the Museum’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

At least once a year for many decades, the Museum has changed the collection artwork on view, bringing together objects made in different places and at different times to explore wide-ranging ideas.

Revisiting the collection on the occasion of its 100th anniversary invites us to view the past through new eyes, to understand our present in connection with what has come before, and to reimagine the future.

Gabriela Gonzalez Dellosso, Homage Ode: Rachel Ruysch, 2018. Heckscher Museum, Museum Purchase; Odili Donald Odita, Horizon, 2001. Heckscher Museum, Gift from the Collection of Ninah and Michael Lynne.

100 Year Brochure.PRESS:Layout 1

5/26/21

1:32 PM

Page 2

2002–Today

1942–1968

Renewing our Mission

Advocating for George Grosz’s Art

The Museum began to make space for rotating exhibitions in the early 1940s and, a decade later, partnered with the Huntington Township Art League to present annual exhibitions of contemporary art. These projects led to the Museum’s connection with George Grosz, a local artist and teacher of international renown. Documenting Grosz’s Long Island legacy, the exhibition features signature examples of his work spanning two countries and four decades. After fleeing Nazi Berlin, Grosz lived and worked in Huntington from 1947 to 1959. His political art satirized the rich and powerful and criticized violence. The painting Eclipse of the Sun (1926), which the Museum acquired through a remarkable crowdfunding campaign, remains one of the most significant artworks in the collection.

1969–1988

Improving the Collection

After the purchase of George Grosz’s Eclipse of the Sun, the collection grew rapidly in size and scope. The Museum refined its holdings by selling art unrelated to its mission to establish a fund to buy significant paintings. The exhibition highlights additions to the historic American art collection, as well as an expansion into abstraction, photography, and prints. The Museum kept pace with the present through the acquisition of recent work by living artists including Romare Bearden and Risaburo Kimura. Through the acquisition and exhibition of more art by women, African Americans, and Asian Americans, the Heckscher began to present a richer history of art.

Students from Huntington High School present Museum Director Eva Gatling with a check to help with the purchase of Grosz's Eclipse of the Sun. The Long-Islander, April 25, 1968; Risaburo Kimura, New York, 1973. Heckscher Museum, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Samuel S. Mandel.

1989–1998

Studying Arthur Dove and Helen Torr

The Heckscher has long played a central role in interpreting the art of Arthur Dove and Helen Torr. In 1989, building on earlier shows and acquisitions, the institution organized an exhibition that explored the deep local ties of these major American modernists. The Museum remains unique in its ability to situate the couple’s art in the place they called home. Dove and Torr were immersed in the Long Island landscape. In the 1920s and 1930s, they lived aboard a boat docked in Huntington Harbor, sailed the Long Island Sound, and visited the Heckscher Museum on occasion. In their final decades, they lived and worked in a cottage in nearby Centerport. The Museum acquired their home in 1998 and continues to preserve it as a meaningful historic site.

1997–2001

Making Connections, Making History

The Museum’s collection developed alongside its temporary exhibition program and through the institution’s close relationships with artists, their families, and private collectors.

Donations of artwork by Maurice Prendergast and John Rogers show that the Heckscher’s collection of historic American art has remained a priority. The Museum has also sustained its dedication to postwar and contemporary art in recent decades. As befitting the first institution to recognize the achievements of Helen Torr, the Museum continued with a series of groundbreaking acquisitions and exhibitions of internationally recognized Long Island artists, including Betty Parsons, Howardena Pindell, Esphyr Slobodkina, and Jane Wilson.

Arthur G. Dove, Untitled Centerport #3, 1941. Heckscher Museum, Gift of Mr. William C. Dove; Esphyr Slobodkina, Levitator #1, 1950.

Heckscher Museum, Gift of Martin, Richard, Nancy, and James Sinkoff in loving memory of their parents, Alice and Marvin Sinkoff.

2001

Living with Art

Over four decades, D. Frederick Baker and Ronald G. Pisano gave work by hundreds of artists to the Heckscher. In 2001 alone, they contributed 289 artworks, affirming American modernism as central to the Museum’s program. Presented in a gallery named in their honor, this section of the exhibition showcases the collectors’ pioneering interest in the Tile Club, William Merritt Chase, Long Island artists, and an expansive range of early 20th-century American art.

The Heckscher was the first art museum that Ron Pisano, who grew up nearby, ever visited. Later a curator at the Museum, he became an expert on American art with a distinguished career as a scholar, curator, and museum director. Collector and philanthropist Fred Baker, who served on the Board of Trustees and the Collections Stewardship Committee, remains involved with the Museum today.

Winslow Homer, Resting Shepherdess, 1877. Heckscher Museum, Partial Gift of Karen H. Bechtel in memory of Ronald G. Pisano and Partial Museum Purchase with funds from the Acquisition Fund, the Eva Gatling Fund, and the Baker/Pisano Fund; Florine Stettheimer, Portrait of Louis Bouché, 1923. Heckscher Museum, Gift of the Baker/Pisano Collection; Joseph Stella, Water Lily, c. 1944. Heckscher Museum, Gift of the Baker/Pisano Collection.

The Museum collects in the areas set out by our founders: historic European art, 19th- and 20th-century American art, and the art of our time, with a special focus on understanding Long Island’s culture in national and international contexts. Dynamic recent acquisitions include those that advance the Museum’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

At least once a year for many decades, the Museum has changed the collection artwork on view, bringing together objects made in different places and at different times to explore wide-ranging ideas.

Revisiting the collection on the occasion of its 100th anniversary invites us to view the past through new eyes, to understand our present in connection with what has come before, and to reimagine the future.

Gabriela Gonzalez Dellosso, Homage Ode: Rachel Ruysch, 2018. Heckscher Museum, Museum Purchase; Odili Donald Odita, Horizon, 2001. Heckscher Museum, Gift from the Collection of Ninah and Michael Lynne. © Odili Donald Odita. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

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The Heckscher Museum of Art opened on July 10, 1920. This exhibition traces its history and points to the future by celebrating the art, people, and events that shaped the Museum. Unfolding chronologically, the show explores the development of the collection from 185 paintings and sculptures in 1920, to 2,300 artworks today.

The exhibition weaves together masterworks spanning six centuries, archival material, and rarely exhibited objects.

Each gallery illuminates a defining chapter of the Museum’s story: its founding by civic leaders August and Anna Atkins Heckscher, the transformational directorship of Eva Gatling, its role in preserving the legacies of American modernists Arthur Dove and Helen Torr, and the donation of hundreds of artworks from the Baker/Pisano Collection. Outstanding individual acquisitions punctuate the exhibition, which culminates with new purchases and gifts that advance the Museum’s commitment to a more equitable and inclusive future.

You will find some things to admire, some to criticize.

In 1921, a newspaper covering the Museum reported: “people come and come again to this treasure house of theirs.” We invite you to do the same as we embark on the next 100 years.

The more the opinions differ the healthier the discussion,

1920–1941

the greater the interest, the more educational the outcome.

Founding the Museum

—August Heckscher, 1920

People come and come again to this treasure house of theirs.

—The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1921 SPONSORS

Robin T. Hadley | The Cunniff Family | Andrea B. and Peter D. Klein | PRIVATE BANK, Bank of America George Forster, Still Life with Fruit and Bird's Nest, n.d. Heckscher Museum, Gift of Theresa A. Cwierzyk and Sidney Gordon; Maurice Prendergast,

The Promontory, c. 1907-10. Heckscher Museum, Gift of Mrs. Charles Prendergast; Rubens Santoro, Grand Canal, Venice, n.d. Heckscher Museum, August Heckscher Collection; Daniel Ridgway Knight, Waiting for the Ferry, 1885. Heckscher Museum, August Heckscher Collection; Arthur G.

Dove, Untitled, 1941. Heckscher Museum, Bequest of Mary Torr Rehm; Helen Torr, Oyster Stakes, 1929. Heckscher Museum, Gift of Mrs. Mary Rehm.

Brochure text by Karli Wurzelbacher, Ph.D., Curator

#Heckscher100 Heckscher Museum Interior Views, c. 1920-early 1940s. Huntington Historical Society.

Heckscher.org

The Heckscher Museum of Art | 2 Prime Avenue | Huntington, NY 11743 | 631.380.3230

June 5, 2021 – January 9, 2022

When the Museum opened in 1920, it was one of the first suburban art museums in the country.

After creating Heckscher Park, progressive citizens August and Anna Atkins Heckscher funded the Museum’s construction and donated the founding collection. In the Museum’s early decades, dense groupings of art with similar subject matter encouraged visitors to make comparisons based on style, composition, and color.

The Heckschers purchased art with the Museum in mind. Although focused solely on European and American art, they aimed to represent multiple time periods, nationalities, and genres.

The founding collection included European portraits, landscapes, and paintings of religious, allegorical, and historical themes. The Heckschers also favored American Hudson River School painting from the 19th and early 20th centuries, but their taste did not extend to modern art.

Thomas Moran, Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, 1911. Heckscher Museum, August Heckscher Collection; Lucas Cranach, The Elder, Virgin, Child, St. John the Baptist and Angels, 1534. Heckscher Museum, August Heckscher Collection. Conserved in 2013 through the Adopt a Work of Art Program with funds donated by Andrea B. and Peter D. Klein.