One of Brooklyn’s landmark cultural institutions, the Brooklyn Museum on Eastern Parkway in Prospect Heights, has acquired nearly 600 artworks so far in 2025. The additions enhance the 200-year-old museum’s collections in American Art, Arts of Africa, Asian Art, Contemporary Art, Decorative Arts and Design, Feminist Art, and Photography, representing cultures across the globe and spanning more than 6,000 years.
Highlights of the generous donation, made in celebration of the museum’s 200th anniversary last year, include transformative works by Japanese sculptor Fujikasa Satoko — one of two gifts from Alan L. Beller — which bolster the museum’s growing collection of contemporary Japanese ceramics. Other notable works include a calligraphic piece by early 20th-century Korean activist Ahn Jeung-geun and a group of Japanese bamboo baskets from the Carroll Family.
An ink painting by Soga Shohaku, gifted by longtime donors Carol and John Lyden, joins several significant paintings by major 18th- and 19th-century Japanese artists, historic objects from Japan and Korea, and contemporary Japanese ceramics previously given by the Lydens. “Three Walkers,” a sculpture by Brooklyn-based artist and 2015 MacArthur Fellow Nicole Eisenman and now on view in “Everyday Rebellions: Collection Conversations,” was donated by Stephanie and Tim Ingrassia. “Piano,” a two- and three-dimensional sculpture by Richard Artschwager and a gift from Barbara Bertozzi Castelli, further enhances the museum’s Contemporary Art collection.
Additions to the museum’s photography collection include 38 iconic works by Richard Avedon, Bill Brandt, Bruce Davidson, Sheila Metzner and Irving Penn, drawn from the collection of the late Japanese-born fashion photographer Yasuhiro “Hiro” Wakabayashi and donated by his children, Greg and Clark Wakabayashi. Elizabeth and William Kahane contributed “Jilly & Polly in the Bathroom,” a photograph by Tina Barney.
Lizzie and Eric Himmel donated 26 works by their parents, fashion photographer Lillian Bassman and street photographer Paul Himmel, along with personal artifacts and ephemera. “Hottentot Venus 2000,” a photograph by Lyle Ashton Harris, was gifted by Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn.
Other additions include “Heap” by renowned artist Jenny Holzer, now on view in “Breaking the Mold: The Brooklyn Museum at 200.” “Doors,” a video and sound collage by Christian Marclay, enters the collection as a joint acquisition with the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. A major film installation, “Red Green Blue,” by multimedia artist Paul Pfeiffer, is a joint acquisition with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
A notable expansion of the museum’s Arts of Africa and Decorative Arts and Design collections includes works by South African artist Robin Rhode and American mixed-media artist David MacDonald, broadening the stories and perspectives from the African diaspora. The museum has prioritized acquiring contemporary works for the Arts of Africa collection as it prepares to reinstall dedicated galleries in 2027. The MacDonald acquisition will go on view in February 2026 in “Design: 1880 to Now.”
In a statement, Anne Pasternak, the Shelby White and Leon Levy Director of the Brooklyn Museum, which recently received $10 million in state funding, said it was an “honor” to welcome these remarkable and significant contributions to the museum’s collection and to share them with the community.
“We are tremendously grateful for the enduring support of our benefactors, whose partnership helps build a collection that inspires wonder, connects us to our shared sense of humanity, and explores important historical narratives,” Pasternak said.
The Brooklyn Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Visit the museum’s website for a full list of current exhibitions.
