The American art collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has grown significantly over the past two decades and reached new heights with such spectacular recent acquisitions as Albert
Bierstadt’s Indians Spear Fishing and Frank Stella’s Damascus Gate (Stretch Variation III). Along with showcasing artworks from the colonial period to the present, this
beautiful and inspiring book explores the museum’s mission of collection-building and how it is exemplified by the generosity of its donors.
American Art and Philanthropy is organized in a chronological fashion and also emphasizes common visual themes in the collection. The museum’s many acclaimed special collections are
highlighted, including the 1996 acquisition of a large group of works by Jackson Pollock, the 2002 Helen Williams Drutt Collection of artist-made jewelry, and the 2007 Garth Clark and
Mark Del Vecchio Collection of modern and contemporary ceramics.
