Rose Art Museum Receives Large Donation of Works on Paper

Ellsworth Kelly, Dartmouth, 2011. © Ellsworth Kelly and Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles. Gift of Stephen M. Salny / Photo provided

It’s a big week for the Rose Art Museum.

Today, director Christopher Bedford announced that Stephen M. Salny, a businessman, author, and collector from Baltimore, is donating 48 works on paper to the Brandeis University museum, including 11 lithographs by Ellsworth Kelly, the bold abstract painter who studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.

Salny’s gift also includes works by Joseph Albers, Richard Diebenkorn, Helen Frankenthaler, Jasper Johns, Sol Lewitt, Brice Marden, Robert Motherwell, Sean Scully, and the museum’s very first acquisition by Damien Hirst.

“Steve’s vision goes to the heart of what the Rose Art Museum’s holdings represent,” said Bedford in a press release. “Featuring some of the best artists of the postwar era, his collection gathers works of extraordinary passion held in balance with uncommon elegance. It will enrich our exhibitions and ability to serve as a center of research and instruction in postwar modern and contemporary art.”

In a few months, the museum plans on hosting an exhibition of works from Salny’s gift, complemented by its existing holdings by Kelly. It will open on February 12 and run through June 5, 2016.

Earlier this week, Bedford also announced the appointment of Kim Conaty as the new curator at the museum. She comes from the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, where she helped to organize several exhibitions of postwar and contemporary art, taught classes, and pursued new acquisitions.

Conaty, who’s currently working on a PhD from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, will officially join the Rose Art Museum in December.

Meanwhile, the museum is also preparing for the 39th annual Waltham Mills Open Studios event this weekend, during which Rosebud, its recently launched satellite video art gallery in downtown Waltham, will showcase a film by William Kentridge.

The free Waltham Mills Open Studios event will take place on Saturday, November 7, and Sunday, November 8, from noon to 6 p.m. at 144 and 289 Moody St., Waltham.