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Acquired and Restored
November 12, 2022 - March 12, 2023
This exhibition highlights key acquisitions and important conservation projects of the past year. More than two hundred works of art entered the collection in 2021, and a dozen more were conserved. The acquisitions include twenty-nine paintings by pioneering abstractionist Berry Fleming, thanks to Truist; numerous works by Savannah’s Christopher A. D. Murphy, a gift from his descendants; and the first work by Louisianan Chestee Harrington to enter the collection, the gift of leading folk art collectors Becky and Wyatt Collins. Renowned artists Linda, Burgess, and William Dunlap donated paintings by Joe Shannon, Raoul Middleman, and Pinkney Herbert, and Nelson Danish donated sculpture by folk artist Willie Tarver and a major painting by Glascock Reynolds. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas V. Blanton of Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, donated a painting by William Aiken Walker, enriching the museum’s holdings, and John Welch, a longtime resident of Savannah, donated numerous paintings by important Savannah artists. Memorial gifts enabled the museum to purchase works by Mayna Treanor Avent, Richard Norris Brooke, and Robert Loftin Newman, as well as a pair of paintings by Joshua Johnson, a free African American and one of Baltimore’s leading portrait painters in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In all, it was a very good year. Over time, visitors will see more and more of these works of art introduced into the permanent collection galleries. For now, this teaser will have to suffice.