Hannah Wilke (1940-1993), Self-Portrait (BC Series), 1990 Dated at lower left: Sept 26, Signed and dated at lower right: Wilke 90 Watercolor on arches paper 41 1/2 x 29 1/4 in (HW004)
We are proud to announce that the work by Hannah Wilke (1940 - 1993), 'Self Portrait (BC Series)' dated 1990, was gifted by collectors Olivia and Tom Walton to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. This work was exhibited at our gallery in Hannah Wilke: Friendship, February 18 - March 10, 2021 and Art On Paper, New York City, September 9 - 12, 2021 before the acquistion from the gallery by the above collectors.
Excerpt from the museum website:
Growing the Museum’s Collection with Landmark Gifts
Olivia and Tom Walton’s gift has been donated in memory of Olivia’s mother Monique Knowlton, a celebrated New York gallerist who was well known for her support of women artists. Of the 18 works in the gift, 13 are by artists who are new to the Crystal Bridges collection. Knowlton personally showed three of them in her gallery: Betye Saar, Elaine Reichek, and Helen Oji. Other artists and works reflect Olivia Walton’s collecting journey and the resonance of her mother’s influence. These include Yayoi Kusama’s beloved, large-scale Narcissus Garden (1966), which has been on long-term loan to Crystal Bridges since 2020. Olivia has cited the impact of the Guerrilla Girls, whose campaigns against gender inequity in the art world resonated with her mother’s experience as a gallerist. Themes of femininity and selfhood are a central undercurrent in the gift, in works such as Hannah Wilke’s Self-Portrait (BC Series)(1990), together with self-portraits by Loie Hollowell and Maria Berrio, which exemplify the ways artists have used their own image to assert identity and resilience across generations.
READ the full announcement on Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art's website.
September 8, 2025
