New York's Museum of Modern Art Announces Major Gift of Contemporary African Art

Art lovers awaiting the opening of the newly expanded Museum of Modern Art in New York now have even more to be excited about. The museum has announced a major gift of African contemporary art from photographer, fashion designer, and art collector Jean Pigozzi (a man who is heir to the Simca automobile company and estimated to be worth more than $100 million). The gift of 45 works includes pieces from an array of African artists, such as sculptures by Romuald Hazoumè and Bodys Isek Kingelez, paintings by Moké and Cheri Samba, and photographs by Seydou Keïta and Ambroise Ngaimoko/Studio 3Z. MoMA will also be the new home of Frédéric Bruly Bouabré’s Alphabet bété, an alphabet made up of 449 drawings.

Pigozzi has partnered with MoMA in the past, allowing access to his extensive collection for research, as well as playing an instrumental role in the 2018 exhibition Bodys Isek Kingelez: City Dreams. The photographer began collecting African art 30 years ago after viewing the landmark exhibition Magiciens de la Terre at Paris’s Centre Georges Pompidou and the Grande halle de la Villette, and with the help of curator André Magnin, he has assembled one of the largest privately held collections of African Contemporary art in the world. The collection, known as Contemporary African Art Collection (CAAC–The Pigozzi Collection), is based in Geneva and includes over 1,000 works by more than 80 artists who live or lived in sub-Saharan Africa.

The gift, which will have a major impact on the museum’s permanent collection, has come at an important time in MoMA’s history. On October 21, the museum will open its expanded campus, which was designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, in collaboration with Gensler. The expansion will add 40,000 square feet of gallery spaces and create new opportunities for interdisciplinary exhibitions. “Among the goals for MoMA's collection, and the installation of our collection at the time of our October reopening, is to offer a deeper experience of art, in part by foregrounding work of artists from more diverse geographies and backgrounds,” says Sarah Suzuki, curator, department of drawings and prints. “This incredible gift from Jean Pigozzi, which was selected by MoMA's curators with these efforts in mind, marks a major step forward in our opportunity to share the work of African artists with our audiences in more multivalent ways than we ever have before."

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest