400 Artworks by Women Are Donated to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
Believing that women are underrepresented on the walls of most art museums, Linda Lee Alter, a Philadelphia collector and artist, donated some 400 works by artists including Louise Bourgeois, Kiki Smith, Alice Neel, Nancy Spero and Louise Nevelson to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
Ms. Alter, who started collecting in the 1980s, bought works dating from 1910 to the present in all media. There are paintings and sculptures, ceramics and photography as well as works on paper. “My hope was to find a museum emphasizing inclusion and diversity, one working toward greater representation of art by women and artists of color in its permanent collection and where my collection would be enthusiastically welcomed because it embodied the institution’s vision,’’ she said in a statement released by the Academy.
The collection will go on view at the Academy in late spring and a catalog is planned for publication in the near future.