ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University's Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art acquired more than $4 million worth of fine art for its permanent collection this past year through gifts and purchases, says Franklin Robinson, the Richard J. Schwartz Director of the museum.

"Our recent acquisitions have been truly extraordinary," said Robinson. "A lot of people don't realize that our collections are growing all the time and that the museum is so dynamic -- in large part thanks to the generosity of alumni donors, other gifts and through the work of our museum advisory council."

Among the art treasures acquired in 2000-01: a 1915 Cubist watercolor by Pablo Picasso and one of Fernand Léger's most important oil paintings from 1931. Both pieces were gifts from Cornell alumni Constance and Bernard Livingston (Class of '39). Robinson says the two works "illustrate and embody the 'revolution in seeing' that occurred in Paris in the first decades of the 20th century."

In fact, the Cubist watercolor is among four gifts and loans of works by Picasso received in recent months by the Johnson Museum. The advisory council purchased one of Picasso's greatest prints, "Satyr and the Sleeping Woman," last year for the museum. Another Picasso, a lithograph from the 1940s, was donated by Norman Daly, Cornell professor emeritus of art. And an anonymous loan by an alumnus of a major 1909 Cubist sculpture by Picasso, "Portrait of a Woman (Fernande)," is now on view in the museum's first-floor European gallery

"We can see works in three different media from four different periods of Picasso's career," said Robinson. "Each work is a revelation of his amazing and sustained creative power."

Other acquisitions include prints by Ellsworth Kelly, Alfred Rethel and Max Klinger, as well as a large number of prints by noted African American artists, including Emma Amos, Vincent Smith, Willie Cole and Henry Ossawa Tanner. With help from donors, photography acquisitions were equally extensive -- a bonus for students of the art who use the museum collections for

study. Collections in the area of sculpture and arts and crafts were favorably increased, as well. These include a handsome 1930 study for a war memorial by Aristide Maillol. There also are new additions to the museum's collections of Tiffany glass, African knives, ancient money and vessels, and numerous objects from Mexico.

In addition to the Léger, several important oil paintings were acquired, including works by Julian Schnabel, Julian Stanczak, Isabel Bishop and Carolus-Duran. "Thanks to a substantial gift of Cuban paintings acquired by the Johnson through Dr. Jay Hyman (Class of '55, D.V.M. '57)," the museum is now "a major repository of 20th-century Cuban art," Robinson said.

The Asian collections also expanded this past year. The Cornell Asian Alumni Association funded the purchase of two works of Korean art -- a small wooden temple "mountain spirit" deity and calligraphy by Cho Huiryong (1789-1866), one of the greatest Korean masters. In addition, the museum's curator of Asian art, Ellen Avril, made several purchases of Islamic art to strengthen that part of the collection. These latter works are on view through April 7 in the exhibition titled "Art From the Islamic World."

While 2000-01 was a banner year for the Johnson, 2002 is already off to a great start, Robinson says. The museum recently received two paintings from a Spanish Renaissance altarpiece, a bequest of the Countess Tauni de Lesseps, widow of alumnus Dudley Schoales (Class of '29). These paintings are now on display in the stairwell overlooking the museum's entrance lobby.

"We have long been in need of Renaissance paintings, so this is an important addition to the collection," said Catherine Davidson, publications and publicity coordinator for the Johnson.

For more information about the museum, contact Davidson at (607) 254-4563 or by e-mail at cmd15@cornell.edu .

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