Heckscher Museum of Art

Profile

The modern life of The Heckscher Museum really began in 1957 when responsibility for the Museum passed to a Board of Trustees lead by George Wilhelm. Almost immediately the collection began to grow. Plans were developed for a more active exhibitions schedule and a program of educational activities. In 1962, Eva Gatling was hired as Director, one of the first women to direct an art museum. During her tenure, the Museum made its most important acquisition since the foundation with the purchase of George Grosz's Eclipse of the Sun- a monumental painting from the height of his activity in Berlin in the 1920s. Many more objects were added to the collection during her sixteen-year career, including a number of works by Arthur Dove who, like Grosz, had lived in Huntington for an extended period.

In the 1970s, dreams of expansion were born with plans requested from Marcel Breuer. Subsequent directors placed great emphasis on education programs and improved exhibitions. The staff grew in number and professionalism. The addition of the Baker/Pisano Collection of American works in 2001 was the single largest gift to the Museum since the founding donation. A major historic preservation and renovation project, under the direction of Center brook Architects, was initiated in 2007, upgrading the exhibition space and highlighting the original architectural features of the building.

Today The Heckscher Museum seeks to thrive and grow in four basic areas-education and public programs, collections and exhibitions.

represented artists

Berenice Abbott      Richard Anuszkiewicz      Jean Arp      Milton Avery      Leonard Baskin      Romare Bearden      George Biddle      Isabel Bishop      Joseph Cornell      Gustave Courbet      Salvador Dalí      Stuart Davis      Charles Demuth      André Dérain      Asher B. Durand      Don Eddy      William Eggleston      Larry Fink      Fritz Glarner      Friedensreich Hundertwasser      Wilhelm Hunt Diederich      George Inness      Gustav Klimt      Gaston Lachaise      Mikhail Larionov      Robert Laurent

Fernand Léger      Leon Levinstein      Alexander Liberman      Richard Lindner      Jacques Lipchitz      George Benjamin Luks      Henri Matisse      Jan Matulka      Henry Moore      Eadweard Muybridge      Robert Rauschenberg      Man Ray      William Trost Richards      George Romney      James Rosenquist      Charles Sheeler      Walter Richard Sickert      John Sloan      Raphael Soyer      Edward Steichen      Joseph Stella      Florine Stettheimer      Garry Winogrand