The Huntington Adds Significant and Rare Works to Its Art Museum

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

• Milestone acquisitions: The Huntington adds landmark works to its art collection, including its first by Judy Chicago and its first piece by a contemporary Southeast Asian artist, Raqib Shaw, as well as a sculpture by Henry Moore.
• Strengthening collections: The new acquisitions enrich the Museum’s art collections while complementing Library and Botanical holdings, opening opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration.
• Broadening perspectives: By bridging eras, cultures, and media, the works illuminate underrepresented perspectives and histories, inviting audiences to discover new connections.
• Gifts expanding modern holdings: Donations from Deborah Last and the Jay and Deborah Last collections include works by Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Tony Berlant, Jacques Lipchitz, and Harry Bertoia.
• Upcoming Exhibitions: Some of the acquisitions will be displayed in the reinstallation of the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art in December 2025, and others will be highlighted in upcoming special exhibitions. 

This year, through important gifts and the support of the Art Collectors’ Council, the Huntington Art Museum acquired significant works by such artists as Judy Chicago, Henry Moore, Raqib Shaw, Frank Stella, and Andy Warhol. The new acquisitions broaden the institution’s collections across American, European, and Asian art, deepen opportunities for scholarly research, and highlight diverse artistic perspectives. 

“These acquisitions significantly strengthen The Huntington’s holdings of American, European, and Asian art while complementing the Huntington Library’s collections to foster interdisciplinary exchange,” said Christina Nielsen, Hannah and Russel Kully Director of the Art Museum. “They ensure The Huntington remains a place where diverse artistic traditions and historical perspectives can be explored for generations to come.” 

The following acquisitions were made possible through The Huntington’s Art Collectors’ Council, which annually selects curator-recommended works: 

Judy Chicago, Pasadena Lifesavers, 1970  

The Huntington has acquired its first work by prolific artist Judy Chicago (b. 1939), a significant addition to the institution’s collection of American art. Chicago began her storied career in the early 1960s in Pasadena, where she challenged the male-dominated field of Minimalism with bold experiments using industrial materials and methods. Drawing on techniques she learned in auto-body school, Chicago refined her practice by spray-painting metal car hoods before shifting to acrylic surfaces—a transition that set the stage for her landmark Pasadena Lifesavers series.  

“Pasadena Lifesavers is the first work by Judy Chicago to enter The Huntington’s collection and one of the few works that exemplify the ‘finish fetish’ strongly associated with Los Angeles artists of the 1960s and ’70s,” said Dennis Carr, The Huntington’s Virginia Steele Scott Chief Curator of American Art. “It also highlights the important role that Pasadena played during that time in supporting a vibrant avant-garde art scene and acting as a crucible for a generation of leading artists.” 

Raqib Shaw, The Perseverant Prophet, 2024  

The Perseverant Prophet by Raqib Shaw (b. 1974) is the first work by a contemporary South Asian artist to be added to The Huntington’s collections. In this tapestry, the Kashmiri-British artist depicts himself beneath a delicate paper parasol, shielding his latest creation from a shower of flaming projectiles. Shaw drew inspiration from his own experiences growing up in Kashmir, where he witnessed a political revolution in which a new regime sought control of the press and burned books.  

“The acquisition of Raqib Shaw’s work enhances The Huntington’s European and Asian collections,” said Robert Hori, associate director for cultural programs at The Huntington. “With its fusion of Eastern and Western influences, Shaw’s art invites dialogue with the historical collection. Its connections to Renaissance, Baroque, and Arts and Crafts movement aesthetics complement the Art Museum’s existing European holdings.” 

The tapestry was on view at The Huntington as part of “Raqib Shaw: Ballads of East and West” (2024), a survey of two decades of Shaw’s work.  

Grafton Tyler Brown, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone from Lookout Point, 1887, and a collection of 20 lithographs, ca. 1875–1880 

Grafton Tyler Brown (1841–1918) is celebrated as one of the four major African American landscape artists of the 19th century. Originally from Pennsylvania, Brown was the son of free people of color and abolitionists. As a teenager, he learned lithography in Philadelphia and later documented California and the Pacific Northwest as a topographic artist, surveyor, and lithographer. His printing firm, G.T. Brown & Company, produced hand-colored lithographs, maps, and illustrated books that captured the character and terrain of booming mining towns.  

The acquired works include a painting, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone from Lookout Point (1887), from Brown’s early transition to the medium, and a selection of 20 lithographs from 1875–1880. Together, they trace his evolution as an artist and his contributions to the American landscape tradition. 

“The works illustrate Grafton Tyler Brown’s documentation of California and the Pacific Northwest and demonstrate the evolution of his role within the American landscape painting tradition,” said Lauren Cross, Gail-Oxford Associate Curator of American Decorative Arts at The Huntington. “The rare, hand-colored lithographs complement The Huntington’s existing collection of bound manuscripts featuring Brown’s work and individual certificates by him.” 

The painting, along with recent acquisitions of landscapes by 19th-century African American artists like Robert Scott Duncanson and Edward Mitchell Bannister, can be seen in the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries reinstallation starting Dec. 7, 2025. Brown’s lithographs and painting will figure prominently in a forthcoming Huntington exhibition on landscapes by Black artists. 

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Why Born Enslaved!, 1872 

In one of his most renowned works, Why Born Enslaved!, French sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827–1875) depicts a young woman of African descent bound with ropes, her torso twisting, and her face turned sharply in distress. Through the woman’s contorted posture and expressive features, Carpeaux conveys the struggle of enslaved people for freedom. When the sculpture was modeled in 1868, the United States had abolished slavery just three years earlier, and emancipation remained a widely discussed topic. 

“As a European artwork that speaks very pointedly to a moment in American history, Carpeaux’s sculpture serves as a centerpiece in our efforts to collaborate across collecting areas and galleries,” said Melinda McCurdy, curator of British art at The Huntington. 

The Huntington will feature the sculpture in a room focused on the Civil War and Reconstruction eras as part of a reimagination of the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art opening this December. The bust will be among works by free and enslaved Black artists of the era as well as objects related to the Underground Railroad from The Huntington’s art and library collections.  

Thomas Wijck, A View of the Thames at Westminster on The Lord Mayor’s Day, 1673-1674 

A View of the Thames at Westminster on the Lord Mayor’s Day by Thomas Wijck (1616–1677) is the earliest painted view of London and the first cityscape by a Dutch artist in The Huntington’s collection. The painting vividly conveys the spectacle and excitement of the 17th-century festival of Lord Mayor’s Day, an annual celebration in London with roots in medieval times.  

Wijck’s painting provides the viewer with insight into London’s mercantile and civic life in the 17th century. The professional guilds depicted—apothecaries, clothworkers, and vintners—were key players in the international trade of global goods, including spices, textiles, and wine, demonstrating the reach of British colonial enterprise and commerce in the period. 

“This painting significantly expands our historical view of the 17th century in England,” said Diva Zumaya, associate curator of European art at The Huntington. “Materials that contextualize this painting, like city maps, abound in our library collections.” 

Zhao Yuan 趙源, Searching for Flowers at Heyang, or The Handsome Third-Ranked Scholar 河陽探花圖, ca. 1804 

The Huntington has acquired one of the few surviving works by the Chinese painter Zhao Yuan (active late 18th–early 19th century). The handscroll, featuring a painting complemented by more than 40 calligraphic inscriptions, provides a window into the literary culture, education, and social networks of officials of the time. Many of these officials also created gardens like those that inspired The Huntington’s Garden of Flowing Fragrance. 

The painting portrays a young scholar, Jin Chunbo, shown walking at night with a servant to a walled garden. The garden depicted is not a real location but an idealized space rich with literary allusions. The scroll’s title, translated as Searching for Flowers at Heyang or The Handsome Third-Ranked  Scholar, along with its poetic references, indicates that the sitter was a talented man who hoped to fare well in the multiyear imperial examinations that bestowed social prestige in premodern China.  

“This work is an immensely valuable addition to our existing collection of Chinese garden paintings,” said Phillip E. Bloom, curator of The Huntington’s Chinese Garden. “In particular, it allows us to demonstrate how garden imagery could serve as a metaphorical backdrop for portraiture—a practice that was common in Chinese painting but not previously represented in our collections.” 

Other Significant Gifts of Art in 2025 

In addition to acquisitions made through the Art Collectors’ Council, The Huntington received several important gifts in 2025 that further enrich and broaden the Art Museum’s holdings.  

Gifts from Deborah Last include works by Thomas Hart Benton and James McNeill Whistler, as well as three Andy Warhol prints from his Flower series (1970) and 12 additional artworks from the Jay and Deborah Last collections. Highlights include: 

• Two works from Frank Stella’s Circuit series—Talladega Five I and Estoril Five II (1982)—as well as a major wall work by Tony Berlant, commissioned by Jay Last and representing his fingerprint at oversized scale. This joins three other Berlant works recently donated by Deborah Last: Dr. Jay’s Overlook and two cubes from the artist’s celebrated series.
• Sculptural gifts include Jacques Lipchitz’s early Cubist bronze Man with Guitar (1920), regarded as the most significant Cubist work in The Huntington’s collection, and Harry Bertoia’s Sonambient sculpture (ca. 1970), a tabletop version of his monumental outdoor installation displayed in the garden north of the American art galleries.
• Four small works on paper: James McNeill Whistler’s The Unsafe Tenement (1858) and Greenwich Park (1859); Henry Farrer’s Marshland (ca. 1880); and John Sloan’s Up the Line, Miss? (1930), further strengthening The Huntington’s holdings in 19th- and 20th-century American works on paper.
• Henry Moore’s Three Points (1939), one of the artist’s most widely discussed abstract sculptures. This sculpture is the first by Moore to enter The Huntington’s Art Museum, joining a collection of more than 300 graphic works by the artist donated by the Philip and Muriel Berman Foundation in 2017. Its addition marks an important expansion of The Huntington’s holdings in 20th-century British art. 

Additionally, Huntington Trustee Mei-Lee Ney donated eight major works by Cuban-born American artist Enrique Martínez Celaya, establishing the institution as having the most significant collection of his work. The works include large-scale paintings, mixed-media works, sculpture, drawings, and photographs. Combined with earlier holdings, the gift brings The Huntington’s collection to 14 seminal works by the artist. Highlights include: 

• El regalo (para Juanito) (2023), which was featured in Martínez Celaya’s solo exhibition at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana—the museum’s first exhibition by a Cuban exile artist.
• The Harvest (2023), exhibited in “The Grief of Almost” at the Hood Museum of Art.
• The Short Journey (2013), a tar-and-feather sculpture from Martínez Celaya’s exhibition “The Pearl” at SITE SANTA FE.
• Unbroken Poetry (1999), a large mixed-media painting included in the artist’s 2001 exhibition at the Orange County Museum of Art. 

The Huntington’s Art Collectors’ Council 

The Art Collectors’ Council plays a vital role supporting art curators in acquiring relevant works that expand The Huntington’s collections and provide new opportunities for cross-cultural understanding, inspiring present and future generations at The Huntington and beyond. 

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About The Huntington

The Huntington, a world-renowned cultural and educational institution, provides transformative experiences for a community of the curious. Founded in 1919 by Henry E. and Arabella Huntington, it supports research and promotes public engagement through its expansive library, art, and botanical collections. By cultivating dynamic scholarship, creating innovative programs for students and lifelong learners, and sharing its extraordinary resources, The Huntington invites all on a journey of discovery, insight, and connection. Only 12 miles from downtown Los Angeles, The Huntington is located at 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, California. Learn more at huntington.org.