Collection In Focus

The Terra Foundation for American Art's collection of historic American art dates from the colonial era to 1945. To implement its mission, the foundation preserves the Collection as a vital part of its identity and programs. Significantly, the foundation is expanding the Collection through acquisitions and gifts. The collection consists of approximately 725 works of art: paintings, pastels, watercolors, drawings, monotypes, and prints. The presence of art by American women is a strength of the Collection at a remarkable 11%.

The foundation's long range goal is to enhance the Collection by showcasing the multi-national artistic exchanges that are less well-known in American art. A strong representation of pictures by Americans working in France allows the foundation to seek works of art by American artists active in other European artistic centers. In addition, a priority is acquiring paintings that reflect other cultures from the across the Americas or throughout Asia.

Conservation of the Terra Foundation's collection ensures that it will be available for future generations to enjoy. In doing so, conservators must find ways to protect works of art from the effects of the aging of painters' selected materials, while making them accessible to the viewing public. Certain treatments are undertaken in preparation for a work's travel and exhibition, while other conservation projects are more research oriented. Each approach yields exciting new information about the physical character of the artwork and offers insights into the processes and materials involved with an artwork's creation. These factors relate directly to the overall condition and look of a painting or work on paper.

The Terra Foundation is committed to comprehensively researching its Collection and welcomes new primary resource data as well as insights from scholars everywhere. While interpretive entries accompany each work of art in the "Collection Online" segment, the length of this text is limited by the format. "Objects In Depth," however, allows for longer essays adding complexity to the commentary. Of particular importance is the opportunity to incorporate comparative images in the essay to explicate the author's arguments. The goal is to provoke new thinking about a particular work of art and to circulate original research on works of art in the Collection contributed by the foundation's staff and by others. The desire is that these "In Depth" investigations will lead to innovative ideas in the field of historic American art.