Robert Meyerhoff Collections

Thickly painted, rectangular vertical and horizontal slabs in intense buttercup and mango yellow, shamrock and lime green, burnt orange, raspberry pink, and charcoal gray are layered in this nearly square, abstract composition. In the top half, shapes are smaller, closer together, and separated by strokes of moss green. In the bottom half, the shapes are larger and seem to float against a vivid orange background. Smaller swipes and dabs of cotton candy pink, plum purple, indigo blue, sea glass green, scarlet red, rust brown, and bright white are interspersed around the slabs. The artist signed and dated the painting in green paint in the lower right corner, “hans hofmann 57.”

Hans Hofmann, Autumn Gold, 1957, oil on canvas, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection, 1996.81.4

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Joseph Cornell, Sand Fountain, 1948, construction, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection, 1991.218.1

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Thomas Demand, German, born 1964, Clearing, 2003, chromogenic print. Collection of Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker.

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Frank Stella, Flin Flon IV, 1969, polymer and fluorescent polymer paint on canvas, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection, 1994.82.1

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Smeared, blended strokes in the left half of this abstract painting contrast with outlined, stylized brushstrokes and blocks of pattern to the right in this horizontal composition. Powder-blue, canary-yellow, steel-gray, maroon-red, emerald-green, and pearl-white swipes to the left are layered under outlined white and blue strokes. A lemon-yellow vertical stripe just over halfway across the canvas separates this section from the remainder, which begins with a peach-colored, stylized scroll. Next is a wavy band of black and white diagonal stripes and then a sky-blue strip. The rightmost quarter of the canvas shows the face, crown, and one hand of the Statue of Liberty rendered in angular areas of flat color, including pale gray, black, and bright yellow, against a background of blue and white diagonal stripes.

Roy Lichtenstein, Painting with Statue of Liberty, 1983, oil and Magna on canvas, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection, 1996.81.6

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Scrawled and energetic lines and color are spaced across a scarlet-red background in this horizontal, abstract painting. Textured brushstrokes are visible throughout. From left to right across the top half of the composition are patches of smoke gray, traffic-cone orange, emerald green, and violet purple. An ultramarine and cobalt-blue patch is near the bottom left corner, and smudges of orange and vivid yellow are along the edge at the center and near the bottom right corner of the painting. Curving black lines slice and backtrack around the bottom right quadrant of the composition, and more black encloses or crosses some of the patches of color. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower right corner, “Hartigan 58.”

Grace Hartigan, Essex and Hester (Red), 1958, oil on canvas, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection, 1996.81.3

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Two black bands span the height of this vertical canvas against a field of white mottled with shades of ivory, bone, and parchment in this abstract painting. A narrow, solid black stripe lines the left edge of the canvas, like the spine of a book. About a quarter of the way in from the right edge, black paint swirls and wafts like smoke on either side of a narrow white stripe the same color as the background. The artist signed and dated the painting in black paint in the lower right corner of the canvas: “Barnett Newman 1958.”

Barnett Newman, First Station, 1958, Magna on canvas, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection, 1986.65.1

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Narrow, horizontal bands of oyster white, pale blue, and faint peach, separated by denim-blue lines like a ruled sheet of paper, fill this square painting. The white, peach, and blue bands do not make a pattern, and there are a few areas where several white rows are clustered, including along the bottom edge.

Agnes Martin, Untitled #2, 1981, acrylic and blue pencil on canvas, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection, 1992.28.6

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Andreas Gursky, German, born 1955, Rimini, 2003, silver dye bleach print. Collection of Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker.

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Josef Albers, Study for Homage to the Square: Light Rising, 1950, altered 1959, oil on wood fiberboard, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection, 1992.28.1

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Burgoyne Diller, First Theme, 1964, oil on canvas, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection, 1994.82.2

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Jean Dubuffet, La ronde des images, 1977, acrylic on paper on canvas, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection, 1996.81.5

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Nancy Graves, Agualine, 1980, oil on canvas, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection, 2010.14.1

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Three casts of human hands and forearms hang from the top edge of the right half of this horizontal abstract painting, which is divided vertically in two equal parts. The rectangular field to the left is mottled with steel and charcoal gray streaked with white and amethyst purple. The panel to the right is divided again so the top half is slightly larger than the bottom half. The bottom portion is painted with a pattern to resemble abstracted wood grain in nickel and slate gray. A stylized white cloth, perhaps a handkerchief, is painted to look as if hanging from a nail hammered into the wood paneling, to our left. The top portion seems to be layered with paintings and prints below and beneath the three arms. The three-dimensional arms hang from looped metal wires on metal hooks spaced along the top edge, coming about a quarter of the way down the overall composition. The peach-colored arms and hands are painted all over with irregular gray patches, creating a camouflage effect. They hang down so the open palms are flat against the canvas, the thumbs extended to our left. The top of the arm to our left is painted cherry red, the middle is painted canary yellow, and the right arm royal blue. The paint drips down the arms and splatters on the hands and on the faux wood panel below. Behind the hands, it appears that one of the artist’s prints hangs from two nails on the canvas, but this is also part of the painting. The illusionistic print has three horizontal bands of pine green, pumpkin orange, and violet purple crisscrossed with black lines. Seeming to hang behind it and under the right-most arm is a sheet of music overlapping another piece of paper printed with the letters “OHN C” and “THE PERILOUS.” Below, and filling the space between the illusionistic print and the wood panel, is a rectangular field of abstract gray and black swirling forms. The entire canvas is surrounded by a thin, amber-colored wood frame. A narrow wooden slat is attached with a hinge on the inner surface of the frame at the bottom right corner, so the slat runs up along and rests against the canvas near the rightmost edge of the frame. The artist signed the work with stenciled letters in pale gray in the lower right corner: “J. JOHNS ‘8.”

Jasper Johns, Perilous Night, 1982, encaustic and silkscreen on canvas with objects, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection, 1995.79.1

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Claes Oldenburg, Soft Drainpipe - Red (Hot) Version, 1967, vinyl lined with canvas, filled with expanded polystyrene chips, on painted metal stand, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection, Gift in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1990.75.1

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Anthony Caro, Table Piece LXX, 1968, varnished steel, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection, 1992.28.9

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Layers of rust-red and bronze-brown, textured paint cover this vertical, abstract canvas. The layers give way to a patch of scarlet-red streaks near the top left corner. A red vein drifts about three-quarters of the way down the canvas. A narrow swipe canary-yellow lines the upper edge of the painting above the red streaks, which are about a quarter of the way across from the left edge. A few minuscule spots of lapis-blue nearly go unnoticed along the right edge of the canvas near the bottom right corner. The artist signed the painting in the lower left corner, “Clyfford.”

Clyfford Still, PH-571 (1951-N), 1951, oil on canvas, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection, Gift in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1989.87.1

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Ad Reinhardt, Untitled (Yellow and White), 1950, oil on canvas, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection, 1992.28.2

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Jackson Pollock, Ritual, 1953, oil on canvas, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection, 2018.202.1

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David Salle, Untitled, 1987, watercolor over graphite on wove paper, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection, 1992.28.8

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Marina Abramovic, Serbian, born 1946, The Kitchen I, from the series The Kitchen, Homage to Saint Therese, 2009, inkjet print (color fine-art pigment print). Collection of Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker.

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Bernd Becher, German, 1931– 2007 and Hilla Becher, German, 1934 – 2015, Water Towers, 1972 – 2009, nine gelatin silver prints. Collection of Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker.

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Candida Höfer, German, born 1944, Musée du Louvre Paris VIII, 2005, chromogenic print. Collection of Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker.

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Anselm Kiefer, German, born 1945, Vanitas, 2007, mixed media with oil paint, emulsion, shellac, plant material, and soil on gelatin silver print. Collection of Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker.

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Hiroshi Sugimoto, Japanese, born 1948, Caribbean Sea, Jamaica, 1980, gelatin silver print. Collection of Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker.

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Vik Muniz, American, born Brazil, 1961, Marilyn Monroe, Actress, NY City, May 6, 1957, After Avedon (Gordian Puzzle), 2007, chromogenic print. Collection of Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker.

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Vera Lutter, German, born 1960, World Trade Center 7, III: October 30, 2007, 2007, gelatin silver print. Collection of Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker.

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Jeff Wall, Canadian, born 1946, Hotels, Carrall St., Vancouver, summer 2005, 2005, transparency in light box. Promised Gift from the Collection of Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker

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Artworks Collected by Robert Meyerhoff