The Yale University Art Gallery has received an extraordinary gift from the Friday Foundation honoring the legacy of late Seattle philanthropists Jane Lang Davis and Richard E. Lang. The Lang collection is one of the most important private collections of 20th-century art in the country, with masterworks by renowned postwar American and European artists and incredible examples of Abstract Expressionism. The collection includes works by Mark Rothko, Helen Frank Frankenthaler, Francis Bacon, and more modern masters.
The gift from the Friday Foundation includes six artworks by Franz Kline (1910–1962) and Mark Rothko (1903–1970). The gift, which includes early works by the artists, will be on display in an upcoming exhibition. Kline’s Portrait of Nijinsky (1942) and Rothko’s untitled painting from 1941–42 are the earliest paintings by these artists to enter the Gallery’s collection. Rothko’s No. 11 (Yellow, Green, and Black) (1950) is now the earliest of his famous Color Field paintings in the museum’s collection.
In honor of receiving the gift, the gallery will present the six paintings and drawings from the Lang collection in a small, focused installation that opens later this year. This installation will bring out the story of this exceptional private collection and provide details about the contexts of the artworks’ creation. This will be followed by a larger exhibition in feburary 2022 which will showcase the artworks in conjunction with paintings, drawings, and sculpture from the Gallery’s celebrated collection of mid-20th-century art.
The Friday Foundation also announced that the Seattle Art Museum received 19 objects from the Lang collection to enrich their contemporary art collection. The Langs’ extended family has deep ties to Yale, with multiple alumni among its members. Yale’s storied art collection, combined with its renowned studio art school and strong mission of connecting all students to the visual arts, made it the perfect choice for these works.