George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York
Time-based work by William Kentridge The South African artist William Kentridge has donated a complete set of his films, videos and digital works to the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York, the world’s oldest photography museum. The collection includes negatives, photographic prints, unedited camera footage and files documenting the artist’s rehearsals in the studio. Paolo Cherchi Usai, the senior curator of the museum’s moving image department, says that the “professionalism of our staff and high standards of our film preservation policies” persuaded the artist to make the donation. The Eastman plans to stage a major exhibition and publish a catalogue raisonné based on the gift. Future donations from Kentridge are expected, Usai says.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Works on paper from the Corcoran Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art (NGA) has accessioned more than 1,500 more works—mainly prints, drawings and watercolours—from the collection of the now-defunct Corcoran Gallery of Art, following a first round of acquisitions in February. The 19th-century French satirist Honoré Daumier is the most represented artist, with more than 1,200 prints. The NGA is now home to nearly 8,000 objects from the Corcoran’s 17,000-strong collection.
Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles
Early photographs of Palmyra The Getty Research Institute has acquired some of the earliest photographs of Beirut in Lebanon and Palmyra in Syria, including views of ancient Roman monuments recently destroyed by Isil. The 47 photographs were taken in 1864 by the French naval officer Louis Vignes to document an archaeological expedition financed by the Duke of Luynes. The negatives were printed by the French photographer Charles Nègre.