On December 12, 2012, the Yale University Art Gallery celebrated the grand opening of the renovated and expanded museum. This important step, which has been accompanied by parallel growth in the museum’s holdings, has enabled it to emerge as one of the country’s 52 leading public art museums. The expansion fused multiple historic buildings into a cohesive whole while maintaining the distinctive architectural identity of each. It now boasts nearly 70,000 square feet of exhibition space, almost twice what it had before. Of the institution’s eleven curatorial departments, three of their galleries will be of particular interest to the readers of this journal. The new section for the art of the ancient Americas spans more than 3,000 years, exploring themes in art that cross cultural boundaries from the Olmec to the Inca and geographic regions from Mexico to Peru. Those dedicated to the arts of Africa feature a core collection that was donated in 2004 by Charles B. Benenson (B.A. 1933), who also provided funds for a curatorial position. These are supplemented by the 2010 gift of African antiquities from SusAnna and Joel B. Grae. These and other objects allow the installation to effectively convey the depth and complexity of the history of African art. Even more interesting is an entirely new section. Formed through gifts of three superb collections, this new department has placed Yale among the leaders in the field of Indo-Pacific art. On view in the opening installation are highlights drawn from an important collection of Indo-Pacific art, a promised gift to the gallery made in 2009 by Thomas Jaffe (B.A. 1971), who has since added many works. The promised gift includes more than 600 ethnographic sculptures and roughly the same number of Indonesian textiles, most of the latter originally collected by renowned experts Robert Holmgren and Anita Spertus. Also on view are selections from the 2007–8 gift of Valerie and Hunter Thompson, Toronto collectors and arts benefactors whose outstanding and comprehensive collection features ancient Javanese gold jewelry and sculpture. Additionally, Mr. Jaffe provided the funds to fully endow a curatorial position and to create the new Kubler-Thompson Gallery of Indo-Pacific Art, named in honor of two pioneering Yale art historians, the late Professor George Kubler and Professor Robert Farris Thompson. ART OF THE AMERICAS AT THE CARLOS Atlanta—The Michael C. Carlos Museum’s collection of art of the ancient Americas is substantial and represents three principal cultural centers: Mesoamerica, Central America, and the Andes. The Carlos’ collection is unusually strong in ancient Costa Rica, featuring over 600 works from all periods. A significant portion of the pre-Columbian holdings was donated by William C. and Carol W. Thibadeau. Works from most of the ancient Americas’ important art-producing cultures—from the Maya and Aztec to the Chavín and Inca—can now be better appreciated during a visit to the permanent collection galleries, which reopened February 9 after nine months of major renovation. More than 425 works are now on display. Where the galleries were previously limited to art from ancient Central and South America, works from Native North America have been added. Also new is a space for temporary exhibitions, the first of which is Walking in the Footsteps of Our Ancestors, a grouping of twentieth-century Southwestern ceramics from the Melion-Clum Collection. ABOVE LEFT: View of new Indo-Pacific art galleries. Yale University Art Gallery. © Elizabeth Felicella, 2012. ABOVE: Priest’s box. Toba, Batak, Sumatra, Indonesia. 18th–19th century. Bamboo, wood, metal. Yale University Art Gallery, promised gift of Thomas Jaffe, B.A. 1971. Photo: Johan Vipper. BOTTOM: Shields from the Kayan or Kenyah peoples of central Borneo installed in the new Indo-Pacific art galleries. Yale University Art Gallery, 2012. ABOVE LEFT: Pataky polychrome tripod jaguar vessel. Greater Nicoya, Costa Rica/Nicaragua. AD 1000– 1350. Terracotta. H: 30.5 cm. Michael C. Carlos Museum, 1991.4.337. LEFT: Rosales zoned engraved female figure. Greater Nicoya, Costa Rica. 500 BC–AD 300. Terracotta. H: 30.5 cm. Michael C. Carlos Museum, 1991.4.344.
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