The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met Museum) has announced a $10 million gift from Musa Mayer and her husband, Thomas, to establish the Philip Guston Endowment Fund, as well as a gift of 220 works by Guston (1913–1980) from the personal collection of Musa Mayer, the artist’s daughter. 

Consisting of 96 paintings and 124 drawings, the collection represents the full arc of Guston’s career. The gift will position the museum as the largest repository of works by the American painter, and a selection from Mayer’s gift will be on view in a special installation opening May 27, 2023. The display will focus on the artist’s deeply philosophical approach to the nature of artistic identity and the aesthetic possibilities of painting. The endowment fund established with the gift will be used to support initiatives related to the collection, advance scholarship regarding Guston, and further the artist’s legacy.

“For over four decades now, this personal collection of my father’s paintings and drawings has served—and continues to serve—as a crucial source for exhibition loans,” said Musa Mayer. “That the Met—this amazing museum of world art—has agreed to prominently display and permanently house Philip Guston’s work in the city where he lived and worked is a deeply moving commitment to his legacy. My father was passionate about art and artists of the past. His influences spanned centuries. Yet his paintings resonate with artists working today. So, it’s immensely gratifying to know that his best works will find a permanent home in the company of the masters he so loved.” 

(Photo credit: Pexels/Charles Parker)