START

Niho Kozuru

Transplanted

2011 Molded rubber on steel base Niho Kozuru was commissioned to create Transplanted as a response to Isamu Noguchi's Song of the Bird, which you can see in the background. How do you think Transplanted compares to Song of the Bird in its color, form, line, space, and texture?

Isamu Noguchi

Song of the Bird

1958 Marble and granite Song of the Bird was installed in the Sheldon when the museum first opened in 1963. The bird is represented by the white marble piece on the left, while the granite form on the right represents the song, with “air holes” carved into it like those on a musical instrument.

Click on a gallery to learn about the exhibition Five Decades of Collecting

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

Helen Frankenthaler

Red Frame

1964 Acrylic on canvas

1960s

The 1960s are often viewed as a troubled time in America due to the Vietnam War, political protests, and the assassinations of leaders like President John F. Kennedy and Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Artists like Helen Frankenthaler, however, appeared indifferent to these tumultuous times. Rather than commenting on the world around them, they concentrated on elements unique to painting itself: surface, shape, and pigment.

Robert Rauschenberg

Watermark

1973 Color screen print

1970s

Robert Rauschenberg, who was nicknamed "the American Picasso" because of his artistic energy and daring, was an influential artist in the 1970s. He created collages and assemblages that, like Watermark, combine wildly different materials and images, many of them found. Beginning in the 1950s, his work opened the doors for other bold movements such as Pop art and environmental art.

David Salle

Propeller

1987 Soft ground and aquatint

1980s

In the 1980s, many artists, including David Salle, continued to follow in Rauschenberg's footsteps. They mixed ideas and images from traditional art history—the sort of paintings and sculptures we typically see in museums—with those from everyday culture, like advertise ments, comic books, newspapers, and television.

Jeff Koons

Balloon Dog

1995 Porcelain

1990s

In the 1990s, artist Jeff Koons didn't just borrow images from popular and consumer culture—he celebrated it. Some of his most famous works depict, for example, Michael Jackson and the Incredible Hulk. He even designed a BMW racing car. One of the smallest, most vibrant pieces of sculpture in Sheldon's collection is Balloon Dog, from a series of shiny objects that included balloon dogs over 10 feet tall.

Carrie Mae Weems

Kitchen Table Series, no. 4

2003 Platinum print

2000s

In the 2000s, the Sheldon developed its African American Masters collec tion, beginning an ongoing project that aims to tell the full story of American art. The photographer Carrie Mae Weems is concerned about how images of African Americans are excluded from the popular media. She uses artworks like this to represent black people and explore their life experiences.

Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie

Boy in the Moon

2005 Lambda digital platinum print

2010s

In the last few years, the Sheldon has collected many more works by nonwhite artists. In pieces like this, Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, who is Native American, uses portraits not only of her own family, but also of unknown people of Native American ances try. She revitalizes these old pictures, increasing their size so that they cannot be misplaced or forgotten.