The Wildenstein Plattner Institute

The Wildenstein Plattner Institute The Wildenstein Plattner Institute, Inc. is non-profit, private foundation dedicated to the compilat

04/08/2026

✨️Mark your calendars for WPI’s next webinar ROMARE BEARDEN: PREVALENCE OF RITUAL WITH ESTHER ADLER on May 20 at 12:00 pm ET✨️⁠

⁠ In 1971, the Museum of Modern Art presented “Romare Bearden: The Prevalence of Ritual,” a landmark exhibition for both the artist and the museum. Celebrating Romare Bearden’s mastery of collage, this solo show marked an advance in the broader recognition and visibility of African American artists within the mainstream. ⁠ ⁠

Ms. Adler’s presentation will explore the context in which this project developed, as well as the project’s curation and legacy, drawing on research for the 2022 publication “Romare Bearden: Patchwork Quilt” — a focused study of the collage in MoMA’s collection that had appeared on the 1971 exhibition catalogue cover. ⁠ ⁠ Visit Collection Gallery 416 to see “Patchwork Quilt” and other significant Bearden collages in person, and find the link in bio for webinar registration 🎟️⁠ ⁠

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Image: Contact sheet of photographs taken at the opening of Romare Bearden: Prevalence of Ritual, March 23, 1971. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York.

We are honored to have been a part of ICRA’s annual conference, which insightfully explored the breadth of catalogue rai...
01/16/2025

We are honored to have been a part of ICRA’s annual conference, which insightfully explored the breadth of catalogue raisonné methodology in 2025. This year’s theme “New Thinking About the Catalogue Raisonné” spoke directly to the WPI’s mission and catalogue raisonné projects — it was a privilege to share our work and discuss the future of CR with our international colleagues!

Part of major digitization initiatives, such as The Bernès, Marouteau et Cie Photography Collection, involves handling f...
12/05/2024

Part of major digitization initiatives, such as The Bernès, Marouteau et Cie Photography Collection, involves handling fragile material. The conservation and preservation work that preceded digitization of these photographs was extensive, necessitating the know-how of photo conservators Annie Thomasset and Dominique Viard. Many of the photos seen here were taken in their studio in the winter of 2021.

Explore the collection in full on the WPI’s Digital Archive — an ever-expanding resource for provenance and art historical research. Link in bio! ️

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Images:

Storage facility, Fontainebleau, France, Summer 2021 ; Annie Thomasset and Dominique Viard’s studio, France, Winter 2021

The Bernès, Marouteau et Cie Photography Collection, c. 1923–59; [hnzray36], The Wildenstein Plattner Institute, Inc.

WPI’s most recent digital archival release of The Bernès, Marouteau et Cie Photography Collection was a years-long under...
11/25/2024

WPI’s most recent digital archival release of The Bernès, Marouteau et Cie Photography Collection was a years-long undertaking by the WPI’s incredible archivists. Outside of the collection’s apparent appeal to the former Wildenstein Institute (as it contained photographic reproductions of 800+ works of art), little was known about it’s provenance or history.

▶️ Swipe through for several discoveries made in the course of processing the collection
..and explore The Bernès, Marouteau et Cie Photography Collection in full on our website. Link in bio!

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Images: The Bernès, Marouteau et Cie Photography Collection, c. 1923–59; [hnzray36], The Wildenstein Plattner Institute, Inc.

In addition to painting, Maurice de Vlaminck wrote extensively about his development as an artist, his anarchist worldvi...
11/01/2024

In addition to painting, Maurice de Vlaminck wrote extensively about his development as an artist, his anarchist worldview, and art criticism — often levied at his contemporaries.

A document of note in the Henri Certigny Papers in WPI’s Digital Archives qualifies Maurice de Vlaminck’s “Letter sur la peinture” as a “violent diatribe against Henri Rousseau, Cézanne, Renoir, and humanity’s stupidity.” Indeed, one of his most famous articles, which appeared in the June 6, 1942 issue of “Comœdia,” is a harsh assessment of Cubism and Pablo Picasso, who Vlaminck claims is “guilty of dragging French painting down the deadliest cul-de-sac, into a indescribable confusion.” Unsparing, opinionated, Vlaminck emphasized his own artistic autonomy, even at the risk of being excluded from the Parisian art scene.

Yet despite this insistence on autonomy, Vlaminck was truly an artist of his time, drawing inspiration from Van Gogh, Matisse, Cézanne, and, even, Picasso. Swipe for the painting “Opium” (1910), “one of the most impressive examples of Vlaminck’s exploration of Cubism […] The approach to both figure and space and the interrelationship of these two elements show similarities to Picasso’s works from the same years.” (“Kinship of Forms: Cézanne, Picasso, Vlaminck” by Anna Storm for “Maurice de Vlaminck: Modern Art Rebel” exhibition catalogue).

This tension of Vlaminck’s artistic dialogue is a recurring theme of “Maurice de Vlaminck: Modern Art Rebel,” the first posthumous retrospective of this influential artist of the French avant-garde in a German museum, on view at Museum Barberini through January 12, 2024!

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Images:

1. (Photo detail, Left) Vlaminck at La Trourillière (News article, Right) Vlaminck, Maurice. “Sur la peinture.” Comoedia. June 6, 1942. Bibliothèque nationale de France

1. Photo: © David von Becker/Museum Barberini

Spotted in the “Collecting Inspiration: Edward C. Moore at Tiffany & Co.” exhibition : lot no. 788 of the ten-day sale ...
09/11/2024

Spotted in the “Collecting Inspiration: Edward C. Moore at Tiffany & Co.” exhibition : lot no. 788 of the ten-day sale of Mary J. Morgan’s formidable art collection, a pair of elaborate candelabra that Mrs. Morgan herself had commissioned from Tiffany & Co. ⁠
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This “most important specimen” was acquired by the Met shortly before the exhibition opened, and is truly a crown jewel of the collection: large leaves and blooms caught in currents of even more delicate silver fauna, female figures, paw feet, and 🕯️forty sconces🕯️. ⁠
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Mrs. Morgan was an avid patron of Tiffany’s under the tenure of master silversmith Edward C. Moore, who recognized her appreciation for craft and avant-garde designs. The composition of this piece was informed by his extensive collection of art from Ancient Greece and Rome, Europe, East Asia, and the Islamic world. ⁠
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Explore this and the other lots of Mrs. Morgan’s collection in our Sales Catalogues database, link in bio!
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“Collecting Inspiration: Edward C. Moore at Tiffany & Co.” is on view through October 20th, and is not to be missed. ⁠
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William Moir, Esq. 1886. The Art Collection Formed by the Late Ms. Mary J. Morgan : Illustrated Priced Catalogue. New York, New York: The American Art Association.

NEW ARCHIVAL RELEASE: MICHEL AND IRMA VAN GELDER PAPERS The WPI recently released new materials from the Michel and Irma...
02/07/2024

NEW ARCHIVAL RELEASE: MICHEL AND IRMA VAN GELDER PAPERS

The WPI recently released new materials from the Michel and Irma van Gelder Papers (1898–1971). The Dutch collectors and dealers assembled an important collection of Old Master paintings over their lives, exemplified by these five albums containing black and white photographs of paintings in the possession of Michel van Gelder.

This significant addition provides reproductions of paintings that might not have been identified in Tableaux [Paintings register], such as paintings attributed to Brekelenke or de H***h, or whose reproduction might not have been previously included in the archive. Portrait d’un Chevalier, for example, was attributed in the Album to Velasquez and Juan Carreño de Miranda in Tableaux. The dates printed by the photography studio on some of the photographs also provide valuable information on the history of the collection.

Link in bio ➡️ Explore the archives

Image credits:

(1) Album „Collection de M. M. van Gelder“ [Spanish paintings and other Old Masters], 1907–1912; Michel and Irma van Gelder Papers [119c01a3-4244-4626-ba67-3c4a1594fbfb], Wildenstein Plattner Institute.

(2) Album „Collection de M. M. van Gelder“ [Dutch paintings, vol. 2], c. 1907–1912; Michel and Irma van Gelder Papers [8ef88ac3-b2b2-4a8f-82c1-bcb0293c0d96], Wildenstein Plattner Institute

(3) Album „Collection de M. M. van Gelder“ [Dutch paintings, vol. 2], c. 1907–1912; Michel and Irma van Gelder Papers [8ef88ac3-b2b2-4a8f-82c1-bcb0293c0d96], Wildenstein Plattner Institute.

NEW ARCHIVAL RELEASE: MICHEL AND IRMA VAN GELDER PAPERS The WPI recently released new materials from the Michel and Irma...
02/07/2024

NEW ARCHIVAL RELEASE: MICHEL AND IRMA VAN GELDER PAPERS

The WPI recently released new materials from the Michel and Irma van Gelder Papers (1898–1971). The Dutch collectors and dealers assembled an important collection of Old Master paintings over their lives, exemplified by these five albums containing black and white photographs of paintings in the possession of Michel van Gelder.

This significant addition provides reproductions of paintings that might not have been identified in Tableaux [Paintings register], such as paintings attributed to Brekelenke or de H***h, or whose reproduction might not have been previously included in the archive. Portrait d’un Chevalier, for example, was attributed in the Album to Velasquez and Juan Carreño de Miranda in Tableaux. The dates printed by the photography studio on some of the photographs also provide valuable information on the history of the collection.

Explore the release➡️ Link in bio.

Image credits:

(1) Album “Collection de M. M. van Gelder” [Spanish paintings and other Old Masters], 1907–1912; Michel and Irma van Gelder Papers [119c01a3-4244-4626-ba67-3c4a1594fbfb], Wildenstein Plattner Institute.

(2) Album « Collection de M. M. van Gelder » [Dutch paintings, vol. 2], c. 1907–1912; Michel and Irma van Gelder Papers [8ef88ac3-b2b2-4a8f-82c1-bcb0293c0d96], Wildenstein Plattner Institute.

(3) Album „Collection de M. M. van Gelder“ [Dutch paintings, vol. 2], c. 1907–1912; Michel and Irma van Gelder Papers [8ef88ac3-b2b2-4a8f-82c1-bcb0293c0d96], Wildenstein Plattner Institute.

The Tom Wesselmann Digital Corpus has published its most recent update! ⁠⁠The update includes significant works in impor...
02/01/2024

The Tom Wesselmann Digital Corpus has published its most recent update! ⁠
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The update includes significant works in important private collections. It also includes substantial research updates to the Wesselmann works in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, which the committee examined in the Fall of 2023. ⁠
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Key highlights of this release include „Great American N**e #2“; „Little Great American N**e #2“; and „Bedroom Painting #3.“⁠
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See the works yourself ➡️ Link in bio⁠
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Image credits:⁠
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Tom Wesselmann, Great American N**e #2, 1961, paint, printed reproductions, and fabric with charcoal, pastel, and linoleum on board, 59 5/8 x 47 1/2 inches © The Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by ARS/VAGA, New York. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Larry Aldrich Foundation Fund, 79.1963.⁠
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Tom Wesselmann, Little Great American N**e #2, 1961, paint, pastel, fabric, and printed reproductions with pencil, paper, and stickers on board, 5 15/16 x 6 5/16 inches © The Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by ARS/VAGA, New York. Private collection.⁠
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Tom Wesselmann, Bedroom Painting #3, 1968, oil on canvas, 60 x 72 inches © The Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by ARS/VAGA, New York. Private collection.

Join the WPI and the O'Donnell Institute next week for The Wildenstein Plattner Institute Library: A Digital SeminarWPI’...
11/28/2023

Join the WPI and the O'Donnell Institute next week for The Wildenstein Plattner Institute Library: A Digital Seminar

WPI’s Director of Digital Archival Projects Sandrine Canac and Fonds WPI France Head of Archives Sophie Pietri will be presenting a seminar introducing
the gift of the Wildenstein Plattner Institute Library to the University of Texas at Dallas, Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History and across the university.

This digital seminar will be taking place at 10AM US Central Time, 11AM US Eastern Time and 5:00PM Central European Time.

Link in bio to register for the seminar!

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