The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has received a promised gift of more than 6,500 works from Artur Walther, one of the world’s foremost photography collectors, and his Walther Family Foundation. The donation includes exceptional post-war and contemporary photography from Africa, Japan, Germany, and China, as well as vernacular photos from Europe and the Americas. A special showcase of gifted works by African photographers will be featured in the Met’s Michael C.
Rockefeller Wing later this month. “It has been the collection’s mission to break away from traditional frameworks and to juxtapose works from African and Asian artists with those from Europe and America, creating a dialogue across time and place, across temporalities and across geographies,” Walther said in a statement. The collection is particularly strong in four categories.
Photography gift highlights global diversity
It includes a wealth of works spanning from the 20th century up to today, featuring photographers such as Malick Sibidé, Zanele Muholi, David Goldblatt, and Guy Tillim. It also features photo-based and video works by Chinese contemporary artists like Ai Weiwei, Zhang Huan, Yang Fudong, and others.
Walther’s collecting began with a concentration on German photographers, including Bernd and Hilla Becher, August Sander, Thomas Struth, Günter Förg, and Thomas Ruff. More recently, his focus has been on vernacular photography from the US, Europe, Mexico, and Colombia, tracking the medium’s history as far back as daguerreotypes from the 1840s. “With its impressive scope, depth, and quality, the generous promised gift expands our ability to tell a global history of photography—one that reflects the diversity, complexity, and artistry of the medium across centuries and continents,” Max Hollein, the Met’s director and chief executive, said in a statement.
In addition to the forthcoming Rockefeller Wing showcase, pieces from the Walther gift will be included in permanent collection displays in the Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing, due to open in 2030.
