The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, has received a gift of more than 60 Modern and contemporary works on paper from longtime benefactors Lenore and Bernard Greenberg. The donation includes the first Bruce Nauman drawing to enter the collection, along with works by Susan Rothenberg, Philip Guston, Ed Ruscha, Vija Celmins, Alberto Giacometti, Franz Kline, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Willem de Kooning, Shahzia Sikander, Cy Twombly, and others. Photographs by Roni Horn, John Baldessari, Uta Barth, and Hiroshi Sugimoto, as well as a wire sculpture by Alexander Calder, are also included.
The gift is transformative for the NGA's collection, according to director Kaywin Feldman, and comes at a politically sensitive time for arts institutions in Washington, DC. The NGA and other federally connected cultural organizations are under scrutiny from the Trump administration, which has issued executive orders targeting diversity initiatives and attempted to exert control over institutions like the Smithsonian. The Greenbergs' donation underscores the continued importance of private philanthropy in sustaining major museum collections amid shifting political pressures.