In June 2005, then 89-year-old David Rockefeller pledged a $100 million bequest, seventeen paintings, and an additional $5 million per year during his lifetime to New York City’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the museum founded in 1929 in part by his mother Abigail “Abby” Aldrich Rockefeller. Just one week later, he pledged a similar package to Rockefeller University (RU), the scientific institute created in 1901 by his grandfather John D. Rockefeller, billionaire founder of Standard Oil.1 While at first the Rockefeller name might be the only obvious tie between the two institutions, both RU and MoMA are inextricably linked by the Rockefeller family’s tradition of art collecting.

Installation view of Big Twist (Bryan Hunt, 1978) outside the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Hall. Photograph by the author.

Throughout New York City, the Rockefeller name is associated with many well-known art institutions: the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden at MoMA, The Asia Society, The Cloisters, and the Michael C. Rockefeller Collection and the Department of Primitive Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art are just a few. Internationally renowned, these collections include some of the finest examples of modern, Asian, African, and Oceanic art. While its art collection is not widely known, RU’s collection of paintings and sculpture places it among these impressive stewards of the art world.

With the approval of RU President Dr. Detlev Bronk in the late 1950s, David Rockefeller began collecting Abstract Impressionist paintings for the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Hall (built 1958). Aided in the selection of pieces by Alfred Barr, MoMA’s first director, and Dorothy Miller, MOMA’S first curator of painting, Rockefeller amassed a collection that included works by Bradley Walker Tomlin, James Brooks, Joan Mitchell, and Jack Tworkov. The hall’s architect, Wallace Harrison, may have been tangentially involved in the selection process as well, which might explain the strong harmony between the art and its environment. Barr and Miller were both intrinsic in the building of both private and university Rockefeller collections, including those of Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller that are now on view at Kykuit, the family estate in Pocantico Hills, NY, and those of MoMA and RU. The resulting compendiums of art are extremely complementary to one another, constituting a nearly representative account of the important painters and sculptors of the 20th century. In the early 1970s, the collection was expanded again with purchases made for the Benjamin and Irma G. Weiss building under the guidance of Miller and Dr. Frederick Seitz. With the careful guidance and discerning eye of Miller and others from MoMA, RU’s collection quickly grew into a snapshot account of modern art.

Installation view of PHIL/MANIPULATED (Chuck Close, 1982), The Undeciphered (Fossil Series) (Enrico Donati, 1961), and Genghis II (Jack Youngerman, 1962) in Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Hall. Photograph by the author.

Spread throughout the university’s campus, the RU collection is strong in abstract and non-representational works, with approximately 80 paintings, 15 sculptures, 15 photographs, and 31 modern prints. The majority of objects are on view in Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Hall, with some paintings and prints in the Caspary guest rooms and in Weiss. Some representational work is found in the form of Audubon nature prints placed throughout campus, as well as several portraits and portrait busts. The Hall’s white walls and well-spaced International Style object hang reflect the conventions of museum display set by MoMA during the late 1950s and 1960s.
Dominated by a palette of red, black, and white, the current installation is complemented by furniture and rugs in the same color scheme, creating a harmonious setting that highlights the large, boldly painted works. Ranging from 1951 to 1991, easily recognizable pieces such as an Alexander Calder wind mobile (Three Black Moons, 1951) are juxtaposed with lesser-known pieces such as Hedda Sterne’s 1957 Roads, Number 9. Sterne was the only female member of “The Irascible Eighteen,” a group of Abstract Expressionists that included Jackson Pollock, Barnette Newman, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning, whose work during the 1940s protested against the conventions of traditionalist museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While her works have been collected by MoMA and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, the Romanian-born Sterne has been overlooked in favor of her male peers, a reflection of both latent misogyny in art history, and the fact that their works fit more conventionally within the aesthetics of the Abstract Expressionist movement. Also linked with the surrealist movement, Sterne’s work reflects the innovations of modern engineering through sweeping color fields that allow the eye to travel a path throughout the canvas, simulating the physical trajectory of urban growth. Much of the collection’s strength lies in its ability to present a full picture of a period in art by focusing not only on blockbuster images, but also those by lesser-known artists whose works complete our understanding of art history.

Now Lifetime Trustee and Chairman Emeritus of MoMA as well as Chairman of RU, 94-year-old David Rockefeller continues his philanthropic efforts in the arts. Untitled (1999), a bronze sculpture by Joel Shapiro situated near the tennis court, was given by Rockefeller in commemoration of the university’s centennial anniversary in 2001, as was the 1982 Chuck Close print PHIL/MANIPULATED within Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Hall, and the Frank Stella sculpture in Weiss. Later that year, a dozen sculptures from the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden at MoMA made their home for eighteen months on the grounds of RU. Pieces by Alexander Calder, Henry Moore, Claes Oldenburg, Eduardo Paolozzi, and others were exhibited in conversation with RU’s architecture and with its landscape, designed by American landscape artist Dan Kiley. In discussion for several years, the loan of objects coincided with the university’s centennial. The collection’s curator Cynthia B. Altman later said in a 2004 interview, the loan celebrates “the importance of establishing an atmosphere to both inspire and reflect the creativity vital to scientific discovery.”2 Now on extended loan from MoMA, sculptures including Herbert Ferber’s Homage to Piranesi, I (1962–63), Ettore Colla’s Continuity (1951), Bryan Hunt’s Big Twist (1978) remain on view at RU outside the Abby dining room.

Rockefeller University continues to slowly grow its collection, with several donations in recent years. In addition to the previously mentioned centennial gifts from David Rockefeller, the university received a gift of about seven paintings from the Estate of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III. Tremor, an abstract painting by Spanish-born painter and sculptor Esteban Vicente, was donated to the university by the artist’s widow Harriet Vicente in 2004. Painted in 1991, the large, warm-toned painting fits in seamlessly with the early-1960s rust-colored couches and Abstract Impressionist paintings that hang just outside the Abby dining room. With relatively few pieces in storage, the addition of new pieces to the collection guarantees a re-hanging; works within the dining room are periodically re-hung, but generally stay on view for several years.

Hidden behind the gates and walls of Rockefeller University, the collection started by David Rockefeller nearly six decades ago is an impressive example of the Rockefeller family’s interest in art collection. When viewed in tandem with the collections of MoMA and the collections at Kykuit and other sites, RU’s collection helps to create a comprehensive picture of one of the most revolutionary periods in art history.

References

1. Karen W. Arenson, “Turning 90, a Rockefeller Gives the Presents” The New York Times, June 9, 2005
2. “Artwork to ‘inspire science,’” BenchMarks, Rockefeller University Newsletter, February 13, 2004