It's a Gift
It is impossible to imagine Cincinnati without the generous support and significant contributions of the city’s most notable art patrons.
The names are found at our most beloved institutions, and familiar to many, even if they don’t know the stories behind those names.
About the Collection
The Weston Collection includes works by many eminent artists, including Hofmann, de Kooning, Wesselmann, Dine, Saar, Dubuffet, Duchamp, LeWitt, and others. A major portion of the Weston’s modern and contemporary art collection was bequeathed to the Cincinnati Art Museum in 2019.
The first piece the Weston’s purchased—Claes Oldenburg’s Box of Shirts—is part of this new installation. The showing will feature other key works including Andy Warhol’s Soup Can (Cream of Mushroom), Man Ray’s N for Nothing, Joseph Cornell’s The Sun Series, and Josef Albers’s Study for Homage to the Square: Blue Spring.
Image: Andy Warhol (American, 1928–1987), Soup Can (Cream of Mushroom), 1962, oil on canvas, Alice K. and Harris F. Weston Collection, L53.2004
But this week, the Cincinnati Art Museum unveiled an exhibition of major highlights from the Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Collection, offering a glimpse into Alice Weston’s passion for art and her commitment to the city.
The collection, which includes post-World War II modern and contemporary art, that was given to the museum, complements the museum’s documentation of 20th-century art history.
“We are so pleased that Alice and Harris bequeathed these works to the Cincinnati Art Museum,” says Cynthia Amnéus, chief curator for the museum. “They were such friends to the institution. How and why they collected these pieces and being from Cincinnati makes the collection that much more important.”
Alice Weston was an enduring supporter of the arts in Cincinnati. She was a renowned contemporary art collector, educator, and artist who committed her life to museums and cultural institutions across Cincinnati. She graduated from Vassar College at the age of 19 and later received an additional degree in graphic design from the University of Cincinnati’s DAAP program at the age of 50.
Weston was a longtime member of the Contemporary Art Center’s board of trustees and a member of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s board of overseers. In addition, she was a board member at the Cincinnati Art Museum. In 2017, she received the prestigious Cincinnati Art Award at the Cincinnati Art Museum for her lifetime contributions to the arts. In addition, Weston and her husband are the namesake of the Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery at the Aronoff Center for the Arts, which has showcased contemporary art for more than 25 years
Header image: Alice K. and Harris F. Weston attending the opening of the exhibition The Alice and Harris Weston Collection of Post-War Art, 1989. Image provided by the Cincinnati Art Museum’s Mary R. Schiff Library & Archives