Gifts from A. Conger Goodyear

A. Conger Goodyear was elected to the Board of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy in 1912, following in the footsteps of his father, Charles W. Goodyear. He sat on the board from 1912 to 1914 and from 1916 to 1928, serving as secretary, treasurer, and vice-president. During his tenure, he helped organize several landmark exhibitions and spearheaded the Fellows for Life Fund, which led to the acquisition of masterworks such as Pablo Picasso’s La Toilette, 1906.

Frida Kahlo (Mexican, 1907–1954). Self-Portrait with Monkey, 1938. Oil on Masonite, 16 x 12 inches (40.6 x. 30.5 cm). Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; Bequest of A. Conger Goodyear, 1966 (1966:9.10). © Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Installation view of From the Collection of A. Conger Goodyear (April 30–June 5, 1966), with works by Camille Pissarro, Vincent van Gogh, Edgar Degas, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Image courtesy of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery Digital Assets Collection and Archives, Buffalo, New York.

As early as 1926, Goodyear began to donate works from his own collection to the museum. His first gifts were sculptures by Antoine Bourdelle (in 1926), Wilhelm Lehmbruck (in 1927), Frank Dobson (in 1928), and Aristide Maillol (in 1929). In 1939, after returning from New York, where he served as the first president of The Museum of Modern Art, Goodyear donated a suite of drawings by George Bellows, Salvador Dalí, Georg Kolbe, Maillol, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Jules Pascin, Charles Sheeler, and Eugene Speicher. In 1940, he gave his first gift of paintings, including Maurice Stern’s Bali Boy, 1913, and Camille Pissarro’s Peasants in the Field, Eragny, 1890. In 1954, he gifted 49 works, the majority of which were drawings.

Goodyear’s generosity continued unabated until his death in 1964, by which time he had donated nearly 300 artworks to the museum. He also bequeathed many important works, including Giacomo Balla’s Dinamismo di un Cane al Guinzaglio (Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash), 1912Salvador Dalí’s The Transparent Simulacrum of the Feigned Image, 1938; and Frida Kahlo’s Self-Portrait with Monkey, 1938. Shortly before his death, the museum established the A. Conger Goodyear Fund for the acquisition of new artwork, greatly enhancing its ability to grow its collection in the years to come.

  • Related Exhibition

    Exhibition of Modern European Sculpture

    October 30–November 20, 1927

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    Gifts to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery from A. Conger Goodyear

    December 14, 1962–January 6, 1963

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    The Long Curve: 150 Years of Visionary Collecting at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery

    November 4, 2011–March 4, 2012

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    Living Art: A. Conger Goodyear and Sculpture

    November 4, 2011–March 4, 2012

  • Related Publication

    Gifts to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery from A. Conger Goodyear

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    The Long Curve: 150 Years of Visionary Collecting at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery

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    Paintings, Sculpture, Drawings, Prints Collected by A. Conger Goodyear

  • Bust of a man's head on a wooden pedestal
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    Bust of A. Conger Goodyear