The diverse examples of contemporary special occasion and evening wear in this gallery, obtained through the auspices of Saks Fifth Avenue, are a welcome addition to the Museum’s outstanding collection of costume and textiles. These gifts showcase the individual designers’ creative flair and serve as a lasting tribute to the esteem and affection that Tom Marotta inspired.

Common Ground examines a critical period for the art of photography and for the Philadelphia art scene. In the 1960s, photographers including Emmet Gowin, Will Larson, and Ray K. Metzker, among the first generation of photographers trained in university art departments, all came to Philadelphia to teach in the city’s renowned art schools, bringing with them experimental approaches to the medium.

The collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Library and Archives have many notable associations with Arshile Gorky, ranging from books bequeathed to the Library by Alfred E. Gallatin (founder of New York University’s Gallery of Living Art, which Gorky frequently visited) to the papers of Julien Levy (Gorky’s New York art dealer). These documents, along with Library books and journals from other sources, provide a snapshot of what informed and inspired Arshile Gorky during his brief career and life.

Jun Kaneko, born in Nagoya, Japan in 1942, began his formal studies in art in the United States at the Chouinard Art Institute and continued at Berkeley and Claremont Graduate School. These four sculptures represent a larger body of work called the Mission Clay Project, which created a total of forty-one new sculptures. This project took three years to complete.