Celia Ascher Bequeathed Collection to Denmark’s Louisiana Museum

Jackson Pollock Painting B (Black on Yellow) (ca.1950) Photo: The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

Denmark’s Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, located outside of Copenhagen, has announced that it has received a donation of eight significant artworks. The works by Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Jackson Pollock, Jean Dubuffet, Anselm Kiefer, Joan Miró, and Ellsworth Kelly are reportedly worth a combined 100 million kroner ($16 million). The artworks were gifted to the institution by the late arts philanthropist and former director of the Riklis-McCrory Collection in New York, Celia Ascher and were reportedly Ascher’s personal favorites, which hung in her New York home until her death in April of last year.

Celia Ascher had been a supporter and benefactor of the Louisiana Museum since 1977. A special exhibition comprising a selection of approximately 50 works from the Joseph and Celia Ascher Collection will go on display at the museum to mark the receipt of the donation and to honor the Aschers’s long-standing commitment to the museum.

The exhibition will be on view in the Asger Jorn Gallery in the museum’s North wing from January 13–March 22. In association with the opening of the exhibition, the museum will also host a lecture entitled Two Triangles in Conversation Against a White Background focusing on the constructivist art of artists such as Kazimir Malevich, Alexander Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova, and Wassily Kandinsky.