Acquiring an artwork often involves a financial commitment, and can reflect the priorities of the museum at large. Acquisitions also build the collection and play a part in what museum visitors get to see. I wanted to tease out two trends in the data with regard to acquisition and artist nationality: purchasing decisions and latency.
Purchasing decisions
With regard to purchasing decisions, artworks can either be purchased by the museum, gifted to the museum, or acquired with funds both from the museum and a gift. The majority of CMOA’s artworks were gifted, with roughly two-thirds of their holdings gifted and one-third purchased.
Click here for details on how this visualization was created.
Of its 4,689 artworks, the CMOA dataset classified two of the artworks as being acquired through “museum appropriation.” Unfortunately, the CMOA dataset does not have a data dictionary defining what that means, but per the Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus, these funds likely refer to the museum’s budget.
This breakdown—of two-thirds gifted, one-third purchased—plays out largely in the data. The following bar charts break down artworks by acquisition method, with the second focused on countries outside of the United States to give greater visibility to their data. There are a few notable exceptions—German, South African, and Turkish art, for example, are almost exclusively purchased, not gifted.
Click here for details on how these visualizations were created.
Artworks that have been purchased, as opposed to gifted, could reflect a more sincere investment in acquiring artwork from that region, as the museum is putting its own funds towards that purchase. From this viewpoint, the museum seems to be invested in acquiring German art, which has both a healthier volume and is weighted towards purchased items over gifted items. However, while only 30.9% of art from the United States was purchased, that represents 816 artworks—which is more than the total number of artworks, purchased or otherwise, from any other country. In order of volume, the top five most represented nationalities after American art are Japanese art with 422 artworks, then English with 331 artworks, then British with 296 artworks, and Belgian with 183 artworks—all of which are a fraction of the United States’ 816 purchased artworks, and an even smaller fraction of the 2,640 total American artworks. Clearly, the largest financial investment in artwork by nationality is in American artwork.
Latency
As another view into the museum’s commitment to art from a particular region, I examined the length of time between an artwork’s creation and its acquisition. That is, if artworks are generally bought shortly after their creation in a certain region, it could suggest that the museum is keeping tabs on that art scene and is actively searching for pieces and acquiring them. Conversely, if artworks from a region are generally purchased decades after their creation, that could suggest that the museum is newly aware or newly interested in this art scene. This is by no means a perfect measure, as there could be any number of reasons affecting an artwork’s acquisition. However, general trends in the data may speak to acquisition priorities.
Both artworks from the United States and artworks from elsewhere follow similar acquisition trends, with most pieces being purchased within five years of their creation.
Click here for details on how this visualization was created.
However, when the scale is adjusted so that the increased volume of artworks from the United States is controlled for, it is apparent that artworks from the United States are purchased more closely to their creation date than artworks from outside the United States. More specifically, within the United States the majority of artworks are purchased within the first six years, with purchasing thinning out thereafter. For artworks from outside of the United States, this tapering off is less dramatic, reflecting longer periods of time between creation and acquisition.
Click here for details on how this visualization was created.
The shorter time between an artwork’s creation and acquisition date indicates more commitment and attention paid to American art scenes as opposed to those from other countries. However, the data shows that the latency periods—while different—are not dramatically dissimilar, suggesting that the museum is actively acquiring and following art scenes around the world.