Watkins Collection

Grace Hartigan, Beware of Gifts, 1971

Oil on canvas

Grace Hartigan was one of the major Abstract Expressionist painters in New York during the 1950's. "Beware of Gifts" was painted in 1971, during an emotionally and physically difficult time for Hartigan. According to Robert Staltonstall Mattison's book, Grace Hartigan: A Painter's World, the colors, title, and "almost guilty" sense in the work, refer to a Greek lover she had at the time. Hartigan said the title came to her as she remember a note sent to her by Joseph Cornell in the 1950's that read "Beware of gifts bearing Greeks". Hartigan was twice a visiting artist at AU, and in 1987, Grace Hartigan: A Mini-Retrospective 1954-1984 was exhibited in Watkins Gallery.

Jacob Kainen
Observer XXXI, 1977

Oil on canvas

Jacob Kainen, born in 1909, has been an important figure in the Washington art world since he moved here from New York in 1943. A painter and printmaker, Kainen is also a scholar and held a curatorial position at Smithsonian until retirement in 1970. He started working in series around this time, and in 1972 began his "Observer" series. Observer XXXI came to the Watkins Collection in 1993 as a gift of John Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene.

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