Acquisitions adding to a permanent collection are a vital element in a museum's growth and its ultimate legacy to the community it serves. Future generations will be educated and enriched by works of art acquired by those entrusted with this mission today. The Tyler Museum of Art strives to selectively broaden its permanent collection holdings with works of art that meet the Museum's acquisition guidelines and collection emphases. Artists from other regions across the country contribute an interesting balance to the work of local and regionalist artists which has long been a central focus of TMA's collection efforts. The Tyler Museum of Art continues to be a driving force in the local art community, bringing outstanding traveling exhibitions to the East Texas area as well as continually adding important works to its collection. Artists of national and international renown are included in this exhibition, and several of the works are being exhibited for the first time. Recent Acquisitions features a variety of styles ranging from folk art to abstract to realism.

Born in Milwaukee, Donald S. Vogel began his formal art training at the Witte Museum in San Antonio under the watchful eye of Eleanor Onderdonk. He moved to Chicago in 1936 to enroll in The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist rooms of the Institute, a new world opened up to him, one that would forever influence the direction of his work. He saw art that dealt with the effects of atmosphere and light. The subjects and techniques used by these painters conveyed a sense of happiness, exuberance, and pleasure, which offered a stark contrast to the world outside stifled by the Great Depression. In 1942, Vogel moved to Dallas, where he still lives today. He has been a set designer and technical director in the theatre, a fine art dealer, and a writer, but first and foremost he is a painter. His work is still characterized by his love of color and his fascination with the changing qualities of light. On display by Donald S. Vogel was Self Portrait (1989), oil on panel.

David Strickland has worked as a laborer, carpenter, plumber, and welder. In the spring of 1990, he created his first art object, using leftover air conditioning ducts to create a fanciful bird figure. His work has been featured in many exhibitions, including Spirited Journeys and Art Links, both of which were on view at the Tyler Museum of Art. Strickland was one of six artists selected nationwide to create a sculpture for the Coca-Cola Company at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. On display in this exhibition was Farmer (2000), mixed media sculpture.

A native of Louisiana, Clyde Connell (1901–1998) spent almost 50 years on the shore of Lake Bistineau, some 40 miles east of Shreveport. Her work, created in simple materials of her environment—sticks, stones, moss, red river mud, and discarded machine parts—evokes the beauty and power of this primeval swampland. Representational in her early years, her art evolved over time into a unique abstract language of forms. Clyde Connell had her first solo museum exhibitions in 1979 at the Tyler Museum of Art and the Meadows Museum. She quickly gained national fame and today her work can be found in many public collections. A major retrospective of her work organized by the Meadows Museum of Art at Centenary College of Louisiana opens in the Tyler Museum of Art's Bell Gallery on May 10th. The two pieces on display in the Recent Acquisitions exhibition were Sun Dance, paper collage on board, and Untitled, (1976), mixed media.

The works of beloved East Texas artist Ancel E. Nunn (1928–1999) have been on exhibit several times over the years at the Tyler Museum of Art. Born in Seymour, Texas, Nunn began drawing at age 12. He added to his early art education through summer workshops under noted artists such as Dong Kingman and Alexander Hogue. Much of his early work was nostalgic in nature and reflected rural East Texas images. Weathered structures and fields of grass are lovingly painted in painstaking detail, as evidenced by Landscape with Victorian Cottage and Gazebo, (1968), acrylic on panel, which was on display in this exhibition.

Daniel Blagg lives and works in Fort Worth. In crisp clarity, his realist paintings depict empty intersections, underpasses, and storefronts. There is generally a deep middle ground, which keeps the viewer back and forces a curious introspection. There is little of brushstrokes or painterliness to distract from the stark void. A strong vertical/horizontal orientation holds the eye, creating urban icons of modern life. Mixmaster (1999), oil on canvas, was a perfect example.

Robert Kipniss is a widely-known painter and printmaker. His work is in the collection of many leading museums including The Art Institute of Chicago, The Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Born in New York City, he studied at the Art Students League in New York, Wittenberg University, and the University of Iowa. His beautiful and haunting landscape Untitled, (1962–63), oil on canvas, was part of this exhibition.

Margie Crisp uses charcoal to create monochromatic images which are stark and atmospheric. The velvety black forms merge in deep shadows, the soft edges blending trees into land and hills into sky to create highly dramatic images. Her work on display in this exhibition was Pastoral, (1999), charcoal on paper. Before he became an artist, Gregory Horndeski was a tenured professor of applied mathematics at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. While on sabbatical in the Netherlands in 1981, he saw a van Gogh exhibition and was deeply moved. "I was never that interested in art," he states. "Then I stumbled onto van Gogh. When I saw van Gogh I was sure I could paint." Horndeski's paintings, not surprisingly, are heavily influenced by the Dutch Postimpressionist. His brightly colored scenes have a delightful, almost primitive freshness reminiscent of folk art. Wheatfields with Woods and Wanderer—Silent Woods, (1994), acrylic on linen and masonite, was included here.

Trudy Kraft's work reveals the mature integration of her lifelong absorption of a generous range of influences. Her sources include traditional arts of Japan, the visual culture of Hispanic America, Australian Aboriginal dream paintings, and such daring color-masters as the Fauvists van Dongen and Derain. She uses a combination of watercolor, sumi ink, gouache, and frisket (a masking medium), and her technique suggests a kind of over-and-under "weaving" of the painting's surface. Her work on display in this exhibition is entitled Mendel's Garden, (1999).