Fred Wilson, a conceptual artist who challenges assumptions of history, culture, race, and display, has joined the Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art Board of Directors. For more than 52 years, the Friends organization has supported the museum and ensured that it continues to grow and evolve. Located at the heart of the Purchase College, State University of New York (SUNY) campus, 735 Anderson Hill Road, the Neuberger is one of the nation’s most respected and important academic art museums. Wilson earned his BFA at Purchase and graduated with the college’s first four-year class in 1976. He received a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (genius) Grant Award (1999) and the Larry Aldrich Foundation Award (2003). He also represented the United States at the Cairo Bienniale (1992) and Venice Biennale (2003).
“Purchase College is at the heart of my success as an artist, and The Neuberger is the reason for my youthful, nascent passion, understanding, and critical curiosity about museums that eventually thrust me into the limelight,” said Wilson. “I owe my artistic career to these two institutions. I am forever in their debt.”
In his work, Wilson explores themes tied to histories of colonization and enslavement. He critiques the imbrication of art history and art institutions with these histories and transforms them via site-specific installations. Through wall texts, the rearrangement and manipulation of objects and spaces, Wilson reframes the roles Indigenous, Black, and other historically oppressed groups have played in producing Western art worlds.
In February, the Museum and the Purchase College Global Black Studies and Media Studies programs launched The Fred Wilson Lectures in Global Black Studies to honor Wilson’s achievements and those of other Black makers and thinkers who shape our creative and cultural landscapes. The Fred Wilson Lectures are generously supported by the family of Stanley H. Helsel through a museum education fund named in his memory.
The Neuberger Museum of Art opened on the campus of Purchase College, State University of New York, in 1974 with a core collection donated by Roy R. Neuberger, one of the greatest private collectors, philanthropists, and arts advocates of the 20th century. Its collection has since grown to nearly 7,000 objects.
Purchase College, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) network of 64 universities and colleges, was founded in 1967 by Governor Nelson Rockefeller. His aspiration for Purchase was to create a dynamic campus that combined conservatory training in the visual and performing arts with programs in the liberal arts and sciences, inspiring an appreciation for both intellectual and artistic talents in all students.
