New York’s Guggenheim Museum has revealed the 39 works that it acquired last year, among them paintings by some of today’s most celebrated artists.
There were some historical works added to the collection last year, including pieces by Freddy Rodríguez and Fanny Sanín, who were born in the Dominican Republic and Colombia, respectively. Both were included in the 2024 Venice Biennale, and both relocated to the US.
But many of the works acquired are by emerging and mid-career artists whose international prominence is still growing. These artists include figures ranging from Rachel Rossin to Elle Pérez, from Claudia Alarcón to Yu Nishimura.
In a statement, Guggenheim senior curator Naomi Beckwith said, “The Guggenheim’s slate of artworks acquired in 2025 is a testament to the ways in which the institution thoughtfully looks back at its roots and its commitment to experimental forms and transnational approaches, while remaining forward-thinking about broadening the narrative possibilities of our art holdings.”
Below, a look at five of the works acquired by the Guggenheim last year.
Fanny Sanín, Acrylic No. 2, 1974
Image Credit: ©Fanny Sanín/Guggenheim Museum During the 1960s and ’70s, Sanín specialized in hard-edged abstractions such as this one, in which a row of rectangularly shaped forms are piled together, creating the allusion that this composition extends back in space through the usage of color and line. Now in her late 80s, she remains under-recognized in the US, though there are signs that this is changing, thanks to a retrospective held at the Americas Society in New York last year.
Salman Toor, The Joke, 2024
Image Credit: Farzad Owrang/©Salman Toor/Courtesy the artist; Luhring Augustine, New York; and Thomas Dane Gallery/Guggenheim Museum Toor’s paintings commonly reference historical works; this one nods to pieces by Impressionists like Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who represented Parisian nightlife with expressivity. The haziness of its background seems to mimic the drunken stupor of some of this eatery’s patrons.
Ambera Wellmann, Sacrum, 2025
Image Credit: Sebastian Bach/Courtesy the artist and Company Gallery, New York/Guggenheim Museum Ambera Wellmann drew acclaim in New York last year for a show spread across Hauser & Wirth and Company Gallery that featured paintings of people in ecstasy. This one, which was on view in the latter half of that exhibition, may allude to Henri Matisse’s Woman before an Aquarium (1921–23), another canvas featuring a female figure gazing at fish.
Nancy Holt, Trail Markers, 1969
Image Credit: ©Holt/Smithson Foundation/Guggenheim Museum In 1969, Nancy Holt and her husband, the artist Robert Smithson, traversed a path in southwestern England; Holt found herself fascinated by orange markers set up to mark out the route. She photographed these markers for this work, which, like many other classic pieces associated with the Land art movement, applies Conceptual art strategies to the natural world.
Ruby Sky Stiler, Three Blue Women, 2025
Image Credit: ©2025 Ruby Sky Stiler/Courtesy the artist and Alexander Gray Associates, New York/Guggenheim Museum This painting is actually composed of many miniature drawings, all assembled Tetris-style to form an image of three nude women seated together. “They are almost falling apart into geometry—you take one thing away and they would be just shapes,” the artist has said of her works. This one was memorably included in an Alexander Gray Associates show in New York that closed only a month ago.
