Carl Heidenreich, Totem Inschrift, 1963. Oil on canvas. 51 x 41.25 inches, framed. Collection of the Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University.

Carl Heidenreich, Untitled (Mexico Series), 1962. Mixed media/watercolor and gouache on paper. 22 x 35.5 inches, framed. Collection of the Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University.

Carl Heidenreich, Untitled (Orange Dots), c. 1958-61. Mixed media, watercolor, and colored pencil on paper. 31 x 39 inches, framed. Collection of the Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University.

The Carl Heidenreich Foundation is proud to announce that one painting and two works on paper by Carl Heidenreich will be included in the collection of the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University.

The Eskenazi Museum of Art is an excellent fit for Heidenreich’s work; the museum has a strong collection of post-World War II abstract works and a focus on Nazi-Era provenance research. Its European and American Art collection, numbering approximately 5,000 paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts, connects German Expressionism and Dada with post-World War II abstraction. The collection therefore bridges the art historical education Heidenreich received at the National Arts School in Munich and the cultural milieu in which he developed his early style in Berlin with his later participation in Abstract Expressionism in New York.

Moreover, Heidenreich’s biography and peripatetic journey through exile to asylum was set off by the rise of the Nazi party in Germany; indeed, many of his paintings from his studio in Berlin were either damaged and destroyed by the Nazis. The Eskenazi Museum’s Nazi-Era Provenance Research Project provides a contextual counterpart to the processes of researching and establishing ownership history for those works of modern art (by other artists) which survived the war.

In particular, we are thrilled that these works are going to the Indiana University, where our Treasurer Hannah Buxbaum is also a professor at the IU School of Law.

We extend our thanks to the Eskenazi Museum, including David Brenneman, Director; Jennifer McComas, Curator of European and American Art; Heather Hales, Associate Registrar; and all of the team involved.