2. Tomokazu Matsuyama’s I’m Old Fashioned Summer Night (2023)

This 2023 painting by Tomokazu Matsuyama reflects the artist’s experience growing up between Japan and the United States. The circular composition blends influences from Renaissance-era tondo painting, Japanese tea ceremonies and contemporary fashion imagery. Matsuyama’s dynamic work resists cultural categorization, exploring themes of identity and globalization. Generously donated by Jean-Pierre Lutgen and Shigeki Okamura, with the assistance of the gallery Almine Rech, this painting enriches the museum’s holdings of contemporary Asian American art while fostering dialogue between historic and modern artistic traditions.

3. Robert Salmon’s Boston Harbor, Long and Central Wharves (1832)

Robert Salmon’s 1832 painting Boston Harbor, Long and Central Wharves captures a bustling scene of maritime life and the vibrant activity that defined dockside Boston in the early 19th century. Salmon, who emigrated from Liverpool to Boston in 1828, was among the first artists to document the city’s rapidly evolving harbor and architecture. Long Wharf’s historic Gardiner Building (second from right in the painting and today the home of the Chart House restaurant) is the only structure from Salmon’s era that still stands as legacy to Boston’s rich maritime heritage.

4. Fire Landscape Painting by Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun (Cowichan and Okanagan) (2023)

A monumental acrylic painting by Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun (Cowichan and Okanagan) addresses the environmental and cultural devastation wrought by human-caused wildfires.

This portfolio of 70 exquisite sheets from Frigge’s personal collection, compiled in 2023 but made between 1974 and 1998, represents decades of innovation. Frigge’s work enriches PEM’s already strong holdings in papermaking and book arts, offering visitors a glimpse into the intricate beauty of handcrafted paper. The portfolio was acquired in honor of Sidney Berger, PEM’s former Ann C. Pingree Director of the Phillips Library, who is a passionate collector and advocate for the paper arts.

6. L’Merchie Frazier’s Slavery by Another Name: Slave Ships to Stained Glass Windows (2023)

Boston-based artist L’Merchie Frazier uses fiber art to tell untold stories of African American history and Black experiences to promote social justice, equity and community. Her 2023 quilt, Slavery by Another Name: Slave Ships to Stained Glass Windows, explores the role of Christian ministers and churches in supporting slavery in 17th- and 18th-century Boston. This piece is comprised of geometric and angular forms containing a variety of figurative motifs, such as stained glass windows and a cross alongside slave ships depicting the deadly Middle Passage of the Transatlantic slave trade. The artist uses this imagery to evoke the experience of lost freedom, unmitigated cruelty and deprivation from family, home, culture, religion and human rights resulting from enslavement. This activist art quilt supports ongoing narratives about race, religion and social justice and their enduring legacies and makes an important addition to PEM’s significant collection of historic and contemporary quilts.

This image of the artist’s elder daughter, Youngjoo, captures her in a simple but fashionable postwar children’s outfit of an orange sweater and green overalls. Painted in 1959, just as South Korea was about to take major steps toward becoming a modern democratic society, this painting is both poignantly nostalgic and contemporary at the same time. We are grateful to the artist’s younger daughter, a textile artist who immigrated to the Boston area in the 1980s, for kindly donating this work to PEM. It will be featured along with fashion from the period in the new Yu Kil-Chun Gallery of Korean Art and Culture opening on Saturday, May 17, 2025.

8. Fredric T. Schneider Collection of Japanese Cloisonné Enamels

This year, PEM received an inspiring gift from the estate of Fredric T. Schneider, a renowned scholar and collector of Japanese cloisonné enamel. Schneider’s carefully curated gift includes a comprehensive collection of Japanese cloisonné enamel as well as related collections of ephemera, photographs, rare books and other research materials that together establish the museum as an international center for the study and appreciation of the medium.

First practiced in Japan in the 17th century, this labor-intensive technique of decorating metal forms with colored enamels reached a pinnacle of technical and artistic excellence during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Schneider Collection traces four centuries of cloisonné enamel production, including commissions for the Japanese imperial family, pieces for export (among them masterworks exhibited at international fairs) and a group of important pieces by contemporary master practitioners. Generous funding from Fredric T. Schneider and his life partner Lynn Whisnant Reiser accompanies the gift. This funding will support the Schneider Collection’s long-term study and care at PEM, allow for the acquisition of select additions to the collection and help to reinvigorate PEM’s ongoing Japanese art initiatives.