Philanthropist Sukumar Nagendran has donated $5 million to the Phoenix Art Museum in Arizona, the museum announced this week. The gift will support the expansion of the institution’s Asian art galleries, as well as acquisitions, scholarly research, and public programs on Sri Lankan art.
The museum’s Art of Asia galleries will expand from approximately 6,000 square feet to 9,500 square feet, and it includes a new 2,000-square-foot Nagendran Gallery for the Art of Sri Lanka and South Asia in honor of its benefactor. Considered the foremost institution for Asian art in the United States, this additional space will give the museum more room to display roughly 4,000 historic and contemporary works from its more than 21,000-piece collection of Asian artists.
Related Articles
Auctioneer Kimberly Pirtle Leaves Sotheby’s to Launch Hybrid Art-Philanthropy Advisory
Glenstone Museum To Acquire 112 Major Photographs From The Pilara Foundation
“Through this gift, I have the opportunity to build a partnership that explores and celebrates historical and contemporary Sri Lankan art on a global scale. Together, we can share not only the extraordinary artistic traditions of Asia, but also the stories, histories, and lived experiences of the Sri Lankan people, with the Museum’s audiences and the world more broadly,” Nagendran said in a statement. “It is my hope that this initiative will deepen cultural understanding, inspire future generations, and help preserve and elevate some of the most important artistic voices and works from my home region for decades—and centuries—to come.”
For his part, Nagendran is a philanthropist, physician, and biotechnology executive in Arizona who heads research and development at Taysha Gene Therapies. He has additionally supported several civic projects in Sri Lanka, including the construction of medical facilities and schools.
Nagendran was introduced to the museum about a decade ago by philanthropists Coleene and Barry Fernando, who have bolstered the museum’s South Asian art holdings, with a donation of more than 130 works and a collection of related photographs, as well as through significant loans. Their contributions have helped to realize such exhibitions as “The Guardian of the Flame: Art of Sri Lanka” (2003) and “Legacy of Ceylon: Art and Photography of Sri Lanka” (2021).
“Over the decades, the Museum’s Asian arts holdings have grown to include a significant and unique collection of historical Sri Lankan works that distinguishes the Museum nationally and provides a critical foundation for scholarship, interpretation, and public engagement,” said Phoenix Art Museum director and chief executive Jeremy Mikolajczak. “Nagendran’s visionary generosity enables us to build on this strength and pair our exceptional historical holdings with robust programming focused on contemporary Sri Lankan and South Asian artists, which feels especially timely as Phoenix continues to grow as a global city with considerable Asian and Asian American populations.”
Opening November 13, the exhibition “Pala Pothupitiye: Mapping a Sri Lankan Consciousness” will inaugurate the new Nagendran Gallery.
Pothupitiye creates sculpture, assemblage, painting, mixed-media, and modified colonial maps that explore the caste system, the spiritual and secular worlds, and ancestral craft and contemporary art. The Sri Lankan artist’s work also considers the socio-political effects of successive colonial occupation by the Portuguese, Dutch, and British in Sri Lanka, beginning in the 16th century and lasting until the mid-20th century.
For the show, Pothupitiye’s work will be paired with such historical Sri Lankan art from the museum’s collection as illustrated palm-leaf manuscripts, Buddhist sculptures, and mid-20th-century photographs by Quintus Fernando (who is the father of Barry Fernando). The latter document archaeological sites, Sri Lankan dancers, and other aspects of the island culture.