Art Gallery of Ontario gets gift of more than 450 works – The Art Newspaper

The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto is about to become something of a Pop art showplace thanks to the late collectors Carol and Morton Rapp. And not just Pop art, but a range of Modern practices and movements, thanks to a gift of 474 prints, photographs, sculptures, artist books and more by 203 artists. The Rapps have a long history with the AGO, dating back to 1966.

Highlights of the donation include 13 screenprints by Andy Warhol—including examples from his Flowers series and four portraits of Marilyn Monroe; eight works by Robert Rauschenberg including the freestanding screenprint-on-plexiglass sculpture Passport (1967); nine works by Jasper Johns; three works on paper by Roy Lichtenstein; the AGO’s first work by Barnett Newman, the 1964 lithograph CANTO XVIII; seven works by Claes Oldenburg including a sculptural print; three prints and a portfolio by Lee Bontecou and four early works by David Hockney.

In addition to works by a wealth of canonical post-war artists, the Rapps’ gift includes more contemporary fare such as a set of five photogravures by Kara Walker from 2005, three works by William Kentridge including the 110-sheet print Learning the Flute (2003), a photograph by Yinka Shonibare and a stereolithographic sculpture by Rachel Whiteread.

Morton, who died in 2024, grew up in Montréal and was schooled in mechanical engineering at McGill University. He gravitated to Toronto in 1951 and saw Carol, who predeceased him in 2023, performing in a play at the Crest Theatre. The rest was history—the two were together for seven decades. They began collecting prints in the 1960s, when Pop art was all the rage, then moved into contemporary photography and other genres and materials in the 1990s. They not only had ties to the AGO, but also with the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The AGO’s curatorial position for Modern and contemporary art is named after the Rapps and was first held by Kitty Scott; John Zeppetelli now fills the role.

“More than collectors, Carol and Morton Rapp were stewards of great art, eager to share and preserve the things that brought them pleasure, beauty, and insight,” Stephan Jost, the AGO’s director and chief executive, said in a statement. “During their lifetimes they contributed immensely to the cultural fabric of Toronto and to the AGO, and this gift by their family is a heartfelt expression of their enduring commitment to this place.”

Jay Smith, a trustee of the gallery and the Rapps’ son-in-law, added: “One of the distinct legacies of this gift is that they worked closely with living artists and this shared energy is alive in the gift.”

The AGO will soon have even more space to display Modern and contemporary works like those gifted by the Rapps—it is in the process of building a C$100m ($73.4m), 40,000-sq.-ft expansion. That new wing, officially the Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery, is due to open in 2027.