Pousette-Dart Foundation Receives Major Donation, Announces Search for Next Director

The Richard Pousette-Dart Foundation has received a donation of work by the artist from his late widow, Evelyn Pousette-Dart.  

The gift consists of all works by the artist that Evelyn owned at the time of her death in 2025. The foundation characterized the gift as “very substantial” and is still in the process of inventorying the extent of the donation, which includes paintings, sculptures, works on paper, photographs, and notebooks.  

“This bequest will enable the Foundation to share our father’s work more broadly, advance public understanding of his important contribution to twentieth-century art, and carry forward his philosophy and commitment to giving back to the arts community,” Joanna Pousette-Dart, the artist’s daughter and foundation board chair, said in a statement. 

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Pousette-Dart was a member of the first generation of Abstract Expressionists and is considered a founding member of the New York School. He was memorably included in the now iconic Life magazine photograph, The Irascibles, which took its name from a letter sent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York protesting its exhibition “American Painting Today—1950.” His paintings and sculptures are known for their use of biomorphic forms, with his canvases employing an all-over approach to abstraction.  

Established in 2014, more than two decades after Pousette-Dart’s death in 1992, the foundation is dedicated to “advancing comprehensive understanding of Richard Pousette-Dart’s contributions as a visual artist; supporting educational programs where art-making is a vehicle for positive personal transformation; and promoting intellectual exchange within the arts,” according to its mission statement. It also supports the conservation of Pousette-Dart’s paintings in public collections.  

In addition to the gift, the foundation also announced a moment of transition. Its founding executive director, Charles Duncan, will step down from his role, though he will become a consultant to the foundation to support “a smooth transition to new executive leadership,” per a release.  

“It has been an incredible privilege to steward the legacy of Richard Pousette-Dart for more than a decade in concert with a dedicated board of directors,” Duncan said in a statement. “Recently, we jointly assessed the future demands of the Foundation, whose holdings of artworks will increase exponentially, and arrived at the decision that the Foundation should now pursue a next generation of leadership that will guide the growing organization into the forthcoming decades.”

The foundation has launched a national search, led by executive search firm Isaacson, Miller, to find Duncan’s replacement. (Nominations and applications for the role can be submitted via the firm’s website.) 

During his tenure, Duncan oversaw the preservation and conservation of the Pousette-Dart works already in the foundation’s holdings, established a grant-making program for cultural organizations, and secured the artist’s Hudson Valley home and studio’s addition to both the National Register of Historic Places and the New York State Register of Historic Places.  

Duncan also helped support the realization of the Whitney Museum’s centennial celebrations for Pousette-Dart in 2016, as well as organizing the first exhibition of the artist’s photography. In 2025, he co-curated “Richard Pousette-Dart: Poetry of Light,” the largest exhibition of the artist’s work outside the US, at the Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden, Germany, as well as a show on the artist’s etchings at the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut.  

Joanna Pousette-Dart added, “Charles Duncan demonstrated exceptional leadership, dedication and stewardship in preserving, promoting and advancing the artistic legacy of my father, Richard Pousette-Dart, as well as guiding the overall philanthropic mission of his namesake Foundation. The board will continue to value his considerable contributions.”