Joan Mitchell (American, 1925-1992)’s Sunflower VI (1969), the museum’s most recent major acquisition, makes its debut in the galleries. Sunflower VI anchors a selection of works made between 1950 and 1975 by artists who crossed paths with one another in New York City and whose work in a variety of media explores gesture and abstraction, including Helen Frankenthaler (American, 1928-2011), Philip Guston (American, 1913-1980), Franz Kline (American, 1910-1962), Lee Krasner (American, 1908-1984), Robert Motherwell (American, 1915-1991) and Willem de Kooning (American, 1904-1997). The installation also positions Mitchell’s work as a source of inspiration to artists such as Lynda Benglis whose work pushed gestural abstraction to new extremes.