Metropolitan Museum Of Art Given Major Gift Of African-American Art

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) - The Metropolitan Museum of Art has received a major gift of 57 works by contemporary African-American artists from the South.

The museum says it contains 10 pieces by Thornton Dial. There also are paintings, drawings and mixed media works by Lonnie Holley, Nellie Mae Rowe and other artists.

The donation includes 20 works by female quilters in Gee's Bend, a remote community in Alabama.

The gift comes from the Atlanta-based Souls Grown Deep Foundation. The nonprofit was started in 2010 by art historian and collector William Arnett to bring attention to self-taught African-American artists.

Arnett said in a statement that the collection documents a little-known tradition that began in the Deep South, likely during the earliest days of slavery.

An exhibition of the works is planned for 2016.

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