The American Folk Art Museum revealed details about a new gift of masterworks from the collection of Audrey B. Heckler, a longtime and beloved AFAM trustee who passed away in 2024, which will significantly enhance and expand the museums collection of self-taught art. The gift from the estate of Audrey B. Heckler, the first announced since her passing last year, comprises dozens of masterpieces by renowned self-taught artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Alose Corbaz, William Edmondson, Madge Gill, Morris Hirshfield, Martn Ramrez, and Adolf Wlfli, among many others. The announcement marks the latest of many significant gifts, now totaling nearly 150 works of art, to the museum by Ms. Heckler between 2015 and 2022. Those gifts included works by well-established American artists Achilles G. Rizzoli, Emery Blagdon, Mary T. Smith, J. B. Murray, and William L. Hawkins, among others, A leading champion and advocate of artists active outside conventional art mainstreams, Ms. Hecklers gifts to AFAM have significantly enriched the museums collection and representation of modern and contemporary self-taught artists who have been at the vanguard of rapid international attention in recent years, both from the art world and serious scholarly inquiry. The present group of works was thoughtfully selected by Ms. Heckler, in dialogue with Valrie Rousseau, AFAMs curatorial chair and senior curator of 20th-century and contemporary art, to reflect the scope of her esteemed collection and strengthen particular areas of the museums collection. Among the many exceptional works included in this group is a monumental landscape by Martn Ramrez (18951963) measuring 9 feet wide, which joins several other masterworks by the artist in the museums collection. This untitled collage, executed ca. 1950 while Ramrez was institutionalized at the DeWitt State Hospital in Auburn, Calif., where he resided from 1948 until his death, is composed of more than 100 recycled pieces of paper of varying colors, thicknesses, and sources, giving the work a depth and complexity that only accentuates the multi-layered realities and perspectives of his compositions. In this work, Ramrezs landscape contains subjects that would have been familiar to him, such as train tracks, roads, cars, parking lots, food markets, farmland, kitchens, horses and carriages, and churches, in addition to fictional references such as statues of imaginary animals and persons, creatures, and flora. The intricately detailed iconography with which Ramrez populates the scene is emblematic of his unique visual vocabulary and language that defines his works. This work, along with others included in this gift, are scheduled to be featured in a forthcoming collection-based exhibition at AFAM in spring 2026; further details to be announced in the future. The creators in this collection were not in the art mainstream. Somewhere, someone discovered their work; they were found by chance.... The artists in my collection did it for themselves, for their own self-expression, once stated Audrey B. Heckler. Artworks from the Heckler collection were previously presented to critical and popular acclaim at AFAM in Memory Palaces: Inside the Collection of Audrey B. Heckler (2019-2020). The exhibition, comprised of works by over 80 artists, was drawn exclusively from Ms. Hecklers collection and surveyed the international scope and diversity underlying her collection. The American Folk Art Museum also published The Hidden Art: Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Self Taught Artists from the Audrey B. Heckler Collection (2017), which features 32 essays by renowned scholars and art historians celebrating the individual contributions and legacies of the self-taught artists in the collection. We are forever indebted to Audrey for her conviction in the museum and shared belief in our mission of engaging the public through the promotion of self-taught art to critically give voice to and reclaim the stories of so many artists under-recognized in their lifetime because of the color of their skin, their education, or history of mental illness. With this latest gift, Audreys legacy is only further cemented as a leading visionary who has helped solidify self-taught art as a significant art form in its own right. We are so grateful to Audreys sons, Jim and Andrew, for continuing her commitment to self-taught art and to AFAM, mentioned Jason T. Busch, Becky and Bob Alexander Director & CEO. A devoted AFAM trustee for more than 20 years beginning in 2003, Ms. Heckler enriched the museum for decades through loans for exhibitions, gifts to the collection, and financial contributions to a variety of initiatives, notably the formation of the Council for Self-Taught Art and Art Brut and the museums Visionary Award, which launched more than 15 years ago and honors an individual or an organization that has made a distinctive contribution to self-taught art. In recognition of Ms. Hecklers longtime commitment to AFAM, the museum recently renamed the Visionary Award the Audrey B. Heckler Visionary Award in 2024 in honor of her longstanding commitment to the award as well as her legacy as a visionary leader and champion of artists. Additionally, one of the flagship galleries at the museum was renamed in Ms. Hecklers honor, and she was celebrated at AFAMs annual gala in 2019 for her longstanding and impactful contributions to the museum. In 2024, Ms. Heckler was named a Trustee Emeritus in further recognition of her decades of support. Our mother had a profound, lifelong love of the arts in all forms, but it wasnt until 1993, when she first encountered Outsider art, that she discovered her greatest passion. She felt an instant connection to the work, one that led to decades of study, to collaboration with curators and institutions, and to an ever-deepening appreciation of the artists and their stories. We are so proud to work side-by-side with the American Folk Art Museum to further honor her legacy with this gift, which we hope will only deepen the publics appreciation for self-taught art. Throughout her life, our mother was committed to showing her collection to increase access to art and promote these artists. We believe this gift and her story will inspire others to pursue their passion in art just as she did and these artists did, stated Andrew and Jim Heckler, sons of Audrey B. Heckler.