TORONTO \u2014 The Art Gallery of Ontario says it has received a significant gift of more than 450 pieces of art, including works by pop titans Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and David Hockney.<\/p>\n
The trove of modern and contemporary works comes from the family of late Toronto art patrons Carol and Morton Rapp.<\/p>\n
It consists largely of prints, drawings and photographs from the late 1960s and 1970s, as well as throughout the early decades of the 21st century.<\/p>\n
Gallery CEO and director Stephan Jost says highlights include 13 screen prints by Warhol, among them four portraits of Marilyn Monroe.<\/p>\n
Three works on paper by Lichtenstein include a 1965 silkscreen in his distinct, comic-book-inspired style.<\/p>\n
Jost says the donation is \u201cextraordinarily significant\u201d and he expects it will be available for public viewing in about two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of the most transformative gifts we\u2019ve had in the last couple decades,\u201d said Jost.<\/p>\n
He singled out a bold 1967 Warhol silkscreen in yellow and red that he expects will be a crowd-pleaser when it eventually makes it to an AGO exhibit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a good day when somebody gives you 13 Andy Warhols. And what\u2019s nice is many of them are super-iconic like the Marilyn Monroes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are something you see all the time, the kind of poppy art ones where Marilyn Monroe looks kind of like a drag queen. When you get a series of those, it\u2019s iconic \u2013 people walk in and they say: \u2018I\u2019ve seen that before!\u2019 And that\u2019s kind of cool.”<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/VJVOKTVSPVA2HHNHPJHW5J57XM.jpg\")
Toronto art collectors Carol and Morton Rapp are seen in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Handout – Courtesy AGO Toronto art collectors Carol and Morton Rapp are seen in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Handout – Courtesy AGO <\/p>\n
Jost also pointed to a 1965 Lichtenstein silkscreen titled \u201cPow Sweet Dreams Baby (C 39), from 11 Pop Artists series,\u201d as a notable addition and a quintessential image from the era.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s the one who basically takes cartoon art and pop art and zooms in and takes one still and then updates it. And the great one is \u2018Sweet Dreams Baby\u2019\u2026which is just so \u201960s.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jost is also fond of a 1998 print by British artist Yinka Shonibare titled \u201cDiary Of A Victorian Dandy, 19:00 Hours.\u201d In this one, an aristocratic Black man holding a cane stands proudly in the centre of a group of white partygoers gathered in a stately home.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of things he does is restage 18th century life but substitutes people of African descent into those narratives\u2026to kind of help us understand the relationship between class, performance, gender and race,\u201d Jost said.<\/p>\n
Other donated treasures include nine works by U.S. painter Jasper Johns and four early works by English art giant Hockney. Overall, the donation includes pieces by 203 artists, among them a number of portfolios.<\/p>\n
The Rapps were longtime champions of the arts, and their son-in-law Jay Smith, an AGO trustee, said the couple also donated pieces to the National Gallery of Canada, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.<\/p>\n
However, they were especially supportive of the AGO, and Jost said they contributed greatly to the cultural fabric of Toronto and the gallery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey showed up at everything and it wasn\u2019t just the fancy events,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just always said yes to the world, right? And I think that\u2019s probably the thing I love about them. And they loved contemporary art. They loved learning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morton, who died in September 2024, made his name with a chain of machinery parts and distribution centres and Carol, who died in July 2023, was an active AGO volunteer since the 1960s. She sat on several committees and held positions that included vice president of the board of trustees from 1997 to 2000 and honorary chair from 2001 to 2002.<\/p>\n
Jost said the couple took great care of their collection, even taking it into account when they rebuilt their Forest Hill home with a modern minimalist style that could showcase prized pieces while shielding them from the harmful effects of light.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to make it look great because Carol and Mort were special people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2025.<\/p>\n
Cassandra Szklarski, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 The Art Gallery of Ontario says it has received a significant gift of more than 450…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60,79959],"class_list":{"0":"post-138686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-ontario-quebec"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}