The AGO has announced a landmark gift from the late Carol and Morton Rapp: more than 450 artworks by 203 artists. This gift, including artworks by esteemed artists such as Jasper Johns, David Hockney, William Kentridge, Robert Rauschenberg, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol and Rachel Whiteread, is one of the most significant in the AGO’s recent history.  

The gift arrives at a transformative moment, as the AGO continues to build the Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery, adding 40,000 square feet of gallery space. This donation will strengthen the Gallery’s Prints and Drawings Collection, enabling it to tell the full story of the medium's renaissance in the late 1960s and 1970s and its ongoing evolution throughout the early 21st century.  

The gift also underscores the Rapp’s enduring commitment to the AGO, which has spanned over six decades. The couple began donating works to the Gallery in 1966, contributing nearly 1,000 works, including this latest gift.  

“More than collectors, Carol and Morton Rapp were stewards of great art, eager to share and preserve the things that brought them pleasure, beauty, and insight,” says Stephan Jost, Michael and Sonja Koerner Director and CEO of the Art Gallery of Ontario. “During their lifetimes, they contributed immensely to the cultural fabric of Toronto and the AGO, and this gift by their family is a heartfelt expression of their enduring commitment to this place.”   

“Carol and Morton Rapp were passionate collectors and supported major artists for more than 60 years,” says Jay Smith, AGO Trustee and son-in-law.  “They were globally connected and committed to building collections at the AGO and MoMA. One of the distinct legacies of this gift is that they worked closely with living artists and this shared energy is alive in the gift.”

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Roy Lichtenstein. Pow Sweet Dreams Baby (C 39), from 11 Pop Artists series, 1965. Silkscreen, Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of Carol and Morton Rapp, 2025. © 2025 Estate of Roy Lichtenstein / DACS, London. 2025/449

 

 

Kara Walker. Testimony, 2005. Photogravure, Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of Carol and Morton Rapp, 2025. © Kara Walker. 2025/494.1

 

Yinka Shonibare. Diary Of A Victorian Dandy, 19:00 Hours, 1998. C-type print; unglazed in a fake gilt frame, Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of Carol and Morton Rapp, 2025. © Yinka Shonibare / DACS, London / CARCC, Ottawa 2025. 2025/486
 

 

Claes Oldenburg. Teabag (From 4 on Plexiglas), 1966. Laminated vacuum-formed vinyl, screenprinted vinyl, felt, and plexiglas with rayon cord, Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of Carol and Morton Rapp, 2025. © Estate of Claes Oldenburg. 2025/468
 

Rachel Whiteread. Secondhand, 2004. Stereolithograph of laser sintered white nylon, Plexiglas, and painted medium-density fiberboard, Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of Carol and Morton Rapp, 2025. © Rachel Whiteread

Lee Bontecou. Fifth Stone, 1964. Lithograph, Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of Carol and Morton Rapp, 2025. © Lee Bontecou 2025 All Rights Reserved.  2025/349

 

Robert Rauschenberg. Passport from "Ten from Leo Castelli" series, 1967. 3 colour silkscreen on kinetic Plexiglass, Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of Carol and Morton Rapp, 2025. © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. 2025/372
 

David Hockney. One Night (from Illustrations for Fourteen Poems from C.P. Cavafy), 1966. Etching and aquatint, Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of Carol and Morton Rapp, 2025. © David Hockney. 2025/409

 

Jasper Johns. Savarin, 1982. Lithograph and monotype, Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of Carol and Morton Rapp, 2025.  © Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY / CARCC, Ottawa 2025. 2025/426

 

William Kentridge. Telephone Lady, 2000. Linocut, Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of Carol and Morton Rapp, 2025. © William Kentridge. 2025/443

 

Highlights of the Rapp Gift include:  

• 13 screenprints by Andy Warhol, including four portraits of Marilyn Monroe (1967) and Flowers 1, Flowers 2 and Flowers 3 from 1970
• Eight works by Robert Rauschenberg, including his first illustrated book composed of lithographs on moveable plexiglass plates, Shades (1964) and his three-dimensional, screenprint on plexiglass sculpture Passport (1967)
• Entering the AGO Collection for the first time is American painter Barnett Newman, with a lithograph from 1964 entitled CANTO XVIII
• Nine works by Jasper Johns, including lithographs A Cartoon for Tanya (1972) and Savarin (1982)
• Three prints and a portfolio of etchings and poems, Fifth Stone, Sixth Stone (1967-68) by Lee Bontecou, all produced by Universal Limited Art Editions
• Four early works by David Hockney, including two etchings from the Cavafy Suite, One Night (1966) and Two boys aged 23 or 24 (1966)
• Seven works by Claus Oldenburg, including Teabag (1966), a sculptural print of screenprinted vinyl and felt on plexiglass
• Three works by William Kentridge, including the monumental linoleum cut Telephone Lady from 2000, and Learning the Flute (2003), a technical tour-du-force composed of 110 individually printed sheets, printed on unbound pages from a 1950 edition of Chambers's Encyclopedia
• Three works on paper by Roy Lichtenstein, including the 1965 screenprint Pow Sweet Dreams Baby!
• Yinka Shonibare’s chromogenic photograph Diary of a Victorian Dandy: 19.00 hours (1998), a satirical take on William Hogarth’s famed caricatures
• Rachel Whiteread’s three-dimensional sculpture Secondhand (2004), an example of stereolithography, created using a 3D scan of vintage doll house furniture
• Kara Walker’s Testimony (2005), a set of 5 photogravures taken from her 2004 video work Testimony: Narrative of a Negress Burdened by Good Fortune

The Rapp gift and the exhibition Moments in Modernism, currently on view at the AGO, features work that will form the cornerstone for the expansion of the new Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery, under construction now.  The new building is being designed by architects Diamond Schmitt, Selldorf Architects and Two Row Architect to showcase the AGO's growing collection of modern and contemporary art. 

For more on the Rapp Gift, visit https://ago.ca/press-release/toronto-collectors-carol-and-morton-rapp-donate-more-400-artworks-ago-0