UPPER EAST SIDE — Calling all vegetables.
The Guggenheim Museum has acquired three new artworks for its permanent collection, including a phone shaped like an eggplant, the museum announced this week.
Entitled "Eggplant (phone)," the piece by artist Margaret Lee looks like a rotary telephone embedded in an eggplant, but the entire sculpture, created in 2012, is actually made of plaster, without any functioning phone parts.
The museum will also display a second piece by Lee, called "Eggplant (hello)," which is a photo of the sculpture with an outstretched hand holding the phone.
The third artwork that the Guggenheim acquired is a room-size sculpture installation by Karla Black called “Make Yourself Necessary.” Also made in 2012, the sculpture hangs from the ceiling and is composed of cellophane, sprinkled with a pale pink dust.
The Guggenheim bought the works with the help of its Young Collectors Council Acquisitions Committee, a group of museum members between ages 21 and 40 that focuses on acquiring the work of emerging artists. According to the Guggenheim, fundraising by the Young Collectors Council has helped the museum buy more than 120 pieces of artwork over the past 15 years.
The museum did not say how much the latest three acquisitions cost.
The three new pieces are not yet on display at the museum, a Guggenheim representative said.