Untitled, 1950   Ink, wax, watercolor on cut-out paper   29.25 x 22"   Ossorio Foundation, Southampton, NY

When artist Alfonso Ossorio died at the age of 74 on December 5th, 1990, he left behind a remarkable legacy of art, diaries, photographs, letters and other historic materials documenting a lifetime of artistic and cultural activity. Ossorio is well known for his assemblages of objects made between 1958 and 1984, which he called "Congregations," as well as his works on paper and paintings from the 1930s through 1990.

Alfonso Ossorio is regarded as an important colleague of Jean Dubuffet, and Jackson Pollock. He was an early collector of their work, as well as the work of Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner and Clyfford Still, among others. Ossorio acquired The Creeks, a 60 acre estate designed by Grosvenor Atterbury on Georgica Pond in East Hampton, NY from the Herter family in 1952. In the upper rooms of the Italianate mansion, Ossorio maintained and exhibited Dubuffet's collecion of outsider art, called L'Art Brut, from 1952 to 1962. The Creeks called by the American Conifer Society "the eighth wonder of the horticultural world," was widely admired for the sculpture park and conifer arboretum that Ossorio created and developed from 1970 until his passing in 1990.

Edward F. Dragon, the heir to Ossorio's Estate, has established the Ossorio Foundation dedication to educating the public on the life and work of Alfonso Angel Ossorio Y Yangco. The Foundation received its not-for-profit status 501 (c) (3) on June 8th, 1995. the Ossorio Foundation has three aspects of operation:

1. The Collection
   
2. Exhibition and Study
   
3. Documentation