In 1951, Alicia Penalba created her first abstract sculpture, abandoning figural representation and her previous body of work. This bronze is representative of Penalba’s mature style, characterized by harmonious balance, upward growth, and rhythmic, gestural lines.

In 1985 the Dallas Museum of Art received a one-of-a-kind gift of more than 1,400 works from philanthropist Wendy Reves in honor of her late husband, Emery, establishing the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection. In addition to a world-renowned assemblage of impressionist, post-impressionist, and modern paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, her donation of European decorative arts, the area of her particular personal interest, founded the institution's collection in that field.

Following models painted by members of the international avant-garde, Rufino Tamayo treats his female nudes in neither a picturesque nor blatantly erotic manner. In this painting of three young women, the artist uses strong linear definition, juxtaposed with dramatic shifts in color blocking, in order to capture the movement and musculature of women jumping rope.