Selections from the Permanent Collection

May 25 - September 5, 2010

This exhibition features nearly 100 paintings, drawings, prints, mixed media works, and ceramics by 88 artists. Though most of the work was created during the 20th century, the time span ranges from 1738 through 2008. Many of the artworks included have not been on display in decades.

The scale and selection of this exhibition presented a unique curatorial opportunity to arrange works of art by theme, genre, color, and composition, rather than by historical period or style. Some groupings are obvious, as seen in an entire wall of depictions of men, opposite one solely of women. Others are more allusive, such as a tiny Sanskrit manuscript paired with an abstract drawing composed of typewritten letters.

Prints by famous artists including Picasso, Goya, Rauschenberg, Goya, Dalí, Kollwitz, and Warhol, are interspersed with work by lesser known artists like Chicago surrealist painter Gertrude Abercrombie, and photographer Britten Traughber, a 2010 graduate of the School of Art's M.F.A. program.