Beginning in March 2000, the Harvard University Art Museums have embarked on a year-long, multi-gallery program of exhibitions showcasing recent additions to the collections. From Old Master drawings to the sculpture of Richard Tuttle, these shows will allow visitors the unique opportunity to view a broad spectrum of works of art, and will offer a rare glimpse into the collecting practices of a major teaching and research museum.

Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997), Sea and Sky, 1967. Screen print, 42.3 cm. x 54.5 cm. Gift of the artist

A Decade of Collecting: Recent Acquisitions of Prints and Drawings is split into two parallel parts. Works dating from 1480–1940 will be shown March 25 – June 18, 2000, in the Fogg Art Museum; Works dating from 1940–Present will be shown June 3–August 27, 2000, in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum.

These exhibitions will showcase a wide array of important works. The drawings component includes selections from the Maida and George Abrams Collection of 17th-century Dutch drawings. This major 1999 gift includes masterpieces by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Rembrandt van Rijn, Hendrick Goltzius and Jacques de Gheyn II, and made the Fogg Art Museum’s collection of Dutch drawings the most comprehensive in the U.S. The late Lois Orswell gave and bequeathed modern and postwar masterpieces by Georges Seurat, Pablo Picasso, Arshile Gorky, David Smith, Franz Kline, and Willem de Kooning, among others, selections of which will also be presented. The prints component of the exhibitions highlight works acquired through the Margaret Fisher Fund, which was endowed to support the acquisition of modern and contemporary works, as well as works acquired through a fund endowed by an anonymous donor to support acquisitions of works older than 150 years. These two funds continue to help the Print Department fill specific gaps in the collection, and works including Rembrandt’s Hog and Rauschenberg’s Booster will be presented to highlight these acquisitions.

The Harvard University Art Museums’ print collection is the largest and best of any university collection in this country. It is particularly strong in old master etchings, engravings, and woodcuts, with extensive representation of masters such as the early Italian engravers, Schongauer, Dürer, Rembrandt, Ostade, Castiglione, Ribera, Testa, Canaletto, and Goya. It also encompasses one of the best collections in the country of reproductive engravings of the 16th to 19th centuries.

The drawings collection is among the most important collections in this country and is the finest and most comprehensive of any university art museum in the U.S. Unusual in its breadth and depth, it combines major masterpieces from the American and principal European schools with large numbers of works of secondary and tertiary significance. A balanced representation of the art of many periods and schools greatly enhances the teaching and research potential of the collection.