Albion College Art Collection

The Albion College Art Collection includes 2,500 fine prints and over 500 art objects from around the world. The fine print collection dates from the 15th century and includes work by Rembrandt, Durer, Hogarth, Cezanne, Degas, Picasso, Grant Wood, Rouault, Hiroshige, Quick-to-See-Smith, Dine, Hockney, and Rauschenberg. The art and artifact collection is strong in Arts and Crafts glass and pottery, North American Indian, and arts from across Asia.

These collections are used extensively by faculty in and outside of the Art and Art History Department. Native American Art and The History of Prints are two courses that focus on pieces from our collection and allow students first-hand access to pieces. Student research and writing have formed the basis of several publications; the most recent is Images of Women (PDF, 3.7 MB); others include Philip C. Curtis Sound and Silence, and H. C. Westermann: Tradition and Resistance. Many pieces from the collection have been the subject of student honors theses or individual research projects.

Art from the collection has comprised exhibitions at Albion and beyond, including "African Art: Ritual, Power, Life, Sound," "Silence: the Art of Philip Curtis, Restoration, Contemporary Prints," and the 2012 exhibition "Native American Art." Prints are regularly exhibited in the Martha Dickinson Gallery, often highlighting areas of special strengths and reinforcing existing courses . The exhibitions "The Political in Print," "Images of Women," "The Language of Landscape," "American Prints from 1900-1950," and "Japanese Prints from the Edo Period" have supported courses including "Art as Political Action," "Women in Art," "American Art," and "The History of Prints."