Dürer and His Time features works by the renowned German painter and printmaker Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) and select peer artists from the Davison Art Collection, researched by Wesleyan students in the course ARHA 263C “Curatorial Workshop: The Northern Renaissance Print,” taught by Assistant Professor of Art History Joseph Salvatore Ackley and organized in coordination with the Donald T. Fallati and Ruth E. Pachman Curator of the Davison Art Collection Miya Tokumitsu.

The flourishing of the print stands as one of the defining hallmarks of the Northern Renaissance. Northern Europe in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries witnessed such major historical events as the Protestant Reformation, the spread of Italian humanism, and the steady rise and circulation of printed books and printed images. Leading artists of the time, including Albrecht Dürer, Lucas van Leyden, Albrecht Altdorfer, and Lucas Cranach, explored and pushed this exciting new technology in multiple directions. The Northern Renaissance print became in turn a key site for new modes of artistry, devotion, and artmaking writ large. Dürer and His Time gathers a selection of works from these figures to help examine this pivotal moment of the Western tradition.

The Davison Art Collection holds more than 25,000 works of art on paper, including prints, photographs, and drawings. The print collection is one of the foremost at a college or university in the United States. Wesleyan students examined and researched the works in this exhibition, as well as other works of the collection, over the course of the semester-long curatorial workshop.

Read Students Research Works in Davison Art Collection for New Print Exhibition in The Wesleyan Connection.

Opening Reception: Tuesday, March 26, 2024 at 4:30pm.

The Dürer and His Time exhibition will be closed from Saturday, May 18 through Thursday, May 23, 2024.

The exhibition will be open for Reunion and Commencement Weekend on Friday, May 24 and Saturday, May 25, 2024 from 12:30pm to 4:30pm.

Air Pressure is an exhibition that explores the representation of air in print. Working with the airless processes of printmaking, which require direct contact between a printing matrix and paper, artists have continually discovered new ways of achieving a variety of atmospheric effects in their work, from glowing clouds to changing weather systems. The exhibition features artworks spanning six centuries from the Davison Art Collection, including works by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669), Yvonne Jacquette (1934–2023), Stow Wengenroth (1906–1978), and James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903).

In the works on view in Air Pressure, unmarked expanses of paper, organized systems of lines, and translucent veils of ink left on printing plates take their turns infusing printed compositions with air. The prints also express artists’ fascination with air’s diverse qualities and changeable nature. Two prints by Félix-Hilaire Buhot (1847–1898) evoke the bracing contact between skin and air in compositions depicting a frigid winter morning and pedestrians buffeted by gales of wind. Wengenroth crafts atmospheres that are balmy yet refreshing in another pair of works portraying mild summer days. A selection of aerial views from five different centuries demonstrates artists’ longstanding interest in situating spectators in the air, and another selection of works examines darker manifestations of air as mediums for pollution, explosions, and stenches.

Read New Pruzan Art Center to Showcase Two Exhibitions from Davison Art Collection in The Wesleyan Connection.

Opening Reception: Wednesday, February 14, 2024 at 4:30pm.

The Air Pressure exhibition will be closed from Saturday, March 9 through Sunday, March 24, 2024; and from Saturday, May 18 through Thursday, May 23, 2024.

The exhibition will be open for Reunion and Commencement Weekend on Friday, May 24 and Saturday, May 25, 2024 from 12:30pm to 4:30pm.