Future Exhibitions
Not / Finished: Working Proofs and Cancellation Prints
James McNeill Whistler, "Nocturne," 1879–1880. From the suite "Venice, a Series of Twelve Etchings." Etching printed from cancelled plate. Davison Art Collection, Wesleyan University. Gift of George W. Davison (BA Wesleyan 1892), 1947.D1.292.1 (Photo: T. Rodriguez).This exhibition features prints that cannot be characterized as conventionally finished. Some are experimental working proofs, or prints struck from partially completed matrices so that artists could gauge the progress of their work. Others are so-called cancellation prints, or impressions taken from cancelled matrices, deliberately defaced by their artists. A relatively modern practice, matrix cancellation limits the size of a print’s edition (the number of impressions printed from a matrix); it also prevents unsanctioned printings from a matrix. Working proofs and cancellation prints have come to be valued by both collectors and museums as records of an artist’s entire process, and frequently as aesthetically pleasing objects in their own right. On view are prints by Jean-François Millet (1814–1875), James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903), Glenn Ligon ’82, Hon. ’12 (b. 1960), and others. All works from the Davison Art Collection, Wesleyan University.
Curated by Miya Tokumitsu, Donald T. Fallati and Ruth E. Pachman Curator of the Davison Art Collection.
Gallery hours: Tuesday through Saturday from 12:30pm to 4:30pm.
This exhibition will be closed from Saturday, March 7 through Monday, March 23, 2026
Looking Inward: The Interior as Subject
Peter Ilsted, "The Red Room," 1915. Mezzotint printed in colors. Davison Art Collection, Wesleyan University. Magdalena Wagner Fund, 2023.1.1 (Photo: J. Giammatteo).Visualizing the interior, both material and subjective, has long been a source of fascination for artists. The desire to see, and especially to show, what is typically unseen and private aligns with the aims of visual communication to display and to reveal. Viewing interiors also satisfies the spectator’s desire to look beyond, or beneath, the surface. Both actual interiors and depictions of them are frequently taken as externalizations of a person’s psychic state, or at least their personal taste. These themes and potentialities of interiors emerge in the works in the exhibition Looking Inward: The Interior as Subject, all of which are invitations to look inside and within. This exhibition of prints and photographs features artwork by Édouard Manet, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Carrie Mae Weems, Joel Meyerowitz, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, and many others.
Curated by Miya Tokumitsu, Donald T. Fallati and Ruth E. Pachman Curator of the Davison Art Collection.
Gallery hours: Tuesday through Saturday from 12:30pm to 4:30pm.
This exhibition will be closed from Saturday, March 7 through Monday, March 23, 2026