Living & Arts

Assessing the value of the Tri-Co’s art collections

In print | March 19, 2009

When Brandeis University announced last January that it would be dismantling its Rose Gallery and auctioning off all 6,000 works it held, donor Lois Foster likened the decision to a suicide. A New York Times article on the incident commented, “It’s hard to think of a comparably destructive — and self-destructive — move in the art world today.” Why did this small Bostonian university’s decision incite such widespread outrage?

Perhaps because a college’s art collection attests to how the institution values art as a discipline, and moreover, perhaps academia’s appraisal of the discipline indicates art’s place in society. The breadth, depth and intelligence of a college’s collection can attest to its commitment to the history and development of art and culture. Fortunately, each of the colleges in the Tri-College Consortium of Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr and Haverford boasts an impressive commitment to the visual arts, evidenced in their collections and galleries.

Bryn Mawr claims 280 paintings, 750 sculptures, 7,000 prints, 1,500 drawings and 15,000 photographs. Most prominent in the college’s painting collection is a portrait of president M. Carey Thomas which, according to Bryn Mawr’s official publication concerning its art collection, “was awarded the Grand Prix at the Universal Exposition of 1900.” The painting collection, understandably, emphasizes 19th and 20th century American works; however, the college’s overall repertoire is also rich in works from other cultures, as M. Carey Thomas and donor Mary Garrett assembled and donated many works from their travels in Europe and Asia, contributing substantially to Bryn Mawr’s Decorative Arts collection. Its 7,000 prints encompass the 15th century through the present and include works by Rembrandt, Durer and Mary Cassatt, along with 300 Japanese woodblock prints. Its photography collection contains, the publication reads, “works spanning the history of photography, including a significant collection of documentary photographs from the 1860s to 1900, optical devices of the 19th century, and art photography of the 20th century.”

Unique to Bryn Mawr is its collection of archeological and anthropological artifacts. According to Bryn Mawr’s publication on its art collection, “In 1896, Bryn Mawr College established one of the first independent archaeology departments in America and from its early years the faculty emphasized the study of artifacts.” Since then, professors and benefactors have continued to donate artifacts like black and red figure painted vases and Native American art to the collections.

This inventory proves useful for staging exhibitions — two were held during the fall of 2008 in Bryn Mawr’s Carpenter Library — and for classroom purposes. Bryn Mawr utilizes web-based and physical exhibits in multiple history, art history, and classics classes to enrich reading and lecture material.

Haverford is home to a similarly impressive collection. The college owns, according to its website, “hundreds of art prints by such artists as Cezanne, Hiroshige, Kandinsky, Miro, Piranesi and Picasso and paintings by Cornelius DeMann Delft, Egbert van Heemskerk, Maxfield Parrish and Charles Willson Peale as well as works of sculpture and artifacts both ancient and modern.” These sculptures and artifacts range from Greek artifacts dating back to ca. 1300 B.C., to artifacts from a dig at Beth Shemesh, Palestine under the direction of Haverford professor Elihu Grant, to the eyeglasses of T. Wistar Brown.

Additionally, the college’s photography collection contains approximately 3,000 images, including daguerreotypes, printed photographs and digital images.

This collection is often displayed in public exhibitions. Diana Peterson, the college’s manuscripts librarian and college archivist, co-curated a show in Magill Library called “Revealed,” featuring 60 works. When asked by a colleague if “a show on this level could be repeated,” Peterson said in an official statement, “Spanning many centuries and cultures, the show includes prints and paintings by artists such as Peter Paul Rubens, Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Joan Miro and Haverford’s own Maxfield Parrish, artifacts from ancient Greece and Africa, as well as a rich selection of photography including prints by Walker Evans, Diane Arbus and Andres Serrano.”

Swarthmore’s collection directors were able to comment only briefly on the college’s collection. Constance Hungerford, provost and professor of art history, cites paintings of Benjamin West and Edward Hicks as especially prominent samples from the college’s relatively small collection which also contains, according to Swarthmore’s Department of Art website, more than 250,000 slide and digital images spanning the course of art history. However, the institution boasts its commitment to visual art in other ways, specifically in the active Kitao and List galleries. The List gallery exhibits works year-round from mainly, though not exclusively, emerging contemporary artists. Additionally, every spring, the gallery features an exhibit of senior Art majors’ and minors’ work. The Kitao operates similarly and had great success with its recent “Transgender Photo Narratives” exhibit, in which Arthur Robinson Williams discussed the process of making “My Right Self,” a documentary on people in the Philadelphia area who identify as transgender.