Since the founding of the Davison Art Center in 1952, the collection has grown from approximately 6,000 prints to more than 24,000 objects. This exhibition showcased more than 50 works acquired in the last five years, including prints by contemporary artists Ellen Gallagher and Nicola López, photographs by modernist masters Harry Callahan and Alfred Stieglitz, and prints from the 16th to the 19th centuries.

In Half-Life No. 5, 2007, Nicola López (American, born 1975) takes elements of contemporary technology and transforms them into strange landscapes. The machinery would seem apocalyptic, but the vibrant colors and energy of the composition suggest a playfulness and hope amid the post-industrial waste. Lopez works with woodblock and lithographic prints on Mylar, which she cuts into collage elements and arranges on a white background to create each individual work.

Mary Cassatt (American, 1844-1926), Sunlight and Shadow,1879, soft-ground etching. Magdalena Wagner Fund, 2008 (photo: R. J. Phil)

Mary Cassatt (American, 1844-1926) showed little interest in printmaking until 1879, when her fellow Impressionist, Edgar Degas, proposed a new print journal, Le Jour et la nuit. Working in Degas's studio, she explored texture and light, producing experimental prints such as the rare soft-ground etching, Sunlight and Shadow, ca. 1879. Although the journal was never published, Cassatt had discovered printmaking, a medium in which she made striking innovations in the following decades.

These and many more exciting new acquisitions were on display for the fall semester.