Welcome to Your Art Museum 

June 22, 2011

"Every visit to the Art Museum offers an opportunity to make new discoveries or to visit old friends."

This is how Museum Director James Steward presents the Princeton University Art Museum in an insightful new video. Follow the link to learn more about this extraordinary museum--which, as Steward points out, has one of the greatest collections of any university.

Final Days

Kurt Schwitters: Color and Collage

Closes Sunday, June 26

Don't miss your chance to see Kurt Schwitters:
Color and Collage before it closes! The exhibition--hailed by The New York Times as "a gift of a show,"--provides an unparalleled opportunity to experience Schwitters' artistic experiments in depth, including a full-scale reconstruction of his walk-in sculptural environment, known as the Merzbau, never before seen in this region.

New on View

After touring with The Fiery Pool: The Maya and the Mythic Sea, organized by the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., this Late Classic plate is back on view at the Museum. The Maya believed  all people were made from maize; therefore, the maize god--depicted here in a resurrection scene--was one of their most important deities. Explore this and other stories of the ancient Maya in the art of the ancient Americas galleries on the Museum's lower level.

Must See in the Museum

"As much as possible, I have devoted my life to the appreciation, study, and teaching of art and literature; to those pursuits I must add, and with equal conviction, collecting."

-Charles A. Ryskamp

The galleries of earlier European art are newly installed with a rich selection from the group of 35 exceptional European prints bequeathed to the Museum by Charles A. Ryskamp (1928-2010). This beloved professor and eminent scholar of English literature was a world-renowned museum director and a long-standing member of the Art Museum's Advisory Council. Discover the eye of an extraordinary collector, and a few treasures of the world of printmaking.

Become a Friend

Enhance your art experience right here in Princeton by gaining more access to "all things Museum" than ever before! Join our extended family by becoming a Friend and enjoy a range of benefits designed to keep you in the know. You will receive a subscription to the Museum's quarterly magazine and invitations to exhibition openings, lectures, travel opportunities, and lively social gatherings. Participate actively in the life of the Museum, while supporting our exceptional educational and outreach programs. Join today!

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Highlights  

MEMORY AND THE WORK OF ART is a collaborative investigation into the relationship between the arts and cultural memory.

Cartographies of Time, June 25-September 18

The Life and Death of Buildings, July 23-November 6 

Credits (top to bottom):

Princeton University Art Museum. Photo: Bruce M. White.

James Steward, Director, Photo: Andrea Kane  

Peter Bissegger, Swiss, born 1932: Reconstruction of Kurt Schwitters's Merzbau, original Merzbau ca. 1930-37, destroyed 1943, reconstruction 1981-83. Sprengel Museum Hannover/ photo Michael Herling / Aline Gwose © 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ProLitteris, Zürich. 

Maya, Petén, Guatemala, Late Classic, A.D. 600-800: plate with maize god resurrection scene. Ceramic with polychrome slip, h. 11.4 cm., diam. 37.5 cm. Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund (1997-465). Photo: Bruce M. White.

Joseph Mallord William Turner, British, 1775-1851: Shields Lighthouse, 1820-30. Mezzotint, 14.6 x 21 cm. Bequest of Charles A. Ryskamp (2010-168).

2011 Communiversity

Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Reproduction of all images is prohibited by copyright laws and international conventions without written permission from the copyright holder. © 2011 Princeton University Art Museum