The committment to fulfilling the building of the Muscarelle collection in meaningful and strategic ways has continued due, in a large part, to generous donations and gifts from various foundations and individuals who support the mission of the Museum. Some of these gifts are from wonderful alums and others from generous people who are engaged by the Muscarelle and its exhibitions and programs. In the end, the goal of the Museum is to have people engage with original works of art and that spark of engagment that might just change a life.
Over the past five years the Museum has seen unprecedented growth in membership, attendance, and collections. Since 2005, just over six hundred works of art have been added to the collection, which now includes more than 4,500 paintings, drawings, prints, and photographs. Recent acquisitions to the collection of the Museum include: 195 works on paper by master artist from the Bauhaus, German Expressionist Hans Grohs; fifty-five Japanese woodblock prints; 153 works from The Andy Warhol Foundation of Visual Arts; and works by Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt, Pablo Picasso, Käthe Kollwitz, Georges Rouault, Samuel F.B. Morse, and the great Italian Baroque artist Ludovico Cigoli. The Rembrandt etching is the first in the collection of the Muscarelle, and the Dürer and Picasso join only one or two others currently in the Museum. To venture into a new realm, the very limited edition digital print, or electronic painting The Atelier, by David Hockney, represents a contemporary update of a realistic subject of the nineteenth century. Together, the works by Rembrandt, Dürer, and Hockney represent some of the most important additions to the Museum collection.
To highlight these new acquisitions, the Muscarelle Museum of Art presents Dürer, Rembrandt, Picasso, and Hockney and More New Acquisitions 2005-2010 on view November 6, 2010 through December 31, 2010. This exhibition features approximately eighty of the more than six hundred new acquisitions of the Museum within the past five years.
In connection with the recent American Association of Museum re-accrediation self-study, the professional staff of the Museum wanted to focus their attention inward, particularly on the collection of the Museum. One goal of the professional staff was to curate an exhibition that would allow the public to share new works in the collection that have never been displayed. The new acquisitions exhibition will feature works that have never been exhibited, and consist of the largest portion of the collection ever on display at one time.
These acquisitions reflect an effort by the Museum to create a more well-rounded collection. Aaron De Groft, Director of the Muscarelle Museum of Art, commented on the exhibition, ”The professional staff of the Museum has focused on building the collection by diversifying our holdings of several key genres and key works by master artists. The recent acquisitions reflect a mission driven approach to be a leader in art exploration at William & Mary and the surrounding community, and to support the teaching areas in the breadth of what is offered at William & Mary in not just the department of Art and Art History, but across all the arts and sciences.”
The Muscarelle Museum of Art is located on Jamestown Road on the campus of The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. The Museum is open from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 12:00 noon until 4:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The Museum is closed on Mondays. Docent tours are available at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, Sundays, and other times as announced. Admission to the Museum is $5.00 and during special exhibitions, there is an admission fee of $10.00. Admission is free for Museum members, The College of William & Mary faculty, staff, and students, and children under twelve. For more information about this exhibit or the Museum in general, please call 757-221-2700 or visit www.wm.edu/muscarelle.