A Passion for Collecting: Prints of the 1960s and ’70s from the Collins Collection

November 13, 2010 - January 2, 2011

A passion and an eye for art may be found unexpectedly. This exhibition features an extraordinary collection of prints assembled over two decades through the devotion of a working class couple from Michigan. Charles and Charlotte Collins discovered a passion for contemporary art and through careful budgeting, gradually surrounded themselves with works on paper by artists now widely recognized as giants of 20th century art: Josef Albers, Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Frank Stella, and others. The works in this exhibition capture the vibrancy of the emerging abstract movements during this time, including Minimalism, Op Art, and Expressionism. The collection, built piece by piece by a couple of modest means, is in itself a work of art-a testament to the passion Charles and Charlotte Collins felt for the art of their time.

The exhibition has been drawn from the Charles and Charlotte Collins Collection, a gift of 80 prints that came to the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts in 2008 as a bequest of Charlotte Collins. This remarkable gift of prints (50 of which are on view) has greatly enhanced the KIA’s collection of works on paper. Guest curated by Joisan Decker of Mattawan, this exhibition is the first time these works have been shown in Kalamazoo.

Richard Anuszkiewicz, Blake's Eve, 1970, screentprint
Lee Bontecou, Etching One, 1967, etching Piero Dorazio Fenice, 1968, aquatint Helen Frankenthaler, Solarium, 1964, lithograph Adolph Gottlieb, Blue Disc on Green Ground, 1966, screenprint