The Graphic Arts Loan Collection at UC Berkeley: 50 Years

June 14–August 3, 2008

For half a century, the Morrison Library's unique graphic arts loan program has been bringing original art to students. We celebrate the program's anniversary with prints by masters from Rembrandt to Matisse, once in the loan collection and now held by BAMPFA.

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Rembrandt van Rijn: Clement de Jonghe, Bookseller, 1651; etching; 6-1/4 x 8-1/2 in.; transferred from the Graphic Arts Loan Collection, the General Library, University of California, Berkeley.

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The Graphic Arts Loan Collection at UC Berkeley: 50 Years

June 14–August 3, 2008

The UC Berkeley Library celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of its renowned Graphic Arts Loan Collection with this exhibition in the Theater Gallery. The works on view, now held at BAM, were once part of a unique collection of original lithographs, etchings, engravings, and other works of art loaned to students from the Morrison Library on campus, distinguishing Berkeley as the only university library with an art-lending program. The collection began in 1958 under the direction of Professor Herwin Schaefer, who believed that the best way to foster an appreciation of art is for students to live with original prints for a semester. He declared that the University could assemble a collection of works touched by the hand of the artist and make them available to students, providing a meaningful extension of the University's art teaching program. Funding for the nucleus of the collection was provided by the Columbia Foundation and the International Graphic Arts Society, and the works themselves made up a survey of art movements and artists-from Impressionism to Cubism, and from Rembrandt to Miro. Since its inception, more than 500 works have been added to the Graphic Arts Loan Collection through the generosity of individual donors. These works include prints by Chagall, Matisse, and Kandinsky, some of which are now too valuable to circulate. It may surprise you to see what UC Berkeley students once hung on their dormitory walls.

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