Made up of four installations which encompass prints, drawings, and books, this permanent collection exhibition explores art as both a craft and as a means for responding to pressing historical events and dire life circumstances. 

 

Staged in conjunction with America 250 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the installation Luminous Visions: Turn-of-the-Century American Watercolor celebrates the efflorescence of watercolor painting beginning in the post-Civil War period. Similarly centered on a specific medium, Shimmer focuses on graphite, demonstrating how contemporary artists have embraced this soft, black, lustrous form of carbon for its aesthetic versatility.

 

Do No Harm: Artists Confront Health Crises presents works in which artists engage with health emergencies both personal and public, showing how art can serve as medicine for individuals and societies. Finally, Dream Strange and Clear: The Art of James Reaben features Reabens’s last great project, the series Death Threats, highlighting the artist's unique vision and resolve to continue creating during the final months before AIDS claimed his life at the age of 33.

 

The department of prints and drawings highlights its range of works on paper by artists from the 19th through the 21st centuries in two yearly rotations located in the Peter C. Marzio Gallery in the Kinder Building.