Printed Stories

Printed Stories presents a selection of modern and contemporary prints from the Anderson Collection of Graphic Arts into which narratives — whether or not they were intended by the artists — might be read or construed. Through the artists’ textual and visual prompts, the exhibition encourages the viewer’s imagination to roam freely, filling in the narrative spaces suggested by the prints on view.

Some works in Printed Stories by such artists as Christopher Brown, David Gilhooly, and Saul Steinberg are left open to narrative interpretation through evocative imagery and provocative titling. Other artists, including Nathan Oliveira and Ben Shahn, drew inspiration from literary texts, creating direct or indirect connections, both representative and abstract, to works by Edgar Allan Poe and Rainer Maria Rilke, respectively. Selections by Jennifer Bartlett and Vija Celmins, despite familiar iconography, remain open to personal readings due in part to unexpected juxtapositions.

Exhibition overview from museum website