Prints “throw open to their student with the most complete abandon the whole gamut of human life and endeavor, from the most ephemeral of courtesies to the loftiest pictorial presentation of man’s spiritual aspirations,” declared William M. Ivins (1881-1961), founding curator of the Metropolitan Museum’s Department of Prints, soon after assuming that position in 1916. The Power of Prints commemorates the centennial of the department by celebrating the astounding legacy of Ivins, and his protégé A. Hyatt Mayor (26.01.2016 - 22.05.2016).
By drawing on the department’s own vast holdings, the exhibition and its accompanying catalogue reveal how, from the very beginning, Ivins and Mayor artfully composed the print collection to be like a library—a corpus of works (not all distinctly masterful) that describes in the most comprehensive way humanity’s aspirations. (Text: Metropolitan Museum of Art)