The Pulteney St. Survey

PULTENEY STREET SURVEY - SPRING 2017

“Elbow Lake” (left) and “Violent Turn” (1977), mixed media prints by James Rosenquist, were given to the Colleges by Mr. and Mrs. William E. Welsh Jr. P’84. The Collections, which include works by Mary Cassatt, Norman Rockwell, Toshi Yoshida and Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, have benefited greatly from the support of individuals like Dr. George N. Abraham '59, Clarence "Dave" Davis Jr. '48, Theodore C. '50 and Melva Max '50, P'78, P'80, Trustee Chair Emeritus L. Thomas Melly '52, L.H.D. '02, Robert and Marion de Mauriac North '32, L.H.D. ’78, Edward T. Pollack '55 and Richard A. Scudamore '55.

Collections of Hobart and William Smith Colleges

The Collections of Hobart and William Smith Colleges contain many original works of art and are particularly strong in works on paper from the 19th through the 21st centuries.

Many works are periodically displayed throughout campus, including at The Davis Gallery, The Thomas Poole Family Admissions Center, the Melly Academic Center, Rosensweig Learning Commons and the Gearan Center for the Performing Arts, before returning to the Collections for preservation.

Students actively participate in all aspects of collection management, learning museum standards of art handling and registration, assisting with the installation of exhibitions and campus displays, as well as conducting research for curatorial purposes and educational programs.

“Soon after Mark started in 1999, he invited me to campus to have lunch. He knew I collected art and wanted my opinion on the holdings of the Colleges. We sat in the old café at Scandling Campus Center. Across from our table was the condiment station – ketchup, napkins, trash bins. Above it was a Rosenquist. Mark asked me, “Do you think that Rosenquist should be hanging above the mustard?” That question started my journey to get many of the pieces in the collection archivally framed and conserved so they would be appreciated by others for generations. Over the past 18 years, we’ve worked with Visual Arts Curator Kathryn Vaughn P'08 and several alums to assess the Collections, restore unframed lithographs and prints, and acquire several original pieces of art. Some of the works that the Colleges own are extraordinary. Mark has made sure that these pieces will survive and be viewed. In his quiet way, he pulled the arts forward – both the visual arts and the performing arts through the Gearan Center. Now, that Rosenquist definitely does not hang over the mustard.”

—Dr. George N. Abraham ’59, Professor Emeritus of Medicine, and Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Rochester