As the MA cohort in charge of the sixth edition of MA in Art History Presents, we were invited to curate a selection of prints from Columbia’s Art Properties collection. This collection includes hundreds of prints spanning five centuries and reflecting many different techniques. While the majority of these works were created by artists active in Europe and North America, the collection also includes significant holdings of Japanese woodblock prints. Considering our limited time, we worked from a preselection of about fifty prints. After having examined this preselection, each of us chose one print of personal interest to include in the exhibition. The resulting seventeen prints constituted our checklist.

There are always multiple perspectives through which to view an assembled group of objects. Working either individually or in small groups, the class presented and discussed ten curatorial proposals. Rather than the materialization of a single proposal, the final exhibition and display draw on ideas addressed across proposals, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; the specificity of the print medium; the presence of the human figure in the works; and the imbalance in the artistic traditions represented.

We are aware that our exhibition presents only one way to curate the seventeen prints and that many other curatorial approaches exist. To emphasize this, we include below an example of an alternative display, organized in a four-part examination of the representation of the body—a theme that several of the students’ proposals discussed.

We also invite you to use the comment box to share any other connections—formal, thematic, contextual, or otherwise—that you may see between the prints.

The Ideal Body

The Body at Work

The Body at Rest

The Performing Body