Current Features

Collecting great works of art on a professor’s salary may sound like a fairy tale. But Ernst Pulgram, professor of romance and classical linguistics at the University of Michigan from 1948 until his retirement in 1986, did just that, acquiring works by some of the most currently sought after artists of the twentieth-century. Together with his wife Frances McSparran, UM associate professor and chief editor of the Middle English Compendium, Pulgram built one of the most personal and exhilarating collections of Austrian and German Expressionist art to be found in private hands. Before his death in 2005, Professor Pulgram shared his longtime wish for this remarkable group of more than 40 drawings, paintings on paper, and several prints to remain at Michigan, and the Museum of Art is honored to announce this extraordinary donation by an extraordinary couple. ...continued

The University of Michigan Museum of Art is pleased to announce the appointment of Jacob Proctor as the new Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. Jacob is currently a Curatorial Fellow at the Harvard University Art Museums, and is completing his doctorate in modern and contemporary art at Harvard. His museum experience includes the organization of several exhibitions, including most recently Multiple Strategies: Beuys, Maciunas, Fluxus, presented to critical acclaim at the Busch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard earlier this year. Proctor joins the UMMA staff in September. ...continued

Devoted UMMA supporters and major African art collectors Robert M. and Lillian Montalto Bohlen of Brighton, Michigan, have generously donated a magisterial Urhobo maternity figure from the Niger Delta region of West Africa to the Museum. Carved in wood and over five feet high, this arresting free-standing piece portrays a woman of titled rank, possibly a queen, seated on a stool, breastfeeding her baby. Other standout details include an elaborate ceremonial hairstyle known as ibgetou worn by important women in the society; ...continued

With the goal of transforming the public environment of its Ann Arbor campus, and integrating the visual arts more fully with its educational and research mission, the University of Michigan has for the first time established a President’s Advisory Committee on Public Art. The standing committee, appointed by U-M President Mary Sue Coleman, is composed of faculty, administrators, and staff across campus with a wide range of expertise and perspectives ...continued