Visually stunning, thought-provoking, and wide-ranging, Europe on Paper: The Ernst Pulgram and Frances McSparran Collection features forty-seven works on paper—drawings, prints, and watercolors from the eighteenth to the twentieth century—that focus on the expressive capacities of line and its ability to articulate the seen and unseen. Showcased are some important twentieth-century Austrian and German expressionist artists, including Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Ernst Kirchner, and Oskar Kokoschka, who paved the way for future generations of the avant-garde, and the Italian Giovanni Battista Piranesi, one of the most inventive draftsmen and printmakers of the eighteenth century. The works in this multi-faceted collection capture artistic compulsions and creative responses to the physical and spiritual world, from tangled, emotionally embroiled nudes to meticulous landscapes and architectural vistas. This exemplary gift from late U-M professor emeritus Ernst Pulgram and his wife, associate professor emerita and chief editor of the Middle English Compendium, Frances McSparran, offers a glimpse into the rich history of European graphic art.
Lead support for Europe on Paper: The Ernst Pulgram and Frances McSparran Collection is provided by the Richard and Rosann Noel Endowment Fund. Additional generous support is provided by the University of Michigan Department of English Language and Literature and Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.
Images
Oskar Kokoschka, Cruci xion, 1958, watercolor on paper. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Gift of the Ernst Pulgram and Frances McSparran Collection, 2007/2.90
Otto Dix, The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne (Anna Selbdritt), 1914, charcoal on ready brown wove paper. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Gift of the Ernst Pulgram and Frances McSparran Collection, 2007/2.92
Ernst Kirchner, In the Restaurant, 1903, ink on cream wove paper. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Gift of the Ernst Pulgram and Frances McSparran Collection, 2007/2.98
Egon Schiele, Standing Female Nude–Back, rst quarter of 20th century, charcoal and pen on paper. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Gift of the Ernst Pulgram and Frances McSparran Collection, 2007/2.99
Emil Nolde, Actress, 1912, watercolor on brown wove medium-weight paper. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Gift of the Ernst Pulgram and Frances McSparran Collection, 2007/2.102
Giovanni Battista Piranesi, The Senate and People of Rome: The marble monuments of the magistrates and triumphant generals of Rome from the founding of the city to the time of divine Augustus, excavated from the rubble of the Forum and placed on the Capitoline Hill at the expense of Alessandro Farnese, grandson of Pope Paul III from Capitoline Stones (1762), 1762, engraving printed in black ink on paper. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Gift
of the Ernst Pulgram and Frances McSparran Collection, 2007/2.117