DePauw Art Collection

On This Page You Will Find:
DePauw Art Collection
The Peripheral Manuscripts Project
African Art
American Art  
Asian Art
Modern and Contemporary Art


DePauw Art Collection

The University’s permanent art collection contains over 3,700 objects, with strong holdings in Indiana "Hoosier Group" paintings and works on paper, Japanese and Tibetan art, and anthropological artifacts from Africa and South America. The collection serves students and faculty by providing access to original artwork and objects for student curated exhibitions, object-based research projects, and classroom discussion.

To view online catalogs* of select works, click here to visit the Collector Systems database.

*Please note: the online catalogs contains a majority of the collection excluding photography. Please contact Christie Anderson for a more detailed inventory.

Object Highlights from the Collection

John Wesley Hardrick (1891-1968), Summer Landscape, 1911-1968
Robert Doisneau (1912 - 1994), Le Petit Balcon, 1953


The Peripheral Manuscripts Project

DePauw’s small but diverse collection of medieval manuscript pages encompasses five individual parchment leaves from five different medieval manuscripts. These represent a range of book types and geographic origins, including French and Italian Books of Hours, an English missal (a priest’s book for conducting mass), and a Spanish antiphonal (a liturgical songbook). Recently conserved and newly mounted, these intimate treasures originate from equally diverse sources: the two earliest acquisitions were purchased by the University in the 1960s, while the more recent specimens were donated to the University by DePauw alumni and professors, including former professor of Art History Catherine Fruhan. Together they form a silent yet eloquent testimony of medieval literacy, devotion, and scribal craftsmanship. We are proud to have these objects included in The Peripheral Manuscripts Project.


African Art

The African art collection contains 216 ethnographic objects consisting largely of masks, textiles, and ancestor figures from the late 19th to mid 20th century.  A wide range of culture groups are represented including: the Dogon from Mali, Dan from Liberia, Bambara from Mali, Baule and Senufo from the Ivory Coast, Kuba and Luba from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Yoruba from Nigeria.  A small exhibition of African works can be viewed in the Galleries at Emison. 

Major African Art donations to the University include gifts from Theo and Ruth Haimann, Audrey L. Levin, Thomas K. Vandiver ’73 and Carolyn Vandiver, as well as Dr. Steven G. Conant ’71.


American Art

DePauw's American art collection includes strong holdings in regional Impressionism.  Known collectively as the Hoosier Group, these turn of the century artists include T.C. Steele, Richard Gruelle, William Forsyth, J. Ottis Adams, and Otto Stark.  A large number of graphite figure sketches by Hoosier artist Elmer E. Taflinger, active around the same time as the Hoosier Group, are also housed in the collection.  


Asian Art

In 1991, DePauw received the Arthur E. Klauser '45 Asian and World Community Collection. The gift includes Buddhist art, notably icons and mandalas, objects related to Japanese noh theater and samurai culture, painted screens, and woodblock prints from the 18th and 19th centuries. Selected objects from this collection are displayed in the Shidzuo Iikubo Gallery.

Gifts of Tibetan art donated by Bruce Walker ’53 complement the Asian collection and include an impressive number of 18th-20th century thangka paintings, 20th century drawings, and religious and ceremonial objects. Highlights from this collection are also on display in the Shidzuo Iikubo Gallery.

Visit our publications page for more information about the Asian art collections at DePauw University.


Modern and Contemporary Art

DePauw's modern and contemporary art collection consists of over 500 paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints, and videos by a number of notable national and international artists.  From a Francis Alÿs postcard to work by Andy Warhol and Robert Mapplethorpe, the collection is representative of various art movements and themes since the mid-20th century.  The collection continues to grow each year, with recent additions that include a sculpture by New York artist Nancy Bowen and DVDs by artist Piplotti Rist.