An Unruly Assembly is the first exhibition devoted to a major yet largely unseen collection of early twentieth-century relief prints at the Benton Museum of Art: the Culley Collection. The exhibition, consisting of approximately 85 of the full 187 works of woodblock prints in the collection, showcases the resurgence of the medium in the European and American avant-garde movements driven by such well-known artists as Josef Albers, Rockwell Kent, Käthe Kollwitz, and Emil Nolde.
An Unruly Assembly begins with a selection of historical woodcuts from the Benton’s collection that trace the evolution of the technique from its origins as a utilitarian means of mass communication—particularly in late medieval to Renaissance German art and book publishing—to its development as a fine art form. Early examples by such pillars of art history as Hans Burgkmair, Albrecht Dürer, Hiroshige, and Peter Paul Rubens provide important context for understanding the modern works on view.
The exhibition demonstrates how the technique was energetically revived by avant-garde artists in England, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Spain, and the United States in the early twentieth century. The work of these artists offers a powerful demonstration of the range of graphic expression that could be achieved through the most historic and manually direct form of printmaking. By turns rugged and poignant or controlled and elegant, the prints from the Culley Collection reveal the range of styles, subjects, and technical processes manifest in relief printmaking while also drawing attention to several important artists whose legacies deserve more care and attention. These artists include Léonard Tsugouharu Foujita, Cecil Wray Goodchild, Moissey Kagan, and Emma Schlangenhausen.
Since 1959 Pomona College has been the caretaker of the Culley Collection, a gift by the daughters of English-born collector John H. Culley. Until now, it has only been previously exhibited or published in fragmentary form. This exhibition and its accompanying catalogue mark the first comprehensive presentation and rigorous assessment of the collection, offering new insights into its significance and scope.
This exhibition and catalogue are landmark events not only in the history of the Benton but in our understanding of the technique of woodblock printing more generally. Rich and rare, the Culley Collection prints represent a true art historical discovery.
Curated by Victoria Sancho Lobis, the Sarah Rempel and Herbert S. Rempel ’23 Director of the museum and associate professor of art history, in collaboration with curatorial assistants Tristen Alizée Leone ’26 and Arivumani Srivastava ’26; and students enrolled in the course Print Cultures: History and Theory (Department of Art History, Pomona College, Fall 2024), who contributed research and interpretive texts on a selection of individual prints.
Support for exhibition research was provided by the David L. Hirsch III and Susan H. Hirsch Research Initiation Grant. The exhibition is supported by the Judith A Cion ’65 Fund in Endowment for Student-Curated Exhibitions and the Eva Cole and Clyde Matson Memorial Fund. Support for the exhibition catalogue is provided by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.
