Campus Art Collection
The Aquinas art collection consists of fewer than 100 works of art, primarily in the areas of Catholic art and modern and contemporary art.
MessageFrançoise Gilot: An Artistic Journey
- March 23, 2023 - December 15, 2023
The inaugural exhibition in the Grace Hauenstein Library Art Gallery and Study Space features ten works by the French-born artist. Gilot has worked as an artist for eight decades and lived in New York until she passed away at the age of one hundred and one. She is often spoken of in relation to Pablo Picasso with whom she was in a relationship for a decade and had two children, but her own artistic accomplishments stand for themselves. She has exhibited her works internationally, including in West Michigan.
On March 23, 2023, Gilot's daughter Aurélia Engel visited Aquinas' campus to give a lecture about her mother's work. One hundred students, staff, faculty, and community members were in attendance. The lecture and gallery opening were supported by the Women's Studies Program, Anthony Foster, M.D. '73 and Linda Nemec Foster, MFA '72.
The works come from Aquinas's own art collection with additional loans from the Grand Rapids Art Museum.
