From its founding in 1925, the Mills College Art Museum has been a forum for exploring art and ideas and a laboratory for contemporary art practices, serving as a hub for artistic experimentation. In celebration of the museum’s centennial, 100 Years of Creative Visions serves as a companion to the museum’s centennial exhibition and features essays that explore the history of the art museum and the creative communities that it has helped support and champion.
Thanks to the museum’s key founder, Albert M. Bender, the museum was an early supporter of contemporary California Impressionist painters and the modernist photographers that formed Group f64, including Ansel Adams and Imogen Cunningham. Bender’s interest in Asian art also helped establish the basis for the museum’s strong holdings of Japanese textiles, ceramics, and wood-block prints.
Under the guidance of its earliest directors, Roi Partridge and Dr. Alfred Neumeyer, the museum showcased important Mexican modernists including Diego Rivera and Rufino Tamayo, while building an impressive group of modern European works on paper, with works by Henri Matisse and Fernand Leger, including an emphasis on German Expressionist and Bauhaus artists.
The museum’s strengths in Bay Area postwar art practices are demonstrated in the expressive works of Jay DeFeo and Richard Diebenkorn, as well as in the museum’s renowned Antonio Prieto Memorial Collection of 20th-century ceramics. The museum has continued to champion contemporary artists, including Chinese-born painter Hung Liu and others exploring the complexities of cultural identity.
Through its exhibitions, public programs, and collections, the museum engages and inspires the intellectual and creative life of Northeastern University’s global network as well as the diverse audiences of the Bay Area. At 100 years old, the Mills College Art Museum remains committed to supporting artistic innovation and continuing an extraordinary legacy of demonstrating advances in contemporary visual arts.