The High Museum of Art has recently acquired a significant collection of 56 prints by artist Kiki Smith from collector Stephen Dull. The acquisition was made through a partial gift from Dull and partial purchase through the Museum’s acquisition fund. This group of prints makes the High a major national repository for Smith’s graphic work. “Kiki Smith: Rituals,” an exhibition showcasing the new acquisitions, will be on view in the works on paper galleries at the High from October 8, 2011, through January 22, 2012.

“Kiki Smith is a great artist-printmaker, and this important collection of her work will be one of the foundation stones of the High’s growing print collection. We are delighted to make such a significant acquisition that catapults us to the forefront of museums that collect her work,” stated Michael E. Shapiro, the High’s Nancy and Holcombe T. Green, Jr. Director. “I would like to thank Stephen Dull for making it possible for us to share this treasure trove of art works with the people of Atlanta and the Southeast.”

The collection, which includes works made between 1991 and 2004, features many of the artist’s best-known prints and represents all aspects of the extraordinary range of techniques and imagery in her graphic work. Highlights include the monumentally scaled color lithograph “Born,” 2002 (68⅛ x 56⅛ inches), and the mixed-technique print “My Blue Lake,” 1995 (43 11/16 x 54¾ inches), which combines Photogravure, à la poupée inking and lithograph. This collection will join Smith’s important installation “Mother,” acquired by the High 1993.

“I am absolutely thrilled that the High Museum is acquiring so many prints from the Stephen Dull Collection,” commented Kiki Smith. “Printmaking is a fundamental part of my practice and the experience of making prints and working with printmakers has been one of the joys of my adult life.”

“My ultimate goal in collecting art is to place it in an institution that will cherish it, share it and preserve it for future generations,” said Stephen Dull. “Since I lived in Atlanta, I have a soft spot for the High Museum. Having watched its amazing and creative growth from afar, I am especially excited to be able to contribute to the High’s continued realization of its special vision and mission.”

Kiki Smith

American artist Kiki Smith (born 1954) is a feminist, politically oriented conceptual artist whose work often focuses the themes of birth, death and regeneration. Her work as a printmaker is particularly extensive and can be found in museums throughout the United States and abroad. She has been the subject of numerous exhibitions. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, has consistently exhibited and collected her prints, and in 2003 mounted “Kiki Smith: Prints, Drawings & Things,” a major retrospective of her printmaking.

High Museum of Art

The High Museum of Art, founded in 1905 as the Atlanta Art Association, is the leading art museum in the southeastern United States. With more than 12,000 works of art in its permanent collection, the High Museum of Art has an extensive anthology of 19th- and 20th-century American and decorative art; significant holdings of European paintings; a growing collection of African American art; and burgeoning collections of modern and contemporary art, photography and African art. The High is also dedicated to supporting and collecting works by Southern artists and is distinguished as the only major museum in North America to have a curatorial department specifically devoted to the field of folk and self-taught art. The High’s media arts department produces acclaimed annual film series and festivals of foreign, independent and classic cinema. In November 2005 the High opened three new buildings by architect Renzo Piano that more than doubled the Museum’s size, creating a vibrant “village for the arts” at the Woodruff Arts Center in midtown Atlanta. For more information about the High, please visit www.High.org.

The Woodruff Arts Center

The Woodruff Arts Center is ranked among the top four arts centers in the nation. The Woodruff is unique in that it combines four visual and performing arts divisions on one campus as one not-for-profit organization. Opened in 1968, the Woodruff Arts Center is home to the Alliance Theatre, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the High Museum of Art and Young Audiences. To learn more about the Woodruff Arts Center, please visit www.woodruffcenter.org.