The Eclectic Eye: A Tribute to Duane Wilder | An Online Exhibition

Duane Wilder, Princeton Class of 1951, was an avid collector who served for nearly forty years on the Princeton University Art Museum’s Advisory Council and was a tireless advocate for the arts on campus and beyond. The Eclectic Eye presents artworks from his extensive collections, which he bequeathed to the Museum upon his death in 2017. As you will discover, Duane did not have a single, underlying focus for his collecting. Rather, he surrounded himself with the paintings, photographs, sculptures, and works of decorative art with which he wanted to live—from the painting of sixteenth-century northern Europe to contemporary photography, as these photographs of his Paris home attest. This exhibition was originally scheduled to take place in the Museum galleries in summer 2020 but is now available as a digital exhibition, affording partial glimpses into Duane’s wide-ranging curiosity and his generosity to Princeton. For the purposes of the exhibition, the works have been placed in groupings that underscore themes and visual affinities that thread through his collection.