Museum News | New Faces on Campus

Across campus, the Art Museum oversees the care of more than seven hundred works of art in the University’s dispersed campus art collections. This includes the prestigious Putnam Collection of public sculpture, numerous other works of public art, and over six hundred portraits of individuals with significant ties to Princeton.

In 2016 the University adopted the recommendation of the Trustees to make a concerted effort to diversify the art and iconography on campus, including the commissioning of additional portraits honoring distinguished individuals who, over the past seventy-five years, have been preeminent in a particular field, have excelled in the nation’s service and the service of humanity, or have made a significant contribution to the culture of Princeton. This year, under the Museum’s direction, the first of these new commissions—portraits of Nobel Laureates Toni Morrison, the Robert F. Goheen Professor of Humanities Emerita, and Sir W. Arthur Lewis, former James Madison Professor of Political Economy—were unveiled.

Eight additional women and men, past and present, have been selected for inclusion in this portrait initiative, the result of a campus-wide nominating process: US Senator Bill Bradley, US circuit judge Denny Chin, educator and university administrator Carl Fields, biologist Elaine Fuchs, surgeon and educator Robert J. Rivers, pioneering college president Ruth Simmons, Supreme Court associate justice Sonia Sotomayor, and the renowned mathematician Alan Turing.

This new wave of portrait-making is to be overseen by Museum staff over the next two years. More detailed information on the portrait initiative, including biographical information on the individuals selected, is available on the University’s website here.