From the exhibition catalog:
Art to Live With, a collection unique in a university community, is lent by Joseph Randall Shapiro to the University of Chicago. It makes available to students a choice of fine, original works of art for personal use in their dormitory rooms and homes, and in the general rooms and lounges of the student residence halls.
Mr. Shapiro started the assemblage in 1958 with fifty works from his own famous collection. Since then he has been amplifying it steadily. Now it contains approximately five hundred modern paintings in oil and water color, etchings, woodcuts, serigraphs lithographs, drawings, and collages.
Art to Live With is operated by the students under the auspices of the Student Activities Office in Ida Noyes Hall where the entire collection is put on exhibition at the beginning of each quarter of the academic year. At these times, drawings are held for preference, and each student may borrow one work for a three month period.
The present exhibition, which was selected and hung by Mr. Shapiro, is not a skimming of cream, but a fair sampling of the wealth of the whole collection.
The Renaissance Society takes pride in presenting this selection, which will remain in our galleries as a contribution to the Festival of the Arts.
