LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Hammer Museum at UCLA is presenting Five Centuries of Works on Paper: The Grunwald Center at 70, a two-part exhibition celebrating the 70th anniversary of the UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts. With more than 45,000 prints, drawings, photographs, and artist’s books, the Grunwald Center’s collection of works on paper is among the most significant in the United States. Part One of the exhibition, opened December 20, 2025 and on view through May 17, 2026, features nearly 100 works reflecting the breadth of the collection, from the Renaissance to present day, including works by Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Vassily Kandinsky, Käthe Kollwitz, Ansel Adams, Elizabeth Catlett, Corita Kent, Bridget Riley, Ed Ruscha, and Vija Celmins.

Zoë Ryan, director of the Hammer Museum, said “It is a pleasure to honor the 70th anniversary of the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts with two exhibitions that will span nearly a year on view. The story of the collection begins with Fred Grunwald, who donated his collection to UCLA in 1956 with the hope that it would become a vital resource for learning and would enrich the university experience. Seventy years later, the Grunwald Center has delivered on that promise through its extraordinary collection, a magnificent gallery for its display, and a study center that serves scholars, students, artists and the general public week in and week out.”

Naoko Takahatake, director and chief curator of the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, said “The Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts is a cornerstone of the Hammer Museum—comprising the majority of the museum’s holdings—and a vital resource for UCLA. For seven decades, generations of curators have worked alongside donors, scholars, and artists to shape the center’s collection and programs, expanding upon Fred Grunwald’s founding vision to embrace a diverse range of artistic traditions. Promoting critical thinking, visual literacy, and cross-disciplinary engagement, the center serves as both a repository of cultural history and a forum for contemporary artistic practice. Co-curated with Cynthia Burlingham, who led the center from 2005 to 2023, this exhibition celebrates its remarkable growth and enduring contributions to learning and discovery.”

The exhibition begins with an overture of works from the foundational gifts of Fred Grunwald and his family, demonstrating a breadth of collecting areas that have existed from the start. Examples of these Grunwald family gifts include the early modern period by European artists such as Hendrick Goltzius’s engraving, The Standard Bearer, from 1587; nineteenth-century prints from both Europe and Japan, including by James Ensor and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and woodblock prints by Utagawa Kunisada and Utagawa Kuniyoshi; examples of German Expressionism including works by Otto Dix and Franz Marc; and twentieth-century prints by renowned artists such as Pablo Picasso.

Subsequent sections of the exhibition chart the growth of the Grunwald Center’s collections over many decades, highlighting significant acquisitions, past exhibitions, and programs. These sections include Early Modern European prints; 19th-century European prints in dialogue with Japan; American and Mexican prints and photographs from the first half of the 20th century, and drawings made after 1960. A final section places a spotlight on Los Angeles’s reputation as a vital locus for print publishers who have collaborated with globally acclaimed artists such as Ruth Asawa (printed by Tamarind Lithography Workshop); Ed Ruscha (printed by Cirrus Editions); Francesca Gabbiani (printed by Hamilton Press); Analia Saban (printed by Mixografia); John Baldessari (printed by El Nopal Press); and Ellsworth Kelly (printed by Gemini G.E.L.). Highlighted here are works from Edition Jacob Samuel, The Lapis Press, and Hamilton Press, whose archives were jointly acquired by the Grunwald Center and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art between 2010 and 2017.

The celebration of the Grunwald Center’s 70th anniversary continues well into 2026, when Part Two of the exhibition opens on June 7, running through October 25. The second exhibition will continue to highlight the breadth and depth of the Grunwald Collection, exploring notable collection areas including: Fred Grunwald and family gifts; early modern and 19th-century European prints and drawings; modern European prints and drawings; 20th-century photography; and printmaking post-1960. Artists in Part Two of the exhibition will include Marco Dente, Jusepe de Ribera, Paul Cézanne, Edvard Munch, Edouard Manet, Gustav Klimt, Henri Matisse, Imogen Cunningham, Robert Heinecken, Jasper Johns, Helen Frankenthaler, Kiki Smith, Julie Mehretu, and more.