GRAND RAPIDS--Grand Valley State University, recipient of a gift of 37 works of art by Grand Rapids artist Mathias Alten, has decided to share the art with the community.
The 37 prints--one watercolor and 36 oil paintings--are scenes of Grand Rapids, the western United States, and Europe. They will be on permanent exhibit in the Richard M. DeVos Center, now under construction in downtown Grand Rapids. In the meantime, the full collection is on virtual exhibit on GVNow (click here to view the Mathias Alten collection)
The paintings were given to Grand Valley by local businessman George Gordon, who has a passion for Alten paintings and has been collecting them for years. The collection he has given to GVSU covers the breadth of Alten's career, from the 1898 View of North Park to a self portrait completed in 1921.
It's a fabulous gift, says Henry Matthews, director of galleries and collections at GVSU. It will really allow west Michigan residents to view a good variety of his work and see the breadth of his talents. The recent retrospective of Mathias Alten work at the Grand Rapids Art Museum was so important because it was the first time such a large exhibition of his work had been assembled. Now we have a smaller collection on a permanent basis.
The majority of the paintings will be on display on the main level of the DeVos Center, in a room to be named the Gordon Gallery of Alten Paintings. Other pieces of the collection will be in other areas of the building.
Matthews says having the permanent collection in a public space in downtown Grand Rapids is appropriate for historical reasons.
As Grand Rapids became a city and matured this man became an important chronicler of what he saw around him, he said. His style is steeped in the 19th Century European tradition.
