Graves-at-Oregon Collection

In the 1960s, Portland-based art collector and museum patron Virginia Haseltine developed a friendly correspondence with internationally recognized American artist Morris Graves (1910-2001). She urged museum director Wallace Baldinger, University of Oregon President Arthur Flemming, and others to pursue works by this visionary painter based in Humboldt County, California as the museum established new collecting interests in regional and American art. The resulting Graves-at-Oregon Project encompassed over 500 of Graves’ drawings and paintings that were made available for acquisition through the auspices of Graves and fellow artist Rolf Klep in 1968. This museum now holds the largest public collection of works on paper by Graves, in addition to other paintings and drawings that date after the Graves-at-Oregon acquisition. Additional works by Graves gifted by writer Nancy Wilson Ross, gallerist Marian Willard Johnson, and other donors contributed to an especially strong representation of Graves’ career leading up to 1965. University of Oregon’s Special Collections and University Archives, housed in Knight Library, is the repository of Graves’ extensive papers dating from 1910-2008.

Selected Works