San Francisco art collector Louis Belden gave his art collection, the gift of his lifetime, to our community. This collection of prints invites us to share in his passions for art, for collecting, for learning, and for giving back. These works offer a range of expression, experimentation, and expansion of the terrain of postwar modernism and post-modernism. His gift to Cameron Art Museum is truly unprecedented in our region, giving future generations access to this treasure for years to come.

These 134 modernist prints by 51 artists reveal Belden’s journey and are primarily presented in the order he acquired them. The exhibition begins with his bold 1971 acquisition, Art Beat, a neon orange silk screen by Nobu Fukui. By the mid-1990s, he had acquired work by the leading artists, the change-makers, the radicals, such as Josef Albers, Alexander Calder, Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Rauschenberg, and Wayne Thiebaud. His final acquisitions of work by Richard Diebenkorn, Jasper Johns, and Ellsworth Kelly show the continuing growth and refinement of the collection.