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Vanderbilt’s Central Library second-floor gallery is awash with color with the opening of Brighter and Brighter: The Poetry Prints of Sam Maitin. The exhibit is on view at Central through August, when it will move to Special Collections and University Archives and be on display there through November 2026.
In 1979, Philadelphia artist Maitin (1928–2004) told an interviewer that “as the world got worse, [his] colors got brighter and brighter.” Rather than becoming “an illustrator of [the world’s] agony,” he used vibrant inks to push back against the darkness and instead “seek out the delightful in life.” Maitin’s work addressed serious issues, such as war and discrimination, but the bright colors he employed imbued each piece with an unquenchable hope.
“For Maitin, that hope came through connection,” Curator of Manuscripts Mary McSparran said in her exhibit notes. In these prints, he engages in lively conversation with other artists by incorporating lines from poets of the 17th through the 20th century.
The four cases in the second-floor gallery each pull a hue from Maitin’s palette to enliven and unify archival objects from Vanderbilt’s collections. “No one color jockeys for prominence in his prints; each is equally brilliant and works with the others to create harmony, prompting his audience to do the same,” McSparran said.
Planned programming related to the exhibit includes collaborations with Vanderbilt’s MFA in Creative Writing program and its director, Professor of English Major Jackson, to showcase Maitin’s works through poetry workshops, literature courses, classes and events.
Brighter and Brighter will be on view at the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries through November 2026.