This special loan exhibition of nearly 80 works on paper, the majority from private collections, illustrates the range and mastery of Jim Dine's draftsmanship over more than four decades. Early tool collage drawings are shown alongside powerful portrait and figure studies drawn in a variety of media. In recent years, Dine has created large painterly pastels executed with a bravura that places them somewhere between painting and drawing.

The exhibition marks the 40th anniversary of Dine's first visit to Oberlin. In 1965, Oberlin College's legendary professor of art history Ellen Johnson invited the young Ohio-born artist to participate in the College's artist-in-residence program. Dine had his first solo museum show at the AMAM that year, and the museum acquired his Charcoal Self-Portrait in a Cement Garden (Roush Fund for Contemporary Art), which remains one of the icons of the permanent collection today.

Following its Oberlin venue, the show will travel to the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York (September 18-January 6, 2006), and Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois (April 7–June 18, 2006).

The exhibition was organized by Stephanie Wiles, museum director.