With the opening of the Katzen Art Center, the Watkins Collection starts a new chapter in its history. We can finally share with the public the breadth of this magnificent collection, and fulfill a more recent mission — to assume a leadership role in stimulating interest in and appreciation for art and artists from the Washington area.

The Watkins Collection was created by artist friends of Law Watkins. They were looking for a way to memorialize their friend, who through his work at the Phillips Collection and American University, had worked so hard to establish a vibrant artist community in Washington, DC. They decided a collection that would serve as a teaching resource for the faculty at AU would be most fitting and twenty-five artists donated work to establish the collection. Original donors included Marjorie Phillips, Karl Knaths, Bernice Cross, Herman Maril, James McLaughlin and others. Over the past sixty years, there were several significant donations that have helped develop and further define the collection.

Duncan Phillips made important donations early on, including works by Milton Avery, Arthur Dove, John Marin, and Rockwell Kent. He also arranged for a selection of work from the estate of Katherine Dreier, founder of the Société Anonyme, to be given to the Watkins Collection. Works by Paul Klee, Kurt Schwitters, David Burliuk, and Marc Chagall all came to the Collection through the Dreier Estate. These early donations helped form a strong modernist base for the collection.

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