The "Massachusetts Review" is one of the nation’s leading literary magazines, distinctive in joining highest-level artistic concerns with pressing public issues. Throughout its 50 year history, MR has been noted for its involvement with the visual as well as the literary arts. The cover has provided desirable exhibition space for both established and rising painters and photographers. Covers have featured many artists over the years, where the breadth and variety are evident: Photographs by Walker Evans, Wendy Snyder MacNeil, and Jerome Liebling; Prints by Leonard Baskin, Li Hua and Fred Becker; Works on paper by Richard Yarde and Laylah Ali.
Its Winter 2008 issue featured a cover and special insert by Welsh artist Bethan Huws, in collaboration with the University Museum of Contemporary Art .
The exhibition will have original art from over 30 Massachusetts Review covers selected from each decade, focusing on photography and works-on-paper. It will also display the covers of every issue, all five decades, as a sort of timeline. Historical ephemera, letters, broadsides, and off-prints will be showcased at the Umass W.E. Dubois Library in conjunction with the University Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition.
Curators of this exhibition are MR art editors, Christin Couture, Oriole Feshbach, and MR art director, Pamela Glaven. The "New York Times" art critic, Grace Glueck, will write an introductory brochure.
