The Robert Cripps Gallery

Discover inspiring exhibitions at Magdalene.

Opened in November 2021, the Robert Cripps Gallery is a dedicated exhibition space at Magdalene College, showcasing visiting exhibitions and selections from the College’s extensive art collection.

Named in honour of Mr Robert Cripps AM—an esteemed art collector, generous benefactor, and Magdalene Honorary Fellow since 2005—the Gallery plays a vital role in making art accessible to the wider community. Located within the award-winning New Library, this purpose-built space provides a setting for students, staff, and visitors to engage with art, culture, and creative ideas.

Throes of the Modernist Dream: Prints by Rachel Whiteread, Grayson Perry and Sarah Morris from the Paragon Press

4 July – 30 August 2025

The Paragon Press was founded by Charles Booth-Clibborn in 1986 to encourage upcoming British and Britain-based artists to explore printmaking. Paragon places artists, typically with backgrounds in painting, sculpture, photography or video, with independent printmaking studios across the UK and Europe to experiment with techniques such as etching, lithography, and screen printing. The collaboration leads to the creation of a distinct, print-based project.

Since its beginning, Paragon has published over 120 projects, ranging from single images to extended series, and has collaborated with some of the most significant artists of our time, such as Georg Baselitz, Richard Long and Antony Gormley, to the more recent generation of the ‘Young British Artists’ such as Jake and Dinos Chapman, Damien Hirst, Gary Hume and Marc Quinn.

 This exhibition introduces a selection of prints by three renowned contemporary artists and published by Paragon Press: Rachel Whiteread, Sir Grayson Perry and Sarah Morris. The works are connected through their portrayal of modernity and the consequences of the modernist dream. Whiteread’s Demolished commemorates the cycles of urban development and decay, while Perry’s The American Dream drags us into the crises of the global present. Morris’ brightly geometric Department of Power and Water speaks to our synthetic, complex, mechanical world. A small group of sculptures by Whiteread and ephemera from Perry will also be displayed.

Opening times

4 July – 30 August 2025

Open: Monday to Friday 2pm – 4pm; Saturday 2pm – 6pm
Closed: Sunday

Information for visitors

• To access the exhibition, please call in via the Porter’s Lodge on Magdalene Street.
• Entrance will be to the Gallery only.
• Visitors are requested not to enter other parts of the New Library.