Rare, small edition prints representing the history of fine art color printing in America will be the featured attraction at the DePaul University Art Gallery spring exhibit.

Fifty museum quality selections from 20 artists have been chosen from the private collection of Marian and Belverd Needles Jr. The show, "By their Own Hands: American Color Prints (1890-1960)," will run from April 7 to May 17. The exhibit and its related activities are free and open to the public.

The prints are wide in scope, depicting social themes from the Works Progress Administration, Japanese coastlines, American landscapes and abstracts of powerful, pure design, said guest curator Mark Pohlad, an assistant professor of art at DePaul.

The prints represent a small segment of the Needles' vast personal collection, which they selected meticulously during the past 25 years.

A member of DePaul's College of Commerce faculty since 1978, Belverd Needles is the Arthur Andersen & Co. Alumni Distinguished Professor of Accountancy at the university. This is the third set of prints the Needles have displayed at the DePaul Art Gallery.

An opening reception for the exhibit will be held April 11 at 5 p.m. in the McGaw Hall gallery at 802 W. Belden Ave., on DePaul's Lincoln Park Campus.

To complement the exhibit, DePaul will host a day-long conference, "Color Printmaking in America, 1890-1960," from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. April 12 in Room 254 of the Schmitt Academic Center, 2320 N. Kenmore Ave. It will feature such notable artists and scholars as New York-based WPA printmaker Riva Helfond; Worster, Mass., Museum of Art curator of prints and drawings David Acton and Art Institute of Chicago assistant curator of prints and drawings Mark Pascale. External funding for the conference was provided by the International Fine Print Dealers Association.

Pohlad said prints in the exhibit represent six styles: Japoniste, Arts and Crafts, Provincetown printmaking, modernist, serigraph and color lithograph.

The prints on display are of outstanding quality and include works from Arthur Wesley Dow, Max Weber, Gustave Baumann, Stanley William Hayter and Milton Avery. Chicagoans Letterjo Calapai and Charles Turzak also have prints in the show.

"Color prints involve more handiwork from the artist than black and white prints," said Pohlad. "Color prints in the same edition can vary, making them more unique from print to print."

DePaul's Art Gallery is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. For more information, call the gallery at (773) 325-7506. A catalog written by Pohlad accompanies the show.