Exhibitions > MODERN DRAWINGS: Tracing 100 Years

February 13 - April 2, 2010

To highlight and put into context a crucial part of the Academy Art Museum's
permanent collection, Modern Drawings: Tracing 100 Years will be on view
from February 13 - April 2, 2010.

The purpose of the exhibition is to further impress upon Museum visitors the
importance of draftsmanship both as preliminary work and, perhaps more
recently, as finished works in their own right. A strength of the Academy
Art Museum holdings includes important sheets by Pierre Bonnard, John Sloan,
William Glackens, Walt Kuhn, John Steuart Curry, and others.

The earliest piece in the exhibition is Bonnard's View of the Seine from
Bonnard's Garden in Vernon. As an early sketch, this drawing depicts a scene
that would appear in several of the artist's paintings including Earthly
Paradise at the Art Institute of Chicago. In contrast, the latest piece,
Marietta Hoferer's 13 from 2008 is perhaps the most developed piece in the
show. As a collage, the work is painstakingly constructed using small bits
of strapping tape. As such, these two works show the range of form that
drawings, such as these unique works on paper, can take.

In addition to works from the Museum's collection, are loans from prominent
collectors and prestigious art dealers in Maryland, New York and D.C.
Highlights include pieces by Pablo Picasso, Claes Oldenburg, Robert
Smithson, Franz Kline, Grace Hartigan, and Paul Jenkins. To document this
historic exhibition, the Museum is planning a brochure, a roundtable
discussion and a guided audio tour.

Joan Sloan, At the Airport, Charcoal on paper