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Master Drawings from the Yale University Art Gallery
Master Drawings from the Yale University
Art Gallery
Through June 8, 2008
(Opened in October 2006 at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL; presented at the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX, June 1–August 12, 2007; and at the Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, IL, October 4, 2007–January 13, 2008)

Master Drawings from the Yale University Art Gallery comprises approximately eighty-five master drawings from the Gallery's collection, providing a survey of European draftsmanship from the late fifteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. The drawings range from early studies in the late-medieval model-book tradition (an anonymous Venetian Lion) up to the beginnings of modern art (Edgar Degas' Portrait of Giulia Bellelli, ca. 1858–59). Drawings of all media, genres, and types—preparatory studies for paintings or prints, finished drawings, and casual sketches—are included, and a range of national schools, including French, German, Italian, Netherlandish, and Spanish, is represented. Intended to draw new attention to Yale’s rich but relatively little-studied collection of European drawings, the exhibition and catalogue provide the first comprehensive look at Yale’s collection of European drawings in over thirty years.

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Related Programming
Free Gallery talks on the exhibition take place on February 13, and April 8, 15, and 22:

Wednesday, February 13, 12:20 PM: “Naturalism and Beyond: Drawing in Baroque Italy,” John Marciari, the Nina and Lee Griggs Associate Curator of Early European Art

Tuesday, April 8, 4:00 PM: “Drawn for Print: Images Designed to be Multiplied,” Suzanne Boorsch, the Robert L. Solley Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs

Tuesday, April 15, 4:00 PM: “Circa 1700,” Christopher Wood, Professor in the History of Art, Yale University

Tuesday, April 22, 4:00 PM: “Drawing Modern Life: French Draftsmen of the Mid-Nineteenth Century,” Susan Greenberg Fisher, the Horace W. Goldsmith Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

John Marciari presents a Master Class on Master Drawings on Thursdays, February 14, 21, and March 6, at 5:30 PM. To register for the Master Class series, please call 203.432.9525. In addition, Suzanne Boorsch gives a special membership gallery talk, “Collecting with Special Exhibitions in Mind: Master Drawings and Colorful Impressions,” on Thursday, April 3, at 5:30 PM. To register, please call 203.432.9658.

Special Event
Sir Timothy Clifford, the former Director General of the National Galleries of Scotland, presents the Ryerson Lecture, “Discovering and Acquiring Old Master Drawings: An Autobiographical Account,” on Thursday, February 28, at 5:30 PM. Free and open to the public. A reception will follow at 6:30 PM.

Publication
Master Drawings is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, copublished by the Gallery and Yale University Press. For more information, please visit the Gallery's Bookstore.

Exhibition and publication organized by Suzanne Boorsch, the Robert L. Solley Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, and John Marciari, the Nina and Lee Griggs Associate Curator of Early European Art. Supported by the Florence B. Selden Fund and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, with additional support provided by Mr. and Mrs. Bruce B. Dayton, B.A. 1940, and Dr. and Mrs. Edmund P. Pillsbury, B.A. 1965. Image: Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino, Caricature of a Man Wearing a Large Hat, ca. 1630–40. Yale University Art Gallery. Gift of Edmund P. Pillsbury, B.A. 1965

Permanent Collection
Ongoing

Following its comprehensive renovation, the Gallery’s landmark Louis Kahn building—widely regarded as the architect’s first masterpiece—reopened in December 2006 with a new installation of the Gallery’s collection. On view are works from the African, ancient, Asian, early European, modern, and contemporary collections. Important recent acquisitions are featured, such as the Charles B. Benenson Collection of African art—one of the largest and most significant single gifts of art in the Gallery’s history—as well as paintings by Pontormo, Claude Monet, and Anselm Kiefer, among others. Also on view are many works that have been rarely, if ever, displayed before, providing visitors with a dramatically enhanced view of the full breadth and depth of the Gallery’s collections.

Renovation News:
American Art Galleries Close January 2008

Following the 2006 reopening of the Gallery's landmark Louis Kahn building, phase two of the museum's comprehensive renovation project begins in early 2008. The American art galleries on the third floor of the Gallery's 1928 Swartwout building close on January 13. These objects will be featured in the nationally touring exhibition Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery. (For more information on the exhibition, please see "Exhibitions: Traveling.")

During the Swartwout renovation, works of art from the African, ancient, Asian, early European, modern, and contemporary collections, as well as special exhibitions, continue to be on display in the Gallery's main building, designed by Louis Kahn.

The Swartwout renovation is part of a comprehensive renovation and expansion of the museum's entire facility, scheduled for completion in 2011.