The Art of Disegno: Italian Prints and Drawings from the Georgia Museum of Art
January 18 – April 7, 2013
The exhibition features 53 works on paper produced in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries from the collections of the Georgia Museum of Art and Giuliano Ceseri. These prints and drawings, some of the most fertile and inspired artistic creations found on paper during this period, provide rare insight into the training, working habits and creative process of Italian artists of the era.
In Italian, disegno means both design and drawing. Regarded as an intellectual as well as practical activity, drawings became critical tools of the design process for artists, particularly as paper became more widely available, replacing vellum. Drawings also enjoyed a close relationship with prints during this period. “Prints enabled artists to replicate the designs created in drawings through a technology that provided the possibility of creating multiple works of art and facilitated the spread of the artists’ reputation around the world,” said Babette Bohn of Texas Christian University, who curated the exhibition with Robert Randolf Coleman, of the University of Notre Dame.
The Art of Disegno: Italian Prints and Drawings from the Georgia Museum of Art is organized by the Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens. This program is supported in part by the Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. The Council is a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Support is also provided by Alfred Heber Holbrook Society members George-Ann and Boone Knox, the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation, and Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art. The exhibition is supported locally by The C. D., Jeff and Helen Glaze Foundation.
