Athens, Ga. – University of Georgia students have organized the exhibition “Lines of Inquiry: Renaissance and Baroque Drawings from the Ceseri Collection,” which opens May 9 at the Georgia Museum of Art with a reception at 2 p.m. that is free and open to the public.
The students have been studying drawings at the Georgia Museum of Art all semester as part of Shelley Zuraw’s topics in Renaissance and Baroque art class. Meeting at the museum once a week, they have used the collection to investigate different issues in Renaissance and Baroque art. The exhibition is the culmination of their studies.
Consisting of 11 drawings from the collection of Giuliano Ceseri on extended loan to the museum, the exhibition runs through Aug. 2. With the help of Beth Fadeley Moore, a Writing Intensive Program teaching assistant and a doctoral candidate in art history at the Lamar Dodd School of Art; Zuraw, an associate professor at the Lamar Dodd School of Art; and Lynn Boland, Pierre Daura Curator of European Art at the Georgia Museum of Art, the students (both graduate and undergraduate) selected works, studied them and wrote extended wall labels as part of their work in ARHI 4910/6910. The upper-level writing-intensive course was designed to instruct the students about the history of drawings and allow them to see, describe, study and write about real drawings.
“Working with classes on projects like this one is always one of our favorite and most rewarding undertakings,” Boland said. “It is enriching for the students, our visitors and the museum.”
Zuraw said that the opportunity to have one instructor for art history (her) and one instructor for the exhibition component of the course (Moore) “offered an open and creative approach to the study of art history.
“This particular experience would not have been possible without two other UGA institutions: the Georgia Museum of Art and the Writing Intensive Program, led by Dr. Michelle Ballif, associate professor of English. We are all grateful for the time, energy and enthusiasm Dr. Boland shared with us,” Zuraw said.
Ceseri’s collection has been on loan to the museum since 1995. It consists mostly of Italian master drawings but also includes 19th- and 20th-century works on paper. The collection consists of nearly 1,500 works on paper. It has formed the basis of exhibitions and publications including “The Art of Disegno: Italian Prints and Drawings from the Georgia Museum of Art” and “Tracing Vision: Modern Drawings from the Georgia Museum of Art.”
Students Samantha Clark, Catherine Dolaher, Jessica Golden, Shannon Groce, Hannak Kubiak, Hannah Liss, Megan Neely, Caitlin Plesher, Katherine Thompson, Tejal Vashi and Brittany Worton each studied a different drawing, commenting on studies of religious, natural and mythological subjects. These fragile works on paper cannot be on display for extended periods of time, due to the damaging effects of light, but the museum encourages classes, scholars and others to make use of them for study and research.
Museum Information
Partial support for the exhibition and programs at the Georgia Museum of Art is provided by the Georgia Council for the Arts through appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. The council is a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Individuals, foundations and corporations provide additional museum support through their gifts to the University of Georgia Foundation. The Georgia Museum of Art is located in the Performing and Visual Arts Complex on UGA’s East Campus. The address is 90 Carlton St., Athens, GA 30602-1502. For more information, including hours, see georgiamuseum.org or call 706-542-4662.