Gallery Talk: German Expressionist Drawings in Sketch, Shade, Smudge

The exhibition Sketch, Shade, Smudge: Drawing from Gray to Black includes a selection of drawings by artists from the German expressionist groups The Bridge and The Blue Rider. Join curatorial fellow Peter Murphy to explore the different ways these groups approached drawing.

Sketch, Shade, Smudge: Drawing from Gray to Black celebrates the act of drawing using familiar tools—charcoal, chalk, crayon, and graphite. Each type of material has distinctive properties: charcoal can be intensely rich and velvety, or delicately gray and suggestive, while graphite is slippery, shiny, and easy to erase. Crayon is deeply black and waxy, whereas chalk can be crumbly and diffuse. The creative manipulations of these media—smudging, scraping, and erasing—make them versatile tools for adding intensity, depth, precision, and expression to an artist’s vision.

Led by:
Peter Murphy, Stefan Engelhorn Curatorial Fellow in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Division of Modern and Contemporary Art

Please check in with museum staff at the Visitor Services desk in the Calderwood Courtyard to request to join the gallery talk. Space is limited, and talks are available on a first-come, first-served basis; no registration is required.

You may also like the following events from Harvard Art Museums:

• This Thursday, 18th September, 12:00 pm, Exhibition Tour: Sketch, Shade, Smudge: Drawing from Gray to Black in Cambridge
• This Thursday, 18th September, 06:00 pm, Geometry and Contemporary Art: Crystalle Lacouture, Odili Donald Odita, and Dyani White Hawk in Cambridge
• This Friday, 19th September, 10:30 am, Exhibition Tour: Edna Andrade: Imagination Is Never Static in Cambridge

Also check out other Arts events in Cambridge, Fine Arts events in Cambridge, Exhibitions in Cambridge.