Past Exhibitions

Between the Lines: American Drawings from the Columbus Museum

May 8 - August 14, 2016

Third Floor Galleries

The Columbus Museum’s excellent collection of American drawings, which includes original works produced with graphite, charcoal, watercolor, pastel, and cut paper, will be the focus of Between the Lines: American Drawings from the Columbus Museum. The exhibition will highlight recent acquisitions and explore themes that recur throughout the collection, focusing on two key concepts: American drawing from the viewpoint of culture and from the perspective of artistic practice. More than 150 works on paper will be on view in the exhibition, including examples by Benjamin West, Thomas Sully, Peggy Bacon, Thornton Dial, Jasper Cropsey, John Singer Sargent, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, William Anastasi, and Susan York.

The heart of the Museum’s holdings is the collection of Dr. and Mrs. Philip L. Brewer, a truly significant group of American works on paper. The Museum’s drawing collection also includes a large number of drawings that have been in the collection of noted collectors Claire and Joseph Flom. Additional acquisitions through both gift and purchase that increased the depth, quality and reputation of the Museum’s drawing collection. Although a majority of the works predate World War II, the collection spans every era of American art from the late 18th century to the present.

Between the Lines will examine the importance collectors have had in the Museum’s collection and themes such as the role of drawing in artists’ artistic practice, the notion of national identity as expressed in the visual arts, and the aims of serial and systemic work.

This exhibition is generously underwritten by Aflac.