The Enduring Mark

August 6–November 28, 2021

Celebrating drawing as an expression of the beauty, vigor, and ephemerality of life, this exhibition charts a history of European and American drawing from the fifteenth to the twentieth century with works by Rubens, Degas, Klee, Picasso, and more.

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Joan Miró: Metamorphosis, 1936, collage of cut, torn, and pasted transfer decals and newsprint, brush and black ink, watercolor, gouache, and fabricated black chalk, over traces of graphite, on cream wove paper; 29 5/; BAMPFA; gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray.
Attributed to Benedetto Luti: Polyphemus, 1675–1700; Red chalk, heightened with lead white chalk (partially discolored), on cream laid paper, laid down on off-white laid paper; 27 3/4 x 22 1/2 in.; BAMPFA; gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray.

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Past Events

Friday, November 19, 7 PM
Full: New Esterházy Quartet

Explore the galleries and discover exciting performances in our dramatic space on the night of each full moon.

Programmed by William Skeen
Saturday, November 6, 2:00 PM
Victoria Sancho Lobis: The Afterlives of Drawings

Presented in conjunction with The Enduring Mark, this lecture by Victoria Sancho Lobis, director of the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College, traces the lives and afterlives of drawings and highlights a number of drawings gifted to the museum from the Gray Collection.

BAMPFA
Sundays, 3 PM, September 5–December 5
Gallery Talks by Alan Templeton

Scholar and collector Alan Templeton offers tours of The Enduring Mark with an emphasis on the evolution of drawing styles and the iconography of individual works featured in the exhibition.

BAMPFA
Sunday, August 22, 7PM PDT
Livestream: Three-Point Perspective

Period instrumentalists of the Contra Costa Trio reflect on the exhibition The Enduring Mark: Six Centuries of Drawing from the Gray Collection in a concert recorded at BAMPFA.

Programmed by William Skeen
Friday, August 6, 3 PM
Curator's Talk: Larry Rinder on The Enduring Mark

Join Lawrence Rinder, BAMPFA director emeritus and former chief curator, for a comprehensive overview of the extraordinary works gifted to the museum from the Gray Collection..

BAMPFA

The Enduring Mark

Six Centuries of Drawing from the Gray Collection

August 6–November 28, 2021

Advance Tickets

This exhibition celebrates drawing as an expression of the beauty, vigor, and ephemerality of life. With extraordinary works by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Ludovico Carracci, Peter Paul Rubens, François Boucher, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, and others, it charts a history of European and American drawing from the fifteenth to the twentieth century.

Advance Tickets

The drawings on view are from the collection of Chicago-based art connoisseurs Richard and Mary L. Gray. The Grays’ keen and independent aesthetic sensibility led them to acquire many exquisite works by marvelous lesser-known artists whose work sheds new light on the fascinating and complex evolution of subject matter and style. The Gray Collection is especially rich in Italian drawing, enabling a focus on several Italian cultural centers—Rome, Bologna, and Venice—during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. A highlight of the Italian works is a group of exquisite red chalk drawings from the seventeenth century that captures the unique ability of this medium to express the sensual nuances of the human form.

Proceeding in loosely chronological order, beginning with works from the Renaissance, the exhibition suggests how social, political, and cultural changes impacted the development of European and American art. While frequently reflecting the cultural power of the Catholic church and occasionally touching on specific historical incidents, the works in the Gray Collection are, for the most part, intimate encounters with the human form and, by extension, with humanity itself.

This presentation marks the donation of fifteen drawings from the Gray Collection to BAMPFA. This transformative gift brings new depth and breadth to the museum’s already strong holdings of Old Master and modern drawings. These works will provide enjoyment and inspiration to visitors, scholars, and students for years to come.

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The Enduring Mark: Six Centuries of Drawing from the Gray Collection is organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and curated by Kevin Salatino, Anne Vogt Fuller and Marion Titus Searle Chair and Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, with Suzanne Folds McCullagh, Director of the Gray Collection Trust. The BAMPFA presentation is organized by Director Emeritus Lawrence Rinder with Curatorial Assistant Lucia Olubunmi Momoh and made possible with major support from the Richard and Mary L. Gray Foundation, Katrine and Harry Gray, and Alan Templeton. Additional support is provided by the BAMPFA Trustees.

The Enduring Mark

August 6–November 28, 2021

Past Events

Full: New Esterházy Quartet

Victoria Sancho Lobis: The Afterlives of Drawings

Gallery Talks by Alan Templeton

Livestream: Three-Point Perspective

Curator's Talk: Larry Rinder on The Enduring Mark