Prints and Drawings
Art Institute of Chicago | June - August 2017 | Curatorial Assistant
prints and drawings study room
photo by eleni zoë
Prints and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago
Prints and Drawings houses a distinguished collection of works on paper ranging from the 15th century to the present. With holdings of 11,500 drawings and 60,000 prints, the collection includes a broad range of works with particular strength in the areas of French 19th-century prints and drawings; British, French, and Italian drawings; Old Master prints, with fine representations of the work of Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Francisco Goya, and James McNeill Whistler; extensive 20th-century holdings; and a constantly growing collection of contemporary works on paper. The Prints and Drawings department also features The Jean and Steven Goldman Study Center, a public study room.
Shockingly Mad: Henry Fuseli and the Art of Drawing
The Art Institute is home to a remarkably rich collection of Fuseli’s surviving works, including large-scale drawings; smaller, less-finished sketches; and significant paintings and prints. Shockingly Mad: Henry Fuseli and the Art of Drawing considers drawing as an expressive means unto itself, paralleling the broader arc of Fuseli’s career as writer, painter, critic, and teacher.
I was able to observe the Fuseli Study Day at the Art Institute. There were several speakers on everything from paper type to drawing style to influences. I was able to meet several curators from British Institutes and members of accademia. This helped me gain better insight into the development of an exhibition.
Later in my internship, I was given the opportunity to write object labels for the supplemental works of art.
The Discovery (recto), Two Sketches of Standing Male Figures (verso)
Henry Fuseli
courtesy of artic.edu
The Road to Bonao
Wilmot Emerton Heitland
photo by eleni zoë
Projects
As a curatorial assistant, I worked on several exhibitions in various stages. One was being prepared for install and was in the collaboration with an exhibition designer phase. One exhibition had me writing object labels for the supplemental pieces. For another, I assisted on the collection of research for the catalog to be published alongside the exhibition.
In addition to exhibitions, I assisted visitors to the study room, preparing the works for them. I assisted a curator with the assessment of British drawings in the collection. I also conducted preliminary research and justifications for acceptances of an offering to the museum collection.