Gallery Talk: Graphite Drawings and Preservation
When:
Thursday, Oct 16, 2025 12:30p -
1:00p
Thursday, Oct 16, 2025 12:30p -
1:00p
Where:
Harvard Art Museums
32 Quincy Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
Admission:
FREE
Hosted by:
Categories:
Accessible Spots, Art, History, Photoworthy
Event website:
https://bit.ly/4nRZCm0
This talk by paper conservation fellow Valeria Pesce will introduce visitors to the distinctive qualities and preservation considerations of artworks created with graphite on paper. She will examine selected drawings on view in the exhibition Sketch, Shade, Smudge: Drawings from Gray to Black, highlighting key visual indicators and factors that guide conservation approaches.
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:
Valeria Pesce, Craigen W. Bowen Paper Conservation Fellow, Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies
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.
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