“A Window into the Artist’s Mind: 100 Extraordinary Drawings from the Minneapolis Institute of Art” with Rachel McGarry, Ph.D., Associate Curator, Minneapolis Institute of Art


Hear the fascinating stories behind the rare drawings in Marks of Genius by artists such as Käthe Kollwitz, Winslow Homer, Emile Nolde, Egon Schiele, and Amedeo Modigliani. Curator Rachel McGarry will share her discoveries as well as examine the indispensable role of draftsmanship to some of the world’s most renowned artists. Drawing, in its directness and informality, is the art form arguably closest to the artist’s authentic self. You’ll see drawings that offer glimpses into an artist’s private thoughts, as well as works of astounding virtuosity executed with a mere piece of chalk or quill pen and a slip of paper.

What's pictured: Egon Schiele, (Austrian, 1890–1918), Standing Girl, c. 1910, Conté crayon and tempera wash over black chalk on brown wrapping paper; laid down. The John R. Van Derlip Fund and gift of funds from Dr. Otto Kallir 69.7

RACHEL MCGARRY is an Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, where she has worked since 2006. She earned a MA and PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, where she wrote her dissertation The Young Guido Reni: The Artist in Bologna and Rome, 1575–1605 (2007). While her first love is Old Master drawings, Rachel was drawn to the art of engraving when she worked for two years after college in the Silver Department at Christie’s New York. While in graduate school, she worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in both the Drawings and Prints department, as well as the European Paintings department. She has taught art history at Stony Brook University and the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. In 2010, she helped Mia acquire Jacopo de’ Barbari’s monumental bird’s-eye View of Venice, a rare Renaissance woodcut from 1500, and is currently organizing an exhibition around the work and artist (“Renaissance Mystery Artist Jacopo de’ Barbari”). Among the many drawings, prints, and paintings exhibitions she has organized at Mia since 2006, Marks of Genius is without doubt her very favorite, so she is thrilled the exhibition lives on in its tour through the United States, which wraps up at Joslyn in 2017.

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