Pastels in Pieces

Exhibition Website

Jan 16 2018 - Jul 29 2018

European paper was not manufactured in giant sheets until the nineteenth century. Competing with painters who worked on monumental canvases, eighteenth-century pastellists joined together multiple sheets of paper in order to create large, continuous surfaces. The piecing together of pastels, however, also served other purposes, allowing artists to paper over their mistakes or paste the heads of important sitters onto bodies posed by models. Matching each exhibited pastel with a map of its component sheets, this installation encourages visitors to consider how these objects were made.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website

  • Works on Paper
  • 18th Century
  • Various artists

Exhibition Venues & Dates