Gallery Talk: German Drawings from the Busch-Reisinger Museum in Sketch, Shade Smudge

This event does not require registration; see further details below.

The exhibition Sketch, Shade, Smudge: Drawing from Gray to Black includes a selection of modern and contemporary drawings from the Busch-Reisinger Museum. Join curator Lynette Roth to explore works by Lotte Laserstein, Max Beckmann, Erwin Spuler, and Willi Baumeister.

Sketch, Shade, Smudge: Drawing from Gray to Black (September 12, 2025–January 18, 2026) celebrates the act of drawing using familiar tools—charcoal, chalk, crayon, and graphite. Each 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:
Lynette Roth, Daimler Curator of the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Division of Modern and Contemporary Art

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.

The Harvard Art Museums offer free admission every day, Tuesday through Sunday. Please see the museum visit page to learn about our general policies for visiting the museums.

Support for this exhibition is provided by the Martha Tedeschi Exhibition Fund, made possible by The Lunder Foundation-Peter and Paula Lunder Family; the Alexander S., Robert L., and Bruce A. Beal Exhibition Fund; the Anthony and Celeste Meier Exhibitions Fund; the Rabb Family Exhibitions Fund; and the Annemarie Henle Pope Special Exhibitions Fund. Related programming is supported by the M. Victor Leventritt Lecture Series Endowment Fund.

The Harvard Art Museums are committed to accessibility for all visitors. For anyone requiring accessibility accommodations for our programs, please contact us at am_register@harvard.edu at least 48 hours in advance. Please include the name and date of the program in the subject line of your email.