Exhibition Tour: Sketch, Shade, Smudge: Drawing from Gray to Black

By
  • Harvard Art Museums
  • Free

    A drawing featuring a mass of intersecting black lines that resemble pipes. Some of the lines form objects: a barrel, a hanging lamp, and a bathtub. A figure can be seen bending down.

    Join us for an in-depth, hour-long tour of our special exhibition, on view from September 12, 2025 through January 18, 2026.

    No application or registration needed.

    Cost

    This Event is free!

    Please check in with museum staff at the Visitor Services desk in the Calderwood Courtyard to request to join the tour. Space is limited, and talks are available on a first-come, first-served basis; no registration is required.

    Location

    • In-person only.

    Harvard Art Museums
    32 Quincy
    Cambridge, MA 02138
    United States

    Neighborhood
  • Neighborhood 9

    Dates and Times

    Thursday, September 18 12PM – 1PM

    Additional information

    Sketch, Shade, Smudge: Drawing from Gray to Black 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.

    Free

    A drawing featuring a mass of intersecting black lines that resemble pipes. Some of the lines form objects: a barrel, a hanging lamp, and a bathtub. A figure can be seen bending down.

    Thursday, September 18 12PM – 1PM

    View more dates

    Harvard Art Museums

    (617) 495-9400
    Contact us

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    Last updated August 12, 2025.