Release Date: September 30, 2009
The Don Russell Clayton Gallery presents “Athos Menaboni: Portrait of a Painter”
For media inquiries: Cheryl Anderson Brown, Director of Public Relations,
770-499-3417 or cbrown@kennesaw.edu
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"Eastern Crow and Eastern Kingbird" by Athos Menaboni |
KENNESAW, Ga.—The artwork of Athos Menaboni returns once again to the Don Russell Clayton Gallery in the exhibition “Athos Menaboni: Portrait of a Painter.” The exhibition opens on the 114th anniversary of the artist's birth, October 20, with a reception from 5-8 p.m. The exhibition will run until spring 2011. The show explores the life of the artist as well as the development of his career, from his beginnings as a young artist in Italy to the dawn of his reputation as “Audubon’s Heir.”
As a youth in Italy, his parents supported his decision to attend the Royal Academy of Art in Florence and, after World War I, he immigrated to the United States. Eventually making his way to Atlanta in 1927, Menaboni was soon commissioned to illustrate for Mr. and Mrs. Robert Woodruff and the Coca-Cola Company. This relationship led to his meeting the Callaways where he would later lend his artistry to the history of the Callaway Gardens. He was also a decorator and illustrator and did numerous murals for homes in Atlanta, as well as a mural for Rich's department store’s tea room, The Magnolia Room. Menaboni’s work has been published in “Sports Illustrated” and “Audubon,” among others. His artwork can also be seen in the World Book Encyclopedia. He created the image of Georgia’s state bird, the brown thrasher, and the state flower, the Cherokee rose.
Athos Menaboni is well known and respected for his in-depth and naturalistic studies of American birds and botanicals. Will Hipps, director and curator of the KSU Art Museum and Galleries, says, “The collection of art by Athos Menaboni has revealed that I can be stirred by the pure aesthetics of beauty in the presence of nature. When I stand in front of a Menaboni painting, whether intimate or monumental, I stand in the presence of nature.”
Attendees will view the vibrant colors and natural aesthetics of such pieces as “Morpho,” a butterfly painted with oil colors in a blue hue, “The Garden of Dreams,” which utilizes an opaque watercolor gouache on paper, and “Hooded Merganser,” another oil painting.
Menaboni’s work fosters a true appreciation for our reliance on nature, Hipps says. “We have not only a need for nature to survive but to prosper. I am appreciative that the paintings of Athos Menaboni can bring the importance of nature to our attention in the 21st century.”
Admission to the exhibition is free. For more information, please click the gallery link at www.kenensaw.edu or call 770-499-3223.
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A member of the 35-unit University System of Georgia, Kennesaw State University is a comprehensive, residential institution with a growing student population of more than 21,000 from 142 countries. The third-largest university in Georgia, Kennesaw State offers more than 65 graduate and undergraduate degrees, including new doctorates in education and business.
The KSU College of the Arts is one of only four Georgia institutions to have achieved full national accreditation for all of its arts programs.