Curator Furio Rinaldi
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Curator of Drawings and Prints
Donna Anderson Kam
dateline: (08-07) 16:22 PDT Trona, CA (AP)--
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Museum Purchase, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts Endowment Fund,
and the Achenbach Graphic Arts Council, 2020.51
Excerpt from article:
SF/ARTS Dec.2021/Jan. 2022
Curators as Game Changers
by Dorthy Reed & Carol Goodman
In May 2020, when Furio joined Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) as Curator of Drawings and Prints, the museum was closed due to
Covid, but this time of less activity had a silver-lining in that he
had more time to discover the oftentimes hidden treasures of the
museum’s 90,000+ holdings of works of art on paper: drawings, prints and
artist books. The collection, the largest on the West Coast, spans the
15th through 21st centuries, and is housed within the museum’s Achenbach
Foundation for Graphic Arts.
Raised in Italy with a Ph.D from
the University of Rome, Furio’s area of expertise is Italian drawings
from the 15th and 16th century, particularly the schools of the
Renaissance’s “greats” – Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo.
He considers drawings “the father of art.” “After all," he says,
"painting, sculpture and architecture generally start with drawings.”
Within
less than two years, Furio curated "Color into Line: Pastels from the
Renaissance to the Present." In the process of setting up the
exhibition, two important re-attributions, based on his scholarship,
were made. Two key acquisitions were also made: an 18th century pastel
landscape by Elisabeth Louise Vigée-LeBrun and a 21st century pastel
depicting a homeless encampment by Donna Anderson Kam.
Each
gallery contains works by male and female artists including three women
artists – starting with the 18th century Venetian artist Rosalba
Carriera, whose pastel portraits were widely acclaimed. Works by
Impressionist artists Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt and Eva Gonzalès are
highlights of the exhibition.
Going forward, both the museum and
Rinaldi have bold plans to showcase the Achenbach’s collection with an
ambitious program of exhibits.