How does a museum build its collection? This conversation between Dr. Emily Friedman, The Allen and Kelly Questrom Assistant Curator of Prints and Drawings; Dr. Jonathan Bober; and Carolyn Bullard will explore the state of the field of early modern prints and drawings, focusing on collecting and exhibition practices. As the Dallas Museum of Art’s inaugural curator of prints and drawing, Dr. Friedman will offer insights into the history of the works on paper collection at the Dallas Museum of Art and plans for future exhibitions.
The panel will be moderated by Dr. Anabelle Gambert-Jouan, The Lillian and James H. Clark Assistant Curator of European Art.
Made possible through the Dallas Print and Drawing Society Fund, in Memory of Calvin Holmes
Speakers:
Dr. Jonathan Bober was Andrew W. Mellon Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings at the National Gallery of Art in Washington (2016–2023), where he had previously served as Curator of Old Master Prints (2011–2016). There he was responsible for the acquisition or promise of some 5,000 works, and the organization of a dozen exhibitions. From 1987 to 2011, he was Curator of Prints and Drawings, and later also European Paintings, at the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin. There he acquired some 11,000 works across media, including the Suida-Manning Collection of Baroque art and art historian Leo Steinberg’s collection of prints, while organizing or supervising some 30 exhibitions. At UT he also taught in the Department of Art and Art History, and from 1997 to 2009 was visiting professor at the University of Milan. Bober was a member of the advisory committee for the Getty Foundation’s Paper Project, for the additional training of early-career curators of prints and drawings, and he has participated in five. His principal studies have concerned prints and drawings as well as painting in northern Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries, in particular the schools of Milan and Genoa. Publications include catalogues of the Italian drawings in the Fogg Art Museum and at the Blanton; exhibition catalogues of the Suida-Manning Collection and of the Genoese master Luca Cambiaso; and numerous essays on old master prints. In 2022 his two exhibitions in collaboration with Piero Boccardo and Franco Boggero, Superbarocco: Arte a Genova da Rubens a Magnasco and La forma della meraviglia: Capolavori a Genova, 1600–1750, were shown at the Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome, and the Palazzo Ducale, Genova, respectively. Now an independent curator, he is organizing exhibitions on the graphic arts in Milan between the Risorgimento and Futurism (for the Castello Sforzesco, Milan), and with Piero Boccardo, Genoese drawings from private collections (for the Palazzo Lomellino, Genoa).
Carolyn Bullard is a print scholar and was a well-regarded print dealer for over three decades. Along with her business partner, Susan Schulman, Bullard supports the advancement of the field through the Association of Print Scholars Schulman and Bullard Article Prize, which is awarded to an article published by an early-career scholar that features compelling and innovative research on prints or printmaking. Bullard previously served as Art Gallery Director at Zeitlin & Ver Brugge Booksellers, Los Angeles, California, and as Director of the Old Master Print Department at Hom Gallery in Washington, DC.
Dr. Emily Friedman is The Allen and Kelli Questrom Assistant Curator of Prints and Drawings. Prior to joining the DMA in 2024, Friedman held positions at several institutions, including the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Vanderbilt University Museum of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A specialist in the history of the graphic arts, Friedman holds a PhD in History of Art from The Johns Hopkins University and a BA in History of Art from McGill University.
Dr. Anabelle Gambert-Jouan is The Lillian and James H. Clark Assistant Curator of European Art. Gambert-Jouan, who joined the DMA in 2023, is a specialist of medieval art. Prior to the DMA, she held positions at several institutions, including the Yale Center for British Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gambert-Jouan holds a PhD and an MPhil in History of Art from Yale University, an MSt in History of Art and Visual Culture from the University of Oxford, and a BA in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art.
Image: Amadeus Berruti with Austeritas, Amititia, and Amor, 1517. Marcantonio Raimondi. Engraving. Dallas Museum of Art, Junior League Print Fund, 1939.19.