A new exhibition “Drawn to Drawing: The New Masters,” curated by Southern Ohio Museum Director Sara Johnson demonstrates that “drawing is no longer a servant to painting but stands proudly on its own, finished and complete, a powerful and compelling art form to be reckoned with and stunned by.”

The show highlights remarkable drawings, some as tall as nine feet, by four major Ohio artists who have devoted their artistic careers entirely to drawing and have all been recognized with numerous fellowships, awards and private and public purchases.

Constance McClure, Professor Emerita at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, works from old black and white photographs, often family portraits of people she has never met.

Charles Massey, Jr., who is a professor of art at The Ohio State University, arranges popsicle sticks and buttons into mysterious arrangements, occasionally combining them with arches, doorways and other architectural features.

George Mauersberger, Associate Professor of Art at Cleveland State University, whose self-portraits were featured in an earlier museum exhibit entitled “Paper Routes,” has always been attracted to ordinary objects like shower curtains and garbage bags. His newest ”Wallflowers” series concentrates on drawings of single blossoms fastened to the wall with unexpected materials like electrical tape and thumbtacks.

Lowell Tolstedt, Professor Emeritus at Columbus College of Art and Design, has also been represented in earlier shows here with his exceptionally realistic still life drawings in colored pencil.

Philip R. Jackson, a painter who teaches at the University of Mississippi, who is the youngest of the exhibition's artists, is the exception to the drawings-only rule. Like most painters from the Renaissance onward, he first explores his options with a number of preparatory drawings. His works are included in the exhibition to illustrate drawing's traditional role as a “road map,” as Johnson calls it, pointing the way toward a different art form like painting or sculpture.

“Drawn to Drawing” opens in the museum's Kricker Gallery on Nov. 11, and continues through the end of the year. Student or adult groups of ten or more are invited to schedule a tour by calling the museum at (740) 354-5629.

The exhibition is sponsored in part by the Scioto Foundation and the Ohio Arts Council.