NASHVILLE.- Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum of Art will open A Century on Paper on Saturday, June 28 and the exhibition will run through September 21. Through purchases and giftsCheekwood has amassed a rich and varied collection over the last forty eight years. This exhibition displays works by many prominent 20th-century artists as well as excellent works by lesser-known names.

“Cheekwood is thrilled to present this exhibition and display so many excellent works on paper,” said Jack Becker, Ph.D., Cheekwood’s President/CEO. “Some of these pieces have not been exhibited in nearly two decades and are extremely rare. Visitors will enjoy a wide range of artists and mediums through this exhibition.”

A Century on Paper includes works from American Realists such as Reginald Marsh and Isabel Bishop, works from early Modernists like John Marin and Stuart Davis, and works from contemporary artists like Edward Ruscha and David Hockney. Of noted interest is Robert Rauschenberg’s Cardbird suite (1971), which has not been on display in over fifteen years. Rauschenberg recently passed away but in an interview several years ago he commented on this work, “I wanted something other than what I could make myself and I wanted to use the surprise and the collectiveness and the generosity of finding surprises. And if it wasn't a surprise at first, by the time I got through with it, it was. So the object itself was changed by its context and therefore it became a new thing.”

In addition, the exhibition includes collection highlights such as The Chrysler Building Gargoyle with Tops of Buildings (n.d.), a luminous architectural drawing by native Nashvillian A.C. Webb. Sponsored by First Tennessee, A Century on Paper presents favorites as well as seldom-seen prints, drawings, and watercolors.