“Menaboni’s Birds” is a Madison-Morgan Cultural Center exhibition featuring paintings by Athos Menaboni (1895 - 1990) - one of Georgia’s most prominent artists.
Guest Curator: Russell Clayton
We are excited to welcome a stunning collection of 16 paintings by Athos Menaboni. The exhibition will run from June 27th through July 29th.
Exhibition Schedule:
Opening Day: Tuesday, June 27th
Curator’s Talk: Saturday, July 15th, 11 AM. This FREE talk will be presented by Russell Clayton, and will be held in the MMCC’s Auditorium.
Closing Day: Saturday, July 29th
This exhibition is dedicated to to Arnold Hoge - a Madison resident and nephew of Sara Arnold Menaboni, wife of the artist.
About the Artist:
Athos Menaboni (1895 – 1990) was born in 1895 in the Italian port city of Livorno. As a result of his ship-supplier father’s bringing home exotic animals from clients around the world, young Athos developed the lifelong fascination with birds and other animals, which later became the subjects of his paintings. At the age of nine, he began a formal study of art with private teachers. He later attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence.
After serving in Italy’s armed forces during World War I, Menaboni left home with a job on an American freighter and immigrated to the United States in 1921, eventually becoming an American citizen in 1939.
By 1927, he was living in Atlanta, Georgia. During the next decade, he was hired by architect Philip Shutze to execute decorative painting at the Swan House (now a house museum at the Atlanta History Center) and in several other residences, as well as in public buildings. Other early commissions included restoration work on Atlanta’s Cyclorama. During this period, he also earned money painting landscapes and seascapes.
For the first year in Atlanta, Menaboni lived in a Peachtree Street boarding house owned by an uncle of his future wife. It was here he met Sara Regina Arnold, of Rome, Georgia, whom he married in 1928.
In 1937, Menaboni returned to his childhood interest in birds. From then on, he steadily refined aspects of the art for which he is now famous – naturalistic oil paintings of birds. He developed a technique that used turpentine to thin the oil in order to paint in layers on paper and give the feathers translucency, detail, and depth.
Vintage photograph, 1950, Courtesy Troup County Archives (LaGrange, GA)
Sara Menaboni’s sending - in 1938 - of a portfolio of his paintings to New York City led to exhibitions at the American Museum of Natural History and the National Audubon Society.
In 1941, Atlanta’s Coca-Cola magnate Robert W. Woodruff began selecting and printing an image of a Menaboni bird painting on his personal Christmas card. This important commission continued until 1984 (Woodruff died in 1985), producing an impressive forty-four card series.
Menaboni also did work for periodicals (including Sports Illustrated and The Progressive Farmer) as well as for publications in book-form (including The World Book Encyclopedia). Since 1942 his art has been made even more widely available through lithographs.
In 1950 Sara and Athos Menaboni published Menaboni’s Birds. His paintings illustrated the text written by his wife, and the volume was voted one of the “Fifty Best Books of the Year” by the American Institute of Graphic Arts.
It was also in 1950 that the magazine Time declared Menaboni the heir of James Audubon, an apt designation, given the fact he would eventually paint over one hundred sixty different species of birds. It was just one of the many recognitions during his career in Atlanta, which spanned sixty-plus years.
In 1990 Athos Menaboni died at age ninety-four. Three years later, Sara died.
Athos Menaboni’s work continues to be admired and exhibited in museums across the United States.
Northern Cardinal and Dogwood, c. 1965. Oil on gessoed paper; 23 x 18."