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An evening with Russ Clayton

Russ Clayton Will Offer Insights into the Life and Career of Artist Athos Menaboni

The Free Event is at 5:30 PM on Thursday, Sept 25, at the Albany Museum of Art

Menaboni may not be a household word like Audubon, but when it comes to art depicting birds in nature, retired educator Russ Clayton says there is no one better than his late friend Athos Menaboni. Clayton will talk about the artist’s career on Thursday, Sept 25, at a free event at the Albany Museum of Art.

To RSVP, register for free HERE.

“My friends call me the Menaboni missionary of the Menaboni gospel,” Clayton said during a recent telephone interview. “He was a great artist, a fantastic human being, and one of Georgia’s most prominent artists.

“Of course, when people ask me to compare what I think about Menaboni versus Audubon, to me—and you’d expect me to say this—there’s no comparison. In my mind, Menaboni is far superior. For some people, that’s an ‘Oh, my goodness, you’re kidding,’ but I have a right to feel that way.”

An Evening with Russ Clayton will start at 5:30 pm on Thursday, Sept 25, at the Albany Museum of Art, where Menaboni’s work can be seen in the McCormack Gallery exhibition A Legacy Built with Nature: Menaboni at 130 on view through Jan 3, 2026. Clayton said he will give an overview of the artist’s career, which spanned 66 years, at the event, which is free and open to the public.

Clayton said Menaboni (1895–1990) is not as well-known as John J. Audubon primarily because Menaboni’s works were always commissioned. “But if you grew up in Georgia, whether you realize it or not, you’ve probably seen at least one Menaboni—the state bird and flower,” he said.

That is because his 1948 painting Brown Thrasher and Cherokee Rose, Georgia State Bird and Flower was the subject of the Christmas card that year, one in a series he created for his greatest patron, Coca-Cola President Robert Woodruff. In 1950, Woodruff commissioned a lithograph of the painting, and the Atlanta Historical Society (now the Atlanta History Center) distributed prints to each school and library in Georgia. One of the lithograph prints, gifted to the AMA by Bee and Anna Louise McComack, is in the exhibition.

Woodruff owned Ichauway Plantation in Baker County, which Menaboni frequently visited. It inspired him to capture the rich biodiversity of Southwest Georgia in his work. His art not only celebrated the beauty of the region, but it also helped promote Woodruff’s vision of conservation and environmental stewardship.

Through the efforts of Joseph W. Jones, longtime associate of Woodruff and senior vice president at The Coca-Cola Company, that vision continues through what is now known as the Jones Center at Ichauway. It has become a nationally recognized center for ecological research and conservation of the longleaf pine and the Coastal Plain.

Woodruff has been a key figure in Clayton’s life as well. Clayton was an avid young Coca-Cola collector who admired Woodruff. He wrote Woodruff while in high school, and Woodruff responded. Over the years, the pen pals became friends. It was through Woodruff that Clayton met and befriended Menaboni and the artist’s wife, Sara.

Twelve Menaboni Christmas cards that are usually on display at the Jones Center at Ichauway were loaned to the AMA and are part of the exhibition. “I was thrilled that the museum was able to borrow some of the Christmas cards,” Clayton said. “It’s a very impressive collection.

“They created a lot of anticipation each year. What would the card be? They couldn’t wait until they were received to see what the next bird would be. That was a great project between those two men. I always enjoy talking about Mr. Woodruff because he’s my hero.”

Clayton said his presentation will be a comprehensive look at the artist’s career. “We’ll start with murals and how he came here before we move to birds,” he said.

Menaboni was born in Livorno, Italy, and started studying art at age nine. After serving in the Italian military during World War I, he immigrated in 1921 to the U.S., first to New York City, then Atlanta. His artistic talent was quickly recognized, and he began numerous commissions for decorative painting in residences and public buildings.

Many of those who know about Menaboni’s work are surprised to learn that he did more than birds-in-nature studies, Clayton said. “He did much more of that,” he said, noting the artist spent his first dozen years in Atlanta painting murals. “When people see those and see his work, they’re very surprised because it’s so diverse,” Clayton said. “It’s a shocker to people.”

Examples, he said, are the circus people murals and game room images that Menaboni created for tobacco company heir Richard Reynolds’ mansion on Sapelo Island, which the Georgia Department of Natural Resources has owned since 1975 and rents to groups. Plus, longtime Georgians who remember dining at the Magnolia Room at Rich’s Department Store in Atlanta decades ago might be surprised to learn it was Menaboni’s art that graced the front of the menus they perused before ordering.

One of his most unusual murals, however, was created in 1958 for the C&S National Bank branch in Decatur. Now owned by the DeKalb History Center, the 27-foot mural on exhibition at the Brick Store Pub comprises 15 mosaic panels made from 3,000 eggshells.

Clayton noted the two large murals from the AMA collection that are in the exhibition. They were two of four commissioned by C&S Bank President Mills Lane, Jr., for the bank branch in Albany located at the corner of West Oglethorpe Boulevard and North Washington Street. The building later became the location of Albany attorney Al Corriere’s law practice.

While most of Menaboni’s murals peeled easily from walls, the process at the Albany location “involved a lot of work to try to save those,” Clayton said.

“In my opinion, Mr. Corriere is one of the greatest people in my line of friends because of Menaboni,” he said. “He was determined to save those murals. He went through a lot of expense and time to save them. I have the greatest respect for that man and what he was able to do.”

Corriere and his wife, Carolyn, gifted the 1955 oil-on-canvas mural Wild Turkey and American Robin to the AMA. The second mural, Wild Turkey and Red-Headed Woodpecker, was purchased with funds gifted by Jane S. Willson.

The exhibition also includes two beautiful oil-on-masonite paintings gifted to the AMA by Bee and Anna Louise McCormack, who commissioned them. Brown Thrasher on Holley and Mockingbirds on Maple were painted in the 1950s.

Clayton said he was honored that AMA Director of Curatorial Affairs Katie Dillard, who curated A Legacy Built with Nature, asked him to speak about Menaboni.

“It’s a small exhibition, but it’s an important exhibition because of how (the museum) involved the Woodruff Foundation and incorporated Mr. Menaboni’s birthday,” Clayton said. “I know he would have been so happy and honored. And Sara, his wife, would have been so crazy with excitement.”

In 2014, Clayton was the guest curator when the AMA presented the large retrospective Athos Menaboni: Six Decades of Painting in Georgia. Last November, he met virtually with the AMA Art Lovers Book Club as it discussed The Life & Art of Athos Menaboni, the book by the artist and Barbara Cable Taylor.

Though he’s retired, Clayton stays busy. He’s active in a support role with the College of the Arts at Kennesaw State University, where he can usually be found at least two nights a week. He’s also the archivist for the three Menaboni collections in the Troup County Archives in LaGrange, going there every eight to 12 weeks to add and update things.

And there are the speaking engagements, like the one coming up at the Albany Museum of Art.

“I learned a long time ago—and I think this is why things have gone so well with my work—that it has nothing to do with me, and everything to do with Mr. Menaboni,” Clayton said. “For some reason, and maybe it’s just sheer beauty, people really connect with his work. It strikes a chord with so many people, and that’s why I enjoy it so much. I do it because he deserves it.”

To RSVP for An Evening with Russ Clayton, register for free HERE.

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Russ Clayton

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