The exhibition From Mantegna to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Courteauld Gallery, traveled to New York to be displayed in The Frick Collection. After the great success in London 58 master drawings crossed the Atlantic for their entry on the American continent. As commented by The Times in their earlier review of the exhibition,“There are few art forms more vital, more revealing, more miraculous than drawing.” Fortunately people still remain touched by the delicacy and the power of master drawings. Their true mastery and dexterity immortalized on paper, their capacity to create an illusion in such limited scale, it all keeps us puzzling. It is also one of the few possibilities to have a closer look on the artist’s search for position and composition.
Of course drawings used to play a specific role in the process of the workshop or in relation to a painting or print, as mentioned by Brian Sewell in his review of this exhibition in London (14-06-‘12). Still it is important that drawings remain subject in such overviews. People nowadays are confronted with a large scale of disciplines in art. Drawing, once considered to be the basis of arts, sometimes tends to be forgotten. A powerful line up of master drawings as the one of the Courteauld Gallery can invigorate enthusiasm for the field of master drawings or at least make people acquainted with their great quality and expressiveness. Could you get any closer to the master’s hand and mind?
From Mantegna to Matisse: master drawings from the Courteauld Gallery, until January 27, 2013
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