This focused display showcases highlights from The Courtauld’s collection of German and Austrian modernist works on paper – including pencil and ink drawings, lithographs, woodblock prints and etchings – by some of the best-known artists from the period such as Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Oskar Kokoschka.
Presenting a broad variety of techniques, from the highly crafted to the visceral and ranging from portraits and narrative subjects to abstract works that exploit the possibilities of pure line and gestural mark-making, these works emerged from a cultural context in which the graphic arts were no longer considered merely preparatory sketches or cheap populist alternatives to high art.
Conceived as complete, self-contained works of art in themselves, the display demonstrates the artists’ commitment to using the inherent material properties of the graphic arts to communicate complex ideas around issues including gender conflict, metaphysics, politics and attitudes towards tradition and innovation.
Get free unlimited entry to The Courtauld Gallery and exhibitions, priority booking to selected events, advance notice of art history short courses, exclusive events, discounts and more.
An exhibition reuniting for the first time in 120 years an extraordinary group of Claude Monet’s Impressionist paintings of London, depicting Charing Cross Bridge, Waterloo Bridge, and the Houses of Parliament....
For the first time in its history, a rich array of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist highlights from the Reinhart collection will be displayed outside Switzerland....
