Courtauld: Modern Drawings

Paul Cézanne(1839-1906)

 Still Life with Jug, Bottles and Wash Basin Around 1885-95

 Graphite and watercolour on paper

Paul Cézanne was Howard Karshan's favourite artist. The two watercolours on this wall were the cornerstone of his collection.

 In this work, Cézanne uses everyday objects to explore colour, light and form. Strokes of pencil shape the outlines of the water jug, bottles and basin while their varied contours are modelled with diluted colour. 

By boldly placing his composition unusually high up on the sheet and leaving much white space, Cézanne invites the viewer to complete the scene in their imagination. The work's experimental character anticipates the radical approaches to drawing and watercolour by artists in the 20th century.

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

 Mountainous Landscape

 Around 1885-90

 Graphite and watercolour on paper The rugged landscape of his native Provence was an enduring source of inspiration for Paul Cézanne. In contrast to the approach adopted in the still life on view nearby, graphite here takes on a key role in defining the contours of the mountains.

  It works almost independently of the dabs of watercolour in cool tones of blue, grey and green.

 Rather than creating a complete description of the scene, line and colour convey the artist's sensations of different parts of the view.

Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966)

 Bouquet of Flowers

 1953

 Graphite on paper

 Although best known as a sculptor, Alberto Giacometti was a committed draughtsman.

 Still lifes such as this one allowed him to focus on objects and explore how they relate to the space around them.

 The quick, nervous pencil strokes that search out the forms of the flowers contrast with the strong vertical axis that grounds them on the sheet.

 Giacometti greatly admired Cézanne's drawings; his exploratory treatment of this still life has affinities with the work of the older artist.

Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985)

 The Chatterer [Le Bon Causeur]

 1951

 Oil paint and mixed media on paper, pasted on canvas At first glance, this grinning figure in a hat - part stick figure, part amorphous blob - resembles a child's drawing. 

The work grew out of Jean Dubuffet's keen interest in the art made by children and those with no formal training, which he referred to as Art Brut ('raw art'). Dubuffet's search for inspiration outside conventional channels extends to his materials. 

Here, he used putty, a traditional builders' material, to create a textured base for the figure Dubuffet's title gives an additional sense of the figure's character as an overly talkative man; he appears to be attracting the viewer's attention with a wave.

Paul Klee (1879-1940)

 Children and Crows

 1932

 Pen, brush and black ink on paper, mounted on card Paul Klee's favourite subjects included children and animals playing games or dancing.

 Here, he depicts the figures in a deceptively naive manner, with humans and birds interacting as equals. The children and crows are described in a flurry of short, dashed marks, as if caught in the wind. The lively use of pen and brush echoes their whirling motion. 

The poet Rainer Maria Rilke once described Klee's drawings as "transcriptions of music'. 

Here, there is a rhythm to the circular flow of the composition. However, the spiky quality of Klee's lines and the strange interaction of children and large crows also conveys an unsettling atmosphere.

Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)

Untitled

1916

Brush and black ink on paper

The 1910s was an important decade for Wassily Kandinsky, as his work moved towards pure abstraction. 

This drawing, with its rhythmic, musical quality, is typical of that period. It is remarkable for the balance between freedom and control in its execution. 

Although it appears swiftly drawn, the three separate applications of ink - with each layer needing time to dry reveal the care with which it was made. Once part of a sketchbook with perforated edges, the sheet was dated and initialled by the artist, suggesting he considered it a finished work.

Otto Dix (1891-1969)

 Lament [Klage]

 1915

 Pen and black ink with brush on paper Likely inspired by Otto Dix's military service during the First World War, this harrowing image of naked mourning women conveys a shocking sense of violence. The figures are enmeshed in a net of slashing pen strokes. 

Ink splashes out in unruly blotches. 

The sheet is scored with deep lines, revealing how Dix dug into it as he drew. His aggressive, raw and sexualised treatment of the female figures creates a deeply uncomfortable image made in the teeth of war. 

The inscription at the bottom is a quote from the Bible; in it, the Jewish people, held in captivity after the destruction of Jerusalem, lament their fate and yearn for their homeland.

Louis Souter (1871-1942)

 Two Figures

 Around 1937-42

 Black ink on paper

 The Karshan Gift contains two major works by Louis Soutter. Howard Karshan was deeply committed to the work of this extraordinary but little-known artist. 

Soutter worked in a spontaneous manner, using a brush and his fingers dipped in ink, to create Two Figures. The characters seem to be locked in an altercation - the right-hand figure might even be thumbing his nose. 

They are set against crossed and curving lines that add movement and structure to the scene. 

These lines also create a repeating decorative effect, as if the composition might be imagined as part of a larger frieze.

Louis Souter (1871-1942)

 Beat? [Frapper?]

 Around 1937-42

 Ink on paper

 The Swiss artist and musician Louis Soutter spent the last twenty years of his life in a hospice for the elderly where he made an array of remarkable works on paper. 

Failing health made it difficult for Souter to continue his earlier practice of making detailed pencil drawings. Instead, he began producing energetic and liberated works such as this one, using only a brush and his fingers dipped directly in ink. His raw and expressive style is matched by his frieze of what appear to be wild dancing figures. However, the title, 'beat' or 'hit', introduces a sense of violence, perhaps suggesting the figures are fleeing danger.

Gerhard Richter (born 1932)

 3.11.85

 1985

 Watercolour and oil paint on paper Gerard Richter experimented with watercolour extensively during the 1980s. 

In this work, he explored layering different colors and brushstrokes to produce a complex visual effect. 

He introduced oil paint in certain areas to create a contrast between solid colour and the transparency of watercolour. The result is a mysterious abstract landscape. 

The interplay of the layers is not always harmonious, and the work has a deliberately unsettling quality.

Joseph Beys (1921-1986)

Felt Corners (Movement)

& Organic Movement

1963

Oil paint and graphite on card

The small reddish triangles in this work seem to emerge from the larger one in the centre and cascade down the right-hand side. 

Strange, pencil-drawn forms - snail-like creatures or stylised heads and bodies - move across the compostion below. 

Using only these simple marks, Joseph Beuys creates a sense of life and movement in this work, whilst also emphasising the material substance of the pigment itself. The drawing and its title relate to his sculptural installations, in which he often created works using triangular pieces of felt.

Georg Baselitz (born 1938)

Untitled (Animal Piece) [Tierstück]

1965

Brush and black ink on paper

This drawing presents an amorphous pile of what seem to be bulbous body parts, or 'animal pieces' as the title suggests.

Two female figures emerge in the upper and lower right.

Some of the other forms have the appearance of eyeballs or breasts.

Georg Baselitz used the stark contrast of black ink on white paper to give this unsettling image greater drama.

Perhaps this is the tragic aftermath of a violent episode or a vision of life as monstrous and tortured.

Georg Baselitz (born 1938)

Untitled (Amorphous Drawing) [Der Zwerg]

1962

Brush, ink, watercolour and gouache on laid paper This is one of the three major early drawings by Georg Baselitz in the Karshan Gift. 

Its seated figure is depicted in scratchy lines of ink as a monstrous arrangement of bodily forms and barbed marks. 

They include what appear to be lungs, a spleen, and a protruding penis. An empty speech bubble emanates from the figure's head into the hostile-looking landscape. Such grotesque and pained figures are often seen as the artist's response to the trauma of the post-war era in Germany.

Georg Baselitz (born 1938)

Untitled (from the Whip Woman series)

[Peitschenfrau]

1964

Graphite on paper

This drawing of a disturbing, grossly inflated female figure was made just as Georg Baselitz was emerging as one of the most radical new voices in German art after the Second World War. 

The woman's spherical body almost consumes her tiny head and legs, while her breasts, stomach and genitalia are given prominence amidst the mass of covering hair. 

She holds a small whip but seems powerless to use it. The drawing is a deliberately provocative and grotesque rendering of one of art's most familiar subjects, the female nude.

Sam Francis (1923-1994)

 Red, Black, Blue; Composition

 1958

 Gouache and watercolour on paper

 Despite its title, Sam Francis's watercolour contains a rainbow of shimmering hues. 

His poetic and emotive use of colour partly stemmed from his experience of the landscape and the sky as a military pilot. 

He was also inspired by the Impressionist paintings he encountered while living in Paris. 

However, the gestural freedom with which he worked is characteristic of the Abstract Expressionist movement in post-war America. 

Here, the composition fluctuates between order, as seen in the interlocking cells, and chance, embodied by drips and areas of colour layered in whilst some of the watercolour underneath was still wet.

Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985)

 Clear Grounds [Terres de clarté]

 1955

 Black ink and collage on paper

 Soil and 'things of the earth' were recurrent features of Jean Dubuffet's work. 

Here, the artist depicts an eerie otherworldly terrain, devoid of human presence, whose pebbly ground seems populated by strange fossils. 

To achieve this striking effect, Dubuffet pioneered his own variation on the collage technique: rather than use scraps of collected materials, he cut up his own hand-made prints and pasted them to create both the black sky and the 'clear grounds' below.

Philip Guston (1913-1980)

 Close-Up Il

 1959

 Oil paint on paper, mounted on board, mounted on Masonite In the 1950s, Philip Guston was considered a leading figure of Abstract Expressionism in the United States. 

Alongside his large paintings, he produced smaller works on paper, which allowed him to explore ideas swiftly and spontaneously. 

It is the case with this work, in which Guston used thick layers of paint to create roughly hewn blocks of colour against a formless sea of grey. 

These elements create a dynamic tension, seemingly holding together - but only just. The title might be an invitation to look closely or a suggestion that the composition is part of a larger whole.

Philip Guston (1913-1980)

August Form

1964

Oil paint on paper

The mottled grey surface of this mesmerizing work was created by alternating strokes of white and black paint. 

It sits on an initial layer of warm reds and pinks, which shows through in places. 

Guston's approach involved working his compositions until compelling abstract forms began to come through. Here, however, he found that what emerged was the partial shape of a head. 

Alongside others from the period, this work signalled Guston's gradual move away from pure abstraction and his return to representation.

Philip Guston(1913-1980)

 Untitled

 1969

 Charcoal on paper

 At first glance, these triangular heads smoking under a clock seem comical. However, they are quickly recognisable as disturbing, cartoonish depictions of hooded members of the white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan. With such drawings, Philip Guston wanted to engage directly with the culture of social division and racism in the United States at the time. 

Having moved away from his earlier abstract work, he focused on these startlingly direct and challenging figures. 

The drawing's unsettling power lies in its use of seemingly simple humour to represent malevolence.

Henri Michaux (1899-1984)

 Untitled (Mescaline Drawing)

 1957

 Pen and black ink on paper

 Henri Michaux took the hallucinogenic drug mescaline on several occasions in order to experience, and then record as drawings, the altered state of consciousness it induced. This is a work he made after one of these psychedelic experiments. 

The mass of shuddering lines appears like a seismographic recording, with Michaux's hand registering his sensations. He saw these drawings as representations of his subconscious and intended them to embody a radical new type of artistic practice. 

Within the turbulence of the lines, shapes emerge and then recede, as if only partially formed.

Henri Michaux (1899-1984)

 Untitled

 Around 1959

 Brush and black ink on paper

 Henri Michaux made this large and impressive drawing with swift calligraphic moves of his brush, allowing the ink to run and pool a little. The work's rhythmic quality leads the eye across the composition. 

The viewer becomes immersed in its array of marks and movements. Michaux was fascinated by different forms of lettering and pictograms. 

This work also has affinities with musical notation. Nevertheless, its abstract forms remain open to interpretation.

Wayne Thiebaud (born 1920)

Cake Slices

1963

Graphite and ink on paper

Forgoing the rich colours of his subject matter, Wayne Thiebaud chose to render these four slices of a cherry-topped frosted cake as bold monochrome wedges. 

The white of the sheet plays a crucial role, working with the black ink to create form, pattern and a play between positive and negative space. 

This skilful handling of black and white may derive from Thiebaud's early career as an illustrator. 

Although influenced by older artists, such as Paul Cézanne, Thiebaud's still lifes depict the objects of his time, especially those found in the diners and shops of 1960s America.

Cy Twombly (1928-2011)

 Untitled

 1959

 Graphite on paper

 Sweeping across this large sheet is an array of softly made marks, symbols and what might be scribbled notations. 

The more one looks, the more this graphic constellation reveals itself, but it remains tantalisingly mysterious. 

It is as if Twombly is offering us his personal sketches and notes but invites the viewer to create their own interpretation of them. 

The work's combination of subtlety, scale and complexity makes it an impressive early example of Twombly's highly original approach to drawing.

Willem de Kooning (1904-1997)

 Studies of Women

 1954

 Graphite on paper

 In 1950, Willem de Kooning began a major series of paintings representing women.

 Highly distinctive, it contrasted sharply with the pure abstraction prevalent in the United States, where the Dutch-born De Kooning was based.

 The series was also controversial in often rendering the female figures as monstrous and sexualised. 

This drawing depicts at least two female figures, one naked and the other wearing a corset. 

The artist experimented with a wide range of pencil marks, adding and erasing at will, to create a complex interplay of figures and abstracted forms.