The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents Serra/Seurat. Drawings, the exhibition that brings together a selection of 22 drawings by the late 19th-century master Georges Seurat, which in turn engage in dialogue with the drawings of Richard Serra, a great admirer of Seurat’s and without a doubt one of the most outstanding artists of the present day. Despite the years that separate them, both artists are notable for working with drawing as an end in itself and taking it to new levels, imbuing it with innovative characteristics and extrapolating it to other areas of their work.
- Curators: Judith Benhamou, independent curator and art writer & Lucía Agirre, curator, Museo Guggenheim Bilbao
- Especially important in Seurat’s drawings is the handmade paper he uses, which he ‘brings to life’ by allowing it to absorb exactly the right amount of crayon to create the lights, volumes, and contrasts that make him one of the masters of drawing.
- Richard Serra also revels in his materials, such as the handmade Japanese paper that he employs in his Ramble Owing to its manufacturing process, the fibers create different ‘accidents’ so that no drawing is the same as any other.
- Seurat was an artist for artists, as draftsman was and is admired by many of them, such Van Gogh, Signac, Picasso, Moore and even now Jasper Johns and Richard Serra. His drawings are now fetishized by these creators and the followers of their cults all around the world, the collectors.