Dessins sans limite - Chefs-d’œuvre de la collection du Centre Pompidou

With more than 35,000 drawings, the collection of the Cabinet of Graphic Art at the Centre Pompidou is one of the largest in the world. For the first time, over 300 works by 120 artists—including Dubuffet, Basquiat, Delaunay, Kentridge and many others—reveal, at the Grand Palais, a drawing practice that is constantly being reinvented. The Centre Pompidou’s Cabinet of Graphic Art forms one of the most important holdings of works on paper from the 20th and 21st centuries. This exceptional collection, remarkable for its wealth and diversity, has never before been the subject of an exhibition of this scale. Dessins sans limite (Drawings Without Limits) offers the first opportunity to unveil these invaluable treasures and to understand how this medium was completely reinvented in the 20th century.

Many artists have taken up this primary, cathartic mode of expression to push the boundaries of art. Beyond the sheet or the traditional sketchbook, its domain extends to other supports. Drawing has entered wall space and installations and has opened up to other practices—photographic, cinematic and digital.

The renewed interest among younger generations of artists attests to the continued relevance of this simple, accessible medium. The exhibition highlights major pieces from the collection that are rarely shown, including works by Balthus, Marc Chagall, Willem de Kooning, Sonia Delaunay, Jean Dubuffet, George Grosz, Vassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Karel Appel, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Roland Barthes, Robert Breer, Trisha Brown, Marlene Dumas, William Kentridge, Robert Longo, Giuseppe Penone, Robert Rauschenberg, Kiki Smith and Antoni Tàpies, among others.

Featuring more than 300 works by 120 artists, the exhibition offers an unprecedented exploration of the Cabinet of Graphic Art, organized around four sequences: étudier, raconter, tracer et animer (study, tell, trace and animate). Not arranged chronologically, the layout is based on a sensorial approach in which works follow and answer one another in a domino effect. It is a unique immersion into a fragile, inventive and ever-relevant art.

A co-production between the Centre Pompidou and the Grand Palais — RMN

Curatorship

Claudine Grammont — Head of Department, Cabinet of Graphic Art, Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’Art moderne

Anne Montfort-Tanguy — Curator, Cabinet of Graphic Art, Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’Art moderne

Associate curators: Valérie Loth and Laetitia Pesenti — Curatorial attachés, Cabinet of Graphic Art, Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’Art moderne

Exhibition design: Pauline Phelouzat — Architect and exhibition designer