MENDRISIO, Switzerland: Le Corbusier’s early drawings. 1902-1916. On view until January 24, 2021

The Teatro dell’architettura-USI in Mendrisio presents the exhibition “Le Corbusier’s early drawings. 1902-1916” promoted by the Fondazione Teatro dell’architettura, in partnership with the Accademia di architettura of the Università della Svizzera italiana in Mendrisio. This extensive review features more than eighty previously-unpublished original drawings from public and private Swiss collections, and includes numerous reproductions of drawings from the Fondation Le Corbusier in Paris.

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Rediscovered Paul Gauguin manuscript written in his Polynesian hut reveals artist’s hidden secrets.

A Paul Gauguin manuscript which has never been exhibited has just been acquired by the Courtauld Gallery. Avant et Après (Before and After), a book-length work, was completed by the artist on the remote Marquesan island of Hiva Ova in February 1903, just two months before his death at the age of 54. The manuscript, illustrated with nearly 30 original images, has been allocated to the Courtauld under the Acceptance in Lieu scheme, satisfying £6.5m of inheritance tax. It is one of the greatest artist manuscripts to be acquired by a UK public collection since the Second World War.

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Why Francisco de Goya’s Prints Are a Safe Bet for Cautious Collectors

Prints and drawings on paper are a frequently overlooked source of aesthetic pleasure, reasonable pricing, and consistent value within an artist’s oeuvre. Indeed, many major art-historical figures currently have works on sale for less than $10,000. This includes the tempestuous Spanish painter Francisco de Goya (1746–1828).

For the risk-averse art collector, an object with less individual value but a longer financial and critical consensus can supply their particular demands. Though living artists such as KAWS and Jeff Koons fetch a higher price tag, they have not sustained their value and critical reputation over hundreds of years the way an artist like Goya has. “Collectors, and especially new collectors, have great confidence in buying this way from established names,” said Wendy Goldsmith of London-based Goldsmith Art Advisory, “especially when there is so much information available online.” For fans of the artist, Goya’s prints represent the perfect middle-market buy.

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LONDON, UK: The British Library has announced that the visual archive of writer, artist and illustrator Mervyn Peake (1911-1968) has been acquired for the nation from the Peake Estate.

Mervyn Peake’s Visual Archive comprises over 300 original illustrations, including drawings from his critically acclaimed Gormenghast series, together with original illustrations for his own books for children Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor and Letters From a Lost Uncle and other classic works of English literature. Also included are unpublished early works, preliminary sketches, and drawings of famous literary, theatrical and artistic figures such as Laurence Olivier and W.H. Auden. This acquisition brings Peake’s archive together in one place, making it fully accessible to the public for the first time.

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A Colorful New Comic-Book Biography of Artist Yayoi Kusama Follows Her Trials and Triumphs.

For the first time, the remarkable Japanese artist’s life is told in comic-book form. Written and illustrated by Elisa Macellari, a Thai-Italian artist, the book tells the story of Kusama’s coming of age in Japan as she struggled with hallucinations and obsessive behaviors.

Kusama channeled those struggles into a career that began in Japan and—against her parents’ will—took her to New York City, where she flourished. In the panels, Macellari empathetically describes Kusama’s fears and anxieties, exacerbated by her unfaithful father and overbearing mother, and the refuge that art provided her. The graphic novel also tracks Kusama’s early years in the United States, as she found likeminded artists in Andy Warhol, Donald Judd, Joseph Cornell, and Salvador Dali, and examines how she expanded her drawing and painting practices into installations, performances, clothing designs, and more.

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MISSOULA, Montana: Missoula Art Museum invites the public to experience ‘Doug Turman: Curious’, the first solo show of Montana artist Doug Turman at MAM.

This survey of various works on paper includes Turman’s Love Notes series, whimsical etchings, and an array of paintings on paper. A master of the small, almost incidental, work on paper, Turman works with obsessive precision and a categorical knowledge of art history. Together, these works present a picture of a sustained artistic vision that has been steadfast for nearly forty years. Turman says, “Each painting is its own little world. At one point I decided I wanted to be able to paint whatever I could think of.”

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LONDON, UK: Over 100 newly-rediscovered drawings by Japanese artist Hokusai have been acquired by the British Museum.

Created in 1829 as illustrations for an unpublished book, they came to light in 2019 and have now been purchased by the Museum. The acquisition was made possible thanks to a grant from Art Fund. The existence of these exquisite small drawings – 103 in total – had been forgotten for the past 70 years. Formerly owned by the collector and Art Nouveau jeweller Henri Vever (1854-1842), they resurfaced in Paris last year, the same city where they were last publicly recorded: at an auction in 1948. The drawings are a major discovery of Hokusai’s life and works. They are especially significant as they come from a period in the artist’s career where he was previously thought to have created relatively little, due to a succession of personal challenges.

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NORTH ADAMS, Massachusetts: The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art has announced the exhibition Shaun Leonardo: The Breath of Empty Space through December 22, 2020.

Through his work, the Brooklyn-based artist addresses how the mediated images of systemic oppression and violence against Black and Brown young men and boys in the United States have shaped our fear, empathy, and perception. Through a series of intimate drawings based on images widely disseminated in the press and popular media and accessed from his own recollection of these tragedies, Leonardo applies the additive nature of drawing—a rigorous visual editing—to explore the reductive nature of memory, powerfully addressing how time and the endless cycling of images in the media affect what we remember, and what we forget.

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TOLEDO, Ohio: PICTURE ID: Contemporary African American Works on Paper addresses issues of race, gender and identity.

A new exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art examines the work of contemporary African American artists who use a mixture of text and images to tackle cultural stereotypes and challenge oppressive racial characterizations. PICTURE ID: Contemporary African American Works on Paper will be on view until January 17, 2021. All works in the exhibition are drawn from TMA’s permanent collection. “The exhibition title is inspired by the key question each artist raises, which is how appearances shape our perceptions and assumptions of our identity and character,” said Robin Reisenfeld, TMA’s senior curator of works on paper.

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WILLIAMSBURG, Virginia: Early American Faces, a new assemblage of important paintings and watercolors from both the fine art and folk art collections in the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, is on view until December 31, 2022.

From the very beginning, American society was composed of people from many different ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds. Some were born here, some immigrated of their own accord, and some were forced here in the bonds of slavery. In this compact exhibition guests will encounter faces that represent some of the cultures and populations whose works are on view throughout the facility. Portraits include an American Indian man, an enslaved child, a wife and mother of six, and George Washington, among others.

On view in the Ronald L. and Mary J. Hurst Gallery

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