Erró - Drawings

This exhibition, entitled Drawings, comprises drawings by Erró from 1944 to the present day. Erró’s drawings are probably the least-known aspect of his art. The works are presented in rough chronological order, in loose groupings or formal series.

The drawings in the first part of the exhibition were made in the artist’s formative years or in his  early career and vary widely in style and subject. They include sketches, studies, and finished works. Wrought in black and white or in color using diverse media such as pencil, charcoal, felt pen, India ink, crayon, gouache, watercolor, and mixtures thereof, these drawings often display a distinct freedom and vigor of line.

The latter part of the exhibition clearly shows Erró’s shift during the early 1960s toward methods based on collage. This period marks the artist’s creative departure into the use of collages as models for his works. His hand no longer invents or renders but becomes primarily a tool for transposing images to canvas and paper, often with the aid of a slide projector or episcope.

This exhibition, originally mounted at the St. Etienne Municipal Museum of Modern Art in 2010 and presented here in revised form, was created in close collaboration with Erró using works drawn from the artist’s private collection and from the Reykjavik Art Museum’s Erró Collection.