Pencil: Drawings from the Collection September 18, 2003–March 8, 2004

Pencil is the most basic of materials for art. Artists have achieved some of their most evocative and powerful works using only pencil. This exhibition highlights pencil drawings from MoMA’s collection by many of the most important artists of the past 100 years. Drawings by Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Kazimir Malevich, Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Max Ernst, Cy Twombly, Claes Oldenburg, Ellsworth Kelly, and Jasper Johns are included, along with works by emerging artists. A full range of styles—figuration and abstraction, portraiture and landscape, naturalism and cartoonlike renderings—is represented.

If you are interested in finding out which works from the collection are on view in Pencil, a checklist is available.

Organized by Gary Garrels, Chief Curator, Department of Drawings, and Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture.

Pictured above:
Ellsworth Kelly. Wild Grape. 1960. Pencil on two sheets of paper, overall: 28 1/2 x 25" (72.4 x 114.3 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Kathy and Richard Fuld, Jr. in honor of Ellsworth Kelly’s 80th birthday. © 2003 Ellsworth Kelly