GROUP EXHIBITION

For enthusiasts, each work in ‘The Triumph of Paper’ contains clues by which we might recognise the artist’s hand.Perhaps it’s the crisp contours and slanted hatching of a young David Hockney, already exploring the mechanics ofpictorial space, or the artfully reduced outlines and graphic flatness of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. For someartists, like AR Penck and Peter Halley, every work posits a new combination from a vocabulary of forms developedover a lifetime, each instantly recognisable and unmistakeably their own. And of course, Lowry’s famous ‘matchstick’people are seen here traversing a modestly sized pencil drawing that somehow contains a vast and imposing landscape.

Drawings by Lynn Chadwick and Antony Gormley provide a unique insight into the importance of two-dimensionalappearances to these artists best known for their sculptural work. Likewise, in Henry Moore’s RecliningFigures and Four Standing Sculpture Ideas, we see the role that drawing played in Moore’s distinctive approach to thefigure, familiar to millions around the world from his monumental public sculptures.

The process of creation is similarly discernible in Francis Picabia’s pencil lines – these light, swift traces of the artistfinding his way to an image before finalising it with ink. George Condo’s Portrait of Rene Ricard presents an even looserform of improvisation, in which crayon and oil paint are freely combined in a medley of handwritten text, gesturalbrushwork and caricatural line.The most recent works in the exhibition, by Nicolas Party and Billy Childish, testify to the continued relevance of paperfor artists working in an increasingly screen-oriented world. Computers have replaced paper in many of its moremundane uses, but as a tool for artistic endeavour paper remains an indispensable partner to the hand and mind.

Every one of us has a special appreciation for works on paper, because we’ve all made a few ourselves – though maybenot since childhood. Unlike most artist’s materials, paper is a feature of the everyday, from infant school art class to thepaperwork of adult life. Perhaps that’s why works on paper afford us such a powerful sense of connection with the artist.We know the feel of a sheet of paper resting under our hand, so we can easily imagine the moment of creation as if itwere happening again now, right before our eyes.