A Voyage Through Drawing at Salon du Dessin in Paris
“Salon du dessin has a very special place in the Spring calendar for every major collector of drawings and works on paper,” Joan Robledo-Palop, founder of Zeit Contemporary Art, commented to Cultbytes, he is one of the younger dealers at the fair that presents more than 1000 works on paper from thirty-nine exhibitors at Palais Brongniart. Through Monday, March 25th, visitors are welcomed to browse exceptional old masters, modern, and contemporary works in the neo-classical building with Corinthian-style pillars erected in 1808 by Napoleon. It was also home to the Paris Stock Exchange—La Bourse de Paris or Euronext. (Not to be confused with Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection which is steps away). The references to capital, opulence, and good taste are certainly fitting for an art fair.
Robledo-Palop has brought enigmatic works by Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Julio González, Andy Warhol, Jean Dubuffet, Kiki Smith, Sol LeWitt, Stanley Whitney, and Nelo Vinuesa in a three-part presentation. Responding to Salon du Dessin’s illustrious location, Paris, one section is dedicated to work created in the 1930s by Picasso, Miró, and González during their respective times in the city. On the booth’s main wall, a unique dialogue plays out between the abstractions of LeWitt and Vinuesa. A third section gathers interpretations of the human body, by Warhol, Condo, Smith, and Dubuffet. The Kiki Smith work, an ink monotype and pencil, is sold to benefit The Immigrant Artist Biennial which supports the work of immigrant artists in New York. Within Zeit’s booth, visitors will find well-curated dialogs offering works that range from beautiful to thought-provoking.
With its thick lines of ink creating fluidity within its expression Paysage avec deux personnages (1980), by Dubuffet, depicts two flattened figures looking at each other against the backdrop of a busy landscape. Dubuffet opposed those who defended the notion of fine drawing with the notion of bad drawing. In an interview in which he is both interviewee and interviewer, he explains: “We commonly call drawing well when one tries to get close to a photographic shot, and that’s what I think of as drawing badly, or rather not drawing at all. All art production, no matter how humble, is required to be creative.” Zeit’s work is a prime example of Dubuffet’s lyricism, or creativity, in drawing.
As of Friday, Robledo-Palop was pleased to report two strong sales, expecting more before the show closes. “Something special about SDD is that dealers often bring their new acquisitions, so there are always surprises,” Louis de Bayser, the fair’s director said to Apollo. As an exhibiting dealer himself, Galerie de Bayser, he expressed excitement to see what his colleagues have found in the past year, mirroring the fair’s collegial spirit.
In time for the foundation’s 50th anniversary, the Salon du Dessin honors the Dubuffet Foundation, founded by the artist in 1974, he died in 1985, which manages a collection of more than 1,300 works on paper, donated by the artist during his lifetime or acquired more recently. The foundation has curated a selection of fifty-five works created between 1935 and 1985 in a special showcase at the fair.
Dedicated to education around everything drawing, the Salon has since 2006 hosted an international symposium at the fair. March 20-21, scholars presented “Travel Drawings”—a range of works by artists, antiquaries (in the old sense of the term), writers, explorers, and scientists who, during their travels, felt the need to graphically record in sketchbooks or on isolated sheets the forms of the visible world. Part one has a particular focus on the period from the Renaissance to the seventeenth century. Part two, in 2025, will address the same subject from the eighteenth century to the present day. Academics, museum professionals, and independent researchers presented, among them Austėja Mackelaitė who is Curator of Drawings at the Rijksmuseum presented on works from their collection in “Stepping Out: Depictions of Netherlandish Artists Outside the Studio, 1530-1600” while independent scholar Dr. Alessia Frassani spoke about real and imaginary depictions of Europe and Mesoamerica in the 16th century. During the previous year, 2023, audience members relished nature and gardens as papers were presented around those topics.
The second honoree of the year is Katrin Bellinger, an Old Masters dealer and collector, she worked at Colnaghi for over a decade managing its art library and 225-foot archive, which she bought when the gallery’s ownership changed hands. A collector in her own right, she has amassed over 900 works administered by the Tavolozza Foundation, a non-profit she founded for that purpose. The fair is hosting an exhibition with a selection of French drawings by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806), Hubert Robert (1733–1808), Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780–1867), and Honoré Daumier (1808–1879), amongst others, dating from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century. Tying into the “Travel Drawings” symposia some depict musings from Grand Tours. The fair also has an extensive program of intimate (up to 20 people) visits to collections at museums, libraries, foundations, and public buildings, the fair offers many opportunities to voyage through the sites of the world of and speak to the specialists in drawing.
Salon du Dessin is open through March 25, 2024 at Palais Brongniart, Paris.
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