The Department of Drawings and Prints at The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds over one million works on paper from Europe and the Americas, spanning from around 1400 to the present. Due to their sensitivity to light, these pieces are exhibited only for limited periods. To showcase this extensive collection, the department organizes four annual rotations in the Robert Wood Johnson, Jr. Gallery. Each installation is developed collaboratively by curators and includes up to 100 objects grouped by artist, technique, style, period, or subject.
The current exhibition examines how artists use allegory and abstraction to convey layered meanings in their work. Among the highlights is Henri Matisse’s 1947 series Jazz, which features bold images that evoke memories of circuses and travel while also referencing France’s experience during World War II. Another notable work is Louise Bourgeois’s He Disappeared into Complete Silence from the same year. Bourgeois described it as “a drama of the self,” using allegory and abstraction to present a psychological self-portrait.
The exhibition also includes depictions of dancers from the Renaissance through the twentieth century, illustrating how emotions and stories can be expressed through abstract movements.
Additionally, important watercolors by J.M.W. Turner and Thomas Girtin are featured in honor of the two hundred fiftieth anniversary of each artist’s birth. Their innovative approaches to light and color anticipated elements found in twentieth-century abstraction.
