Giuseppe Penone. Drawings

19.10.2022 - 06.03.2023

Giuseppe Penone. Drawings

In 2020, Giuseppe Penone, a major contemporary artist and member of the Arte Povera movement, made a substantial donation to the Musée National d’Art Moderne: 328 drawings covering fifty years of creation, from 1967 to 2019. The exhibition presents 241 drawings from this donation. 

Although best known as a sculptor, Giuseppe Penone has always produced drawings. To interrogate the artist’s way of working and thinking more closely, the exhibition has opted to display the pieces by theme rather than in chronological order, awarding an important position to serial work. The presentation of these 241 drawings, some of which have never before been shown, illustrates the different stages in the artist’s thinking, from preliminary diagrams to drawings of the completed sculpture in some cases.  Alongside four sculptures from the collection of the Musée National d’Art Moderne, chosen in relation to the drawings, the exhibition also features two sculptures belonging to the artist, thereby showcasing all the artist’s favourite materials: wood, clay, stone, leaves and bronze.