Lugano, showcasing prints and drawings by the greatest artists ever, from Dürer to Warhol

From Albrecht Dürer to Rembrandt van Rijn from Francisco de Goya to Maria Sibylla Merian, Pablo Picasso and Edvard Munch presented alongside the works of living artists such as John M Armleder, Olivier Mosset, Candida Höfer, Susan Hefuna, Shirana Shahbazi or Christiane Baumgartner. Comparison between the Old Masters and more contemporary creations is offered by the exhibition From Albrecht Dürer to Andy Warhol. Masterpieces from the Graphische Sammlung ETH Zürich, curated by Linda Schädler, director of the Graphische Sammlung ETH Zürich.

The exhibition, running from Sept. 10, 2023 to Jan. 7, 2024 at Masi (Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana) in Lugano, offers the public an opportunity to discover 300 masterpieces from one of Switzerland’s most important collections of prints and drawings. This is the Graphische Sammlung ETH Züric, a well-known and renowned institution in Switzerland and abroad, which actively promotes the mediation and understanding of art on paper, both analog and digital.

In the exhibition From Albrecht Dürer to Andy Warhol. Masterpieces from the Graphische Sammlung ETH Zürich, techniques, motifs, styles and conceptions of art over the centuries follow one another in a chronological path, in which works by leading figures in European art history-from Albrecht Dürer to Rembrandt van Rijn from Francisco de Goya to Maria Sibylla Merian, Pablo Picasso and Edvard Munch - are presented alongside the works of living artists such as John M Armleder, Olivier Mosset, Candida Höfer, Susan Hefuna, Shirana Shahbazi or Christiane Baumgartner. Unexpected and surprising connections emerge from this rare and exceptional comparison between the old masters and the most contemporary creations: themes such as the process of creating the work of art, the relationship between copy and original, the transmission of motifs and iconographies, but also the collaboration between different professionalism in the field of art traverse the history of graphic art since its inception and touch on aspects that are still relevant today. In addition to highlighting the broad spectrum of graphic techniques-fromwoodcut and burin engraving to etching and screen printing-the exhibition also features drawings, photographs and multiples. The exhibition project also offers information and trivia on the origins, functions and importance of the works through the centuries.

Face to face with centuries of art history: the exhibition itinerary

The exhibition route opens with a large wall on which, according to the “Petersburg style,” self-portraits or portraits of female artists are hung. In this striking overview, spanning different eras, visitors to the exhibition come face to face with centuries of art history: from the intense gaze of Rembrandt ’s etching in the self-portrait with his wife Saskia, to the more celebratory ones of Anton van Dyck or Maria Sibylla Merian; from the black-and-white self-portrait photographs of Urs Lüthi or by Fischli/ Weiss to the synthetic self-portrait of just a few lines by Max von Moos or, again, to the simple mouth of Meret Oppenheim in Markus Raetz’s engraving, to name but a few. The exhibition continues with the presentation of historical works in the Collection from the late 15th century to the present day, in chronological order. At a time when photography had not yet been invented, by the 16th century the so-called “translation engraving,” which reproduced paintings and works of art, was a fundamental means of making masterpieces known to a wide audience.

Masterpieces that, through printing, were also reinterpreted: in the exhibition, Niccolò Boldrini ’s Caricature of the copy of the Laooconte is an example of how a 16th-century Venetian print could adapt an ancient motif, transforming it into a new and irreverent image: the ancient figures were in fact replaced with monkeys. The print was also used as a tool for scientific and naturalistic representation, as Albrecht Dürer’s well-known woodcut Rhinocerus testifies in the exhibition. Although the artist had never seen the exotic animal, he made a depiction of it that was long considered realistic and thus reprinted in multiple editions.

The Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium volume published in 1705 by Maria Sibylla Merian grew out of her careful observation of the insects of Surinam in South America. An entrepreneur and teacher, Merian was counted among the leading insect scholars of her time and was, among other things, also the first artist to depict the different stages of development of an insect, along with the plants that served as its food. Thanks to the exhibition’s broad chronological scope, it is possible to observe the transmission of printmaking techniques over time, but also the different working methods of women artists. In a great master like Rembrandt this aspect is evident in the two versions of the engraving Ecce Homo, from which it emerges how the artist retouched and perfected his works continuously. This was also possible thanks to the technique of drypoint, which allowed the plate to be engraved with a steel tool in the shape of a sharp needle, freely maneuvered just like a pencil. Over time, the historical technique of drypoint would often be taken up and revisited, for example by a contemporary artist such as Miriam Cahn, who in her 1995 series soldaten, frauen + tiere intervenes directly on the plate with gloves covered with frosted paper, creating faces, looks and physiognomies of great expressive power with the movements of her hand. The transmission of iconographic subjects over the centuries recurs in so many examples, and reaches all the way to the most recent eras, as in Francisco de Goya’s dramatic depictions of bullfighting in 1816, a theme taken up in Pablo Picasso ’s svelte figures in his aquatint Salto con la Garrocha (Jumping with the Pike) from the series La tauromachia and, then, in a more plastic and stylized manner in Bernhard Luginbühl’s woodcut on cotton fabric.

The representation of the figure and thus the body is also a theme that emerges in its development throughout the exhibition, particularly condensed at the turn of the 20th century in the Expressionists, in the prints of Edvard Munch and Käthe Kollwitz, and in the filigree drawings of Egon Schiele and Ferdinand Hodler. They bring instead into the most intimate folds of the man-woman relationship the woodcuts of Félix Vallotton’s Intimités series (1891). This work is an interesting example of the evolution of the dissemination of art prints, which saw, in the late 19th century, the introduction of the limited edition, a successful business model. In the case of Vallotton’s series, for example, after the printing process was finished, all the wooden plates used by the artist were cut into small parts and printed on an additional sheet to give the buyer the assurance that no further editions would be made.

Several examples in the exhibition testify to the evolution of printmaking even as art graphics in the second half of the 20th century, such as the series of diptychs composed of image and text made in 1999 by artist Louise Bourgeois. Through the question What is the shape of this problem?, placed on the title page, the artist stimulates the viewer’s reasoning through possible answers and counter-questions, seeking to give visual form to emotions. In the evocative risographs with a vintage feel Camping The Two Shirana Shahbazi instead investigates the classic genre of travel photography, leaving out the documentary character to capture passing moments of everyday situations. Andy Warhol ’s Campbell’s Soup image also stemmed from an inspiration drawn from everyday life. An emblem of pop culture and pop art, the red and white can of the most famous canned soup in the history of art is immortalized, in the exhibition, in a silkscreen print from the well-known series created by Warhol in 1968.

A catalog in three separate editions (Italian, English and German) published by Scheidegger&Spiess and Edizioni Casagrande with an introductory essay by Linda Schädler, fact sheets on a selection of works by Linda Schädler and Patrizia Keller and texts by John M Armleder, Stephanie Buck, Andreas Fichtner, Pia Fries, Candida Höfer, Jane Munro, Nadine M. Orenstein, Philip Ursprung, Lenny Winkel, as well as a glossary of graphic techniques by Saskia Goldschmid.

Lugano, showcasing prints and drawings by the greatest artists ever, from Dürer to Warhol

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