Drawing Week, initiated by the Salon du Dessin in Paris in 1999, is an opportunity to compare works from the past with contemporary works and to raise awareness of the drawing market, public collections and private players.
Two exhibitions were held to mark the occasion, in early spring 2024 : the Salon du Dessin and the Salon du Dessin Contemporain.
A passion for drawing
Drawing is the medium closest to thought, according to Daniel and Florence Guerlain, major collectors of contemporary art.
Even if computer technology has now taken over, drawing remains the essence of a thought, an idea, a project: projects for architecture, objects, machines, portraits, scenes from everyday life, historical scenes, landscapes, preliminary studies for works of art, which themselves become works of art.
It’s certainly for this reason that not only has it stood the test of time, but interest in drawing has also grown significantly in recent years.
Two complementary exhibitions
Different histories and missions
- The Salon du Dessin was created in 1991. This is its 32nd edition.
Internationally renowned, it has become a benchmark in the world of collector’s drawings.
It welcomes a maximum of 39 prestigious galleries specialising in old, modern and contemporary drawings.
- Drawing Now Art Fair is a more recent event. It was created in 2007 and has just presented its 17th edition.
The 1st contemporary art fair exclusively dedicated to drawing in Europe, it is organised into 4 sectors: General, Insight, Process and ‘Flashback’ (with drawings dating back to 1913), the latter making its debut this year.
Two places, two atmospheres
- For the past few years, the Salon du Dessin has been held in a neoclassical setting steeped in history: the prestigious Palais Brongniart, the former Paris stock exchange, commissioned by Emperor Napoleon I as an emblem of the power and accomplishment that France had achieved.
Subdued, targeted lighting and carefully selected frames highlight the drawings on display, most of which are old and precious works of art.
On the partitions, the eye is drawn to and amazed by the precision of the lines, testimony to a know-how inherited from the crafts.
- Drawing Now Art Fair has taken its place in the luminous Carreau du Temple, a former nineteenth-century covered market that was refurbished in 2000 and 2010 and is now dedicated to lifestyles and new urban uses.
The works on display are striking for their experimental, abstract or questioning nature.
Creacontact, Ambassador of Know-How