Work on Paper

About

Paper was in use in China by the early centuries CE, and papermaking travelled through the Islamic world, reaching Spain by the 11th century and Italy by the 13th. Cheaper than parchment, it became the everyday ground for thinking: Renaissance artists covered sheets in metalpoint, chalk and pen, and Rembrandt's rapid ink and wash drawings capture whole scenes in a few strokes.

The surface and absorbency of paper shape every medium on it. Ink bleeds into Japanese washi, pastel grips a toothed sheet, gouache sits opaque on top. In the 19th century Honoré Daumier drew for lithography and J. M. W. Turner filled sketchbooks. Modern artists made paper itself the subject, from Henri Matisse's painted cut-outs to Ellsworth Kelly's paper-pulp images of the 1970s. Paper fades and yellows in light, so such works are shown in rotation. Look for watermarks, deckle edges, foxing and the way marks sink in.