Presentation
As an artist, Pablo Gargallo represents a milestone at the dawn of the 20th century which is essential to an understanding of modern sculpture, and a benchmark in the search for a new visual language. His importance in the development of modern sculpture has overshadowed his work in drawing, which deserves in-depth consideration and study.
In collaboration with the artist’s descendants, Mª José Salazar has catalogued his unpublished drawings, which remained in the family’s possession, and has compiled references to works that were geographically dispersed, which in some cases it was impossible to locate but which, thanks to the documentation in their possession, have been included in this study.
The entire body of drawings that have been compiled, in the form of a Corpus, and separated from his work as a sculptor add a new dimension to his work in the medium of drawing and reveal that, like other great artists, in addition to using the medium as an aid for his sculptures, he also used drawings as their own medium of expression. His drawings personalise his search, his findings and his repudiations, revealing his most private and intuitive world through his themes and the sketches for his sculptures, which before this point had not been considered an integral part of his creative process.