The Expressionist Figure; The Miriam and Erwin Kelen Collection of Drawings

The endless expressive potential of the human body, from portraiture and social satire to fantasy and erotica

The Expressionist Figure documents a collection amassed over more than 60 years and recently gifted to the Walker, which includes some 80 superlative works on paper that focus on the figure. Dating from 1900 to 2018, the drawings span more than a century of artistic experimentation in the US and Europe and were executed in mediums ranging from graphite, ink and crayon to pastel, gouache and collage.

Among the artists represented are Milton Avery, Max Beckmann, Christo, Chuck Close, Edgar Degas, Willem de Kooning, Otto Dix, Marlene Dumas, Arshile Gorky, David Hockney, Jasper Johns, William Kentridge, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Klee, Gustav Klimt, René Magritte, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Claes Oldenburg, Pablo Picasso, Sigmar Polke, Egon Schiele, Ben Shahn, Zak Smith and Andy Warhol.

Published on the occasion of the first exhibition of this collection, this luxurious volume includes full-page color reproductions of each drawing along with a catalog entry detailing the history of each object.

Also included are an essay by the collector on his passion for drawing, and curator Joan Rothfuss’ deeply researched short essays on 14 individual works. Both beautiful and substantive, The Expressionist Figure is a testament to the pleasure of building a collection and the rewards of sharing it.