LONDON.- The British Museum is displaying around 100 works from leading contemporary artists, some which have never been seen by the public. Contemporary collecting: David Hockney to Cornelia Parker is on view in Room 90 through 29 September 2024.

Highlights include David Hockney’s prints The Marriage (1962) and Henry Seated with Tulips (1976); Cornelia Parker’s Articles of Glass and Jug Full of Ice from One Day This Glass Will Break (2015), two polymer photogravure etchings; Michael Craig-Martin’s Coathanger, Light bulb and Watch from Drawings, three letterpress prints (2015); Caroline Walker’s colour lithograph Bathed (2018); Yinka Shonibare CBE’s colour woodcuts Cowboy Angel I, II, V (2017) and Joy Gerrard’s Vigil/Protest (Westminster 14th March 2021), a 2023 drawing in Japanese ink.

Many of the works, which have all been acquired since 2001, are being exhibited for the very first time. The exhibition aims to showcase artists working in Britain today, demonstrating how they continue to make innovative and exciting prints and drawings, to experiment with materials and techniques, and to reflect and comment on the world around them through works on paper.

Catherine Daunt, Hamish Parker Curator of Modern and Contemporary Graphic Art said: “We are privileged to hold one of the best works on paper collections in the world. Contemporary prints and drawings have been a major focus of the British Museum’s collecting since the 1970s, and the Museum now holds a rich and diverse collection which we regularly rotate in Rooms 90 and 90a, the Prints and Drawings galleries. ‘David Hockney to Cornelia Parker’ provides a snapshot of contemporary art in the UK acquired by the Museum over the past 20 years.”

The exhibition demonstrates the depth of the Museum’s collecting through a wide-ranging selection, with works grouped by style, period and subject matter. Visitors are introduced to the exhibition with visually striking prints by the two artists named in the title: David Hockney (b. 1937) and Cornelia Parker (b. 1956), dating from 1976 and 2015 respectively.

A section exploring how living artists are influenced by and respond to art history shows the many connections between the Museum’s contemporary collections and the historical works that it holds.

Examples of this in David Hockney to Cornelia Parker include three large-scale prints by Glenn Brown (b. 1966), inspired by Rembrandt etchings, and three drawings by Ann-Marie James (b. 1981) that reference prints by Dürer. Also on display are prints and drawings by Pablo Bronstein (b. 1977), whose work reflects his interest in historic decorative arts and architecture while referencing artists including Piranesi and Hokusai. Other works include a print by Hockney inspired by a visit to the Egyptian galleries at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, and a print by emerging artist Jake Garfield (b. 1990) that reimagines Johan Zoffany’s painting The Tribuna of the Uffizi (1772–77).

Other sections of the exhibition focus on:

• Abstract art – in particular works that have a connection with sculpture or architecture. This section includes a group of sculptors’ drawings, featuring works by Nicholas Pope (b. 1949), Richard Deacon (b. 1949), Tim Head (b. 1946), Nigel Hall (b. 1943) and Jeffrey Steele (b. 1931).

• The human figure and narrative art – this section includes two ink drawings, one by the Belfast-based Irish artist Joy Gerrard (b. 1971) depicting a recent protest/vigil in London following the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer, and the second, by Kerry Phippen (b. 1968), based on a school photograph. This section also features prints by Marcelle Hanselaar (b. 1945) and drawings by Stuart Brisley (b. 1933).

• Prints and drawings that are reflective and contemplative in nature – they include two digital screenprints by Paul Coldwell (b. 1952) from his series Sites of Memory, which explores ideas around memory, journeys and objects. Other works include a group of monotypes of plants by Charlotte Verity (b. 1954) and two watercolour drawings by Michael Landy (b. 1963), all made during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Although only a small selection of the British Museum’s works on paper can be displayed at any one time in exhibitions, the collection exists to be seen, shared and studied, and is available to be viewed in the Prints and Drawings Study Room.

The exhibition also celebrates the impact of the Rootstein Hopkins Fund, a grant given to the Museum in 2001 to purchase contemporary works on paper by artists based in the UK, which has funded the acquisition of over 300 prints and drawings.

Sir Mark Jones, Interim Director of the British Museum said: “We are immensely grateful for their generosity, which makes it possible to continue developing and diversifying the collection.”