Susan Schwalb at The Courtauld

The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, recently acquired 8 drawings by Susan Schwalb, spanning more than 30 years of her career. This was facilitated by her London dealer Patrick Heide Contemporary Art. The Courtauld is the world’s leading centre for the study of the history and conservation of art and architecture.

Susan Schwalb is one of the foremost figures in the revival of the ancient technique of silverpoint drawing in America.

Her work is represented in most of the major public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the National Gallery, Washington DC, The British Museum, London, The Brooklyn Museum, NY, Kupferstichkabinett – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England. 

Schwalb is an Advisor to the Jewish Art Salon’s Steering Committee, and her work has been featured in several JAS exhibitions.

Schwalb’s oeuvre ranges from drawings on paper to artist books and paintings on canvas or wood panels; many of these panels are carefully beveled so that the imagery seems to float off the wall.

Her current drawings juxtapose a wide variety of metals (silver, gold, brass, copper, platinum, pewter, bronze and aluminum) to obtain soft shifts in tone and color. Horizontal bands evoke an atmosphere of serenity, and the shimmer of light on the surface, created by the metals, is quite unlike any of the usual effects of metalpoint. 

She has been in residence at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and has had two residencies in Israel in 1994 at Mishkenot Sha’ananim, Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv Artists’ Studios. She has had over 50 solo exhibitions and has exhibited nationally and internationally.