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 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.
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.
Most of the contemporary artists who draw with a metal stylus continue the tradition of Leonardo and Dürer by using the soft, delicate line for figurative imagery. By contrast, Schwalb’s work is resolutely abstract, and her handling of the technique is extremely innovative. Paper is torn and burned to provide an emotionally free and dramatic contrast to the precise linearity of silverpoint. In other works, silverpoint is combined with flat expanses of acrylic paint or gold leaf. Sometimes, subtle shifts of tone and color emerge from the juxtaposition of a wide variety of metals. From 1997–2008 Schwalb abandoned the stylus altogether in favor of wide metal bands that achieve a shimmering atmosphere reminiscent of the luminous transparency of watercolor. In recent works, she creates a counterpoint between fine lines drawn with a stylus and broad swatches of bronze or copper tones. Those entitled “Toccata” have a stronger linear presence, and on occasion she has actually used fine pencil lines as a dark black contract to the metalpoint.
In addition to her life as an artist she has also curated exhibitions, most recently, “Reinventing Silverpoint: An Ancient Technique for the 21st Century”, 2009 at the Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn and Connecticut College. Schwalb has written book reviews and features for such publications as Art New England, Artscope, adobeairstream.com and Berkshirefinearts.com.
In 2015 her work was included in “Drawing with Silver and Gold: From Leonardo to Jasper Johns”, at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC which travelled to The British Museum, London. Schwalb was one of only three living artists included in the show. In 2018 a retrospective entitled “A Luminous Line: Forty Years of Metalpoint Drawing by Susan Schwalb” was exhibited at the Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock. She is the co-author of “Silverpoint and Metalpoint Drawing: A Complete Guide to the Medium” published in 2019 by Routledge/Focal Press, UK and US.
Artist Statement
My primary medium for over 40 years has been the Renaissance technique of silverpoint and metalpoint drawing. The works on paper juxtapose a wide variety of metals (silver, gold, brass, copper, platinum, pewter, bronze, and aluminum) to obtain soft shifts in tone and color reminiscent of the transparency of watercolor. Horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines 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. My work is abstract, and my handling of the medium has become increasingly bold.
Often a shimmering luminosity creates what appears to be a 3-dimensional undulating surface. I have been working within a square format almost exclusively since 1997. An even grid of narrow horizontal or diagonal lines forms the basic structure and serves as a spatial context for irregular events on the surface.
By contrast, the paintings focus on color and the silverpoint drawing becomes more of an element of structure; in these works on wood panels, drawing and painting are fused. I have applied several layers of paint, using different colors, after which I drew with the metalpoint. Then I erased part of the surface with sandpaper to expose the paint underneath. Often, I add additional paint and drawing to intensify the layered effect. The paintings seem to float on the wall, and an illumination begins to emerge from somewhere in the interior, at times creating an aura of reflected light, at times appearing to evoke memories or afterimages.
Many of my drawings have musical titles, which evolved intuitively. It is not only because I live with a composer and love music, but also because there is a parallel in the fact that music is abstract like my work. My paintings and drawings are always done in series and each work is generally inspired by the piece or pieces created before it. Numerous drawings and paintings used the title of Polyphony, and my new series, entitled Harmonizations, is a simplified version of those works. Harmonizations is made up of 36 squares with one left blank as a metaphor for a new presence or for a mourning of a loss.
Diagonal lines divide the picture plane in the series entitled Intermezzo as many different metalpoints are combined with metallic wool pads and graphite; some of these works have a three-dimensional quality as surface events are continued on the sides of the panel.
All the series are a testimony of how the abstract and straight line can create movement and a visual sound, simply through a variety of compositions. What I want the viewer to do when standing in front of my work is to notice all the subtle differences on the surface and to experience the effect of an abstract universe composed of lines and reflections of light.