Modern and Contemporary Prints and Drawings at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts

The Modern and Contemporary Prints and Drawings Collection of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera comprises works, mainly on paper, by Italian and international artists of the twentieth century. The collection has grown through spontaneous donations since the 1980s, often linked to exhibitions organised in the Academy’s Library. Artists represented include Anni Albers, Joseph Beuys, Luigi Ghirri, Hsiao Chin, Fausta Squatriti, Luigi Veronesi, Irma Blank, Ugo La Pietra, Pietro Consagra, Francesco Somaini, Mario Radice, Max Huber, Bice Lazzari, Bruno Munari, and Arnaldo Pomodoro.

An initial group of 280 graphic works (drawings, prints, photographs, and multiples) by 109 artists was catalogued by postgraduate students in Management and Communication of Visual Arts. The results were published in 2001 in Professione Curator, edited by Rachele Ferrario and Laura Masserini, and accompanied by an exhibition of 66 works held in the Napoleonic Hall.

Today, the collection includes:

• 680 drawings and 393 prints, catalogued in 2015 on the SIRBeC platform, including anatomy sketchbooks with 457 drawings donated by Giovanni Civardi (excluded from the IartNET project);
• 365 engravings by students of Benvenuto Disertori, who held the Chair of Engraving from 1931 to 1960;
• 68 works donated by artists participating in Brera’s Artist-in-Residence Programme on Comacina Island.

Actions

The project entails the following operations:

• Updating 223 drawing records and 758 print records already present in the database, with corrections and additions concerning topographic and inventory codes, bibliography, restoration records, missing images, and current location;
• Cataloguing newly acquired works (26, mostly drawings by contemporary Italian and international artists, and 6 works by artists affiliated with the Comacina Island programme);
• Cataloguing drawings discovered on the verso of works by Bice Lazzari (3–5 works, pending verification);
• Assessing the conservation status of the works and providing appropriate archival folders where currently lacking or temporary;
• Verifying attributions for a group of 5 works on paper whose authorship remains unidentified;
• Digitizing the collection through the production of high-resolution images to ensure accurate documentation, accessibility, and long-term preservation;
• Migrating existing data from SIRBeCWeb to SIGeCWeb, harmonising metadata, integrating new photographic documentation, and aligning cataloguing fields with ICCD standards.