Seurat Drawings

Seurat's drawings, like those of other great artists - Rembrandt and Daumier, for example - contain his talent in its entirety. This film brings together nearly all of Seurat's drawings and demonstrates how pointillism can work in monochrome; looking at them, the pleasures of color seem to lose their importance. Nothing is more interesting than to see great artists reveal themselves in their drawings. Something seems to be created out of nothing in this naked confrontation between the artist and his medium. Seurat advances with infinite caution; yet however methodical his approach, the passion and the vigor are never lost, the reserve and the ardor reinforce one another.

This deliberate, sophisticated, almost monumental art is frequently inspired by the most ephemeral, banal reality - by figures of anonymous passers-by in the street. These drawings have surprising dramatic force: the strange, precise silhouettes, moving in a kind of tragic silence, make one think of ghosts, soon to melt back into the darkness from which they have briefly emerged. There is very little narration.