The sketchbook has been A K Dolven’s constant creative companion ever since she attended William Hayter’s experimental, free-spirited printmaking workshop at Atelier 17 in Paris in the early 1980s.

Whereas drypoint and lithography became an exercise in the aesthetics of slowness and concentration, the sketchbook invited immediacy and spontaneity. Both media fostered a close, creative connection between the hand, the mind and the page or block. Some lines migrated to alternative artistic media, while others remained unchanged, as subtle, suggestive stories, often with a socially critical sting.

We are proud to announce a pop-up exhibition of selected prints and sketchbooks by A K Dolven in the Study Room, where, together with the artist, we take a closer look at her personal and artistic relationship to works on paper.