The Eunice and Hal David Collection

The Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts at the UCLA Hammer Museum is pleased to present an exhibition of drawings from the collection of acclaimed lyricist Hal David and his wife Eunice. The exhibition features almost sixty drawings by many of the artists who have shaped the course of nineteenth- and twentieth-century art, from Eugène Delacroix, Edouard Manet, Mary Cassatt, and Gustav Klimt to Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Robert Motherwell, Richard Diebenkorn, Andy Warhol, Sam Francis, and David Hockney.

The Davids began collecting about a decade ago, focusing on the many aspects of the practice of drawing. Recognizing the crucial stage that drawings represent in an artist’s creative process, they saw parallels to Hal David's own inventive process as a lyricist. The exhibition includes both preparatory studies related to painting, sculpture, and prints, and fully realized, independent works that are not connected to works in other media.

The core of the Davids' drawing collection focuses on the human figure. This was established with their first purchase, Pierre Bonnard's Standing Nude Looking in Mirror, and continued as the collection grew to include works such as Edgar Degas's Dancer with Arm Too Far behind Head and Adolph Gottlieb's Portrait of Marcus Rothkowitz—a pencil portrait of his colleague Mark Rothko.

This exhibition celebrates Eunice and Hal David’s generous gift of their collection to the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, and is accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue. Edited by deputy director of collections Cynthia Burlingham, the catalogue features an essay by Lee Hendrix, curator of drawings at the Getty Museum, as well as extended entries by Hammer curatorial staff Claudine Dixon, Claudine Isé, and Carolyn Peter, as well as Judith Brodie, Carol S. Eliel, Noriko Gamblin, Robert Hobbs, Amy Schichtel, and Marilyn Symmes.

The exhibition is made possible, in part, by Lee and Lawrence Ramer.