Ampersand is pleased to present The Will to Draw, an exhibition of found artwork from the collection of Jim Heimann, Executive Editor for TASCHEN America. Ranging in date from the 1930s to the 1960s, these collected drawings are an extenstion of Heimann's work as collector, cultural anthropologist and historian of popular culture. The drawings affirm that will to create is a deeply engrained part of the psyche, which transcends age, gender and background. The exhibition also aims to celebrate the role of the collector in shaping our understanding of both popular and vernacular culture. "My eye has a gravitational pull towards images that are unique, unusual or display a sense of guilelessness and naïveté," he notes. "And so, in the course of 40 years of collecting, mostly for book projects, I have instinctively sought out primitive drawings by unknown or anonymous artists. When digging through piles of paper at swap meets and flea markets, there are inevitably “aha” or “haha” moments when a stack of handmade drawings appear. What predicates their purchase is the simplicity of the drawing, the unintended humor, the lack of subtlety or sophistication and the implied sense that there was an unrepressed will to draw. Therein lies their desirability. Adding to their mystique is the anonymity of the pieces. These drawings are often the orphans of deceased individuals whose possessions have been dispersed at garage sales allowing no backstory for their authors."

The exhibtion is co-curated by Ryan Mungia, publisher at Boyo Press, with whom we have co-published The Will to Draw, a small edition book featuring over 100 works from the collection and a contextual essay by Heimann.

Dorothy Von Gunten
Untitled, 1941
Graphite and color penicil on paper
12 x 9 in.