Drawing has often been considered as a minor branch or genre of painting or as a preparatory instrument for painting with little value in itself. Great artists have rectified this idea, making drawing an expression with its own light and unique values. Among others, let us remember: Rembrandt’s sketches with pen, brush, Indian ink and gouache. Goya’s Caprichos, composed of 80 engravings made in mixed technique of etching, aquatint, drypoint and burin. Van Gogh’s masterful pen drawings between 1888 and 1890. Also the formidable drawings and posters of Henri de Toulouse Lautrec. Picasso’s sketchbooks, many of which were preparatory studies for his paintings and sculptures, but others have their own autonomy, revealing an intimate and personal artistic vision.

Closer to home, the drawings of Rafael Barradas and Carlos Alonso affirm the concept of the autonomy of drawing in relation to other expressions. Let us also keep in mind other lines of work in the close contributions of Saúl Steinberg, Jacques de Loustal, Jacques Tardi, Hugo Pratt, Menchi Sabat or Mario Buela, among other artists.

In architecture, the sketch has long been, from Michelangelo and Piranessi to Le Corbusier and Vilamajó, the effective tool that generates the project, even in the present times highlighted by the colossal development of information technology that has revolutionized the practice and craft of architecture. Luis Díaz and Arturo Villaamil are part of this tradition of draftsmen and artists.

Both are close personal friends, one a Platense and the other a Celeste-Bretón, one a visceral supporter of Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata and the other a die-hard Bolso-Tricolor. Both committed to their circumstances and their time. Both relevant architects. Both talented cartoonists and that is where this story begins.

When I write these lines they still do not know each other and this exhibition initiates the dialogue from their work.