The Power of Drawing: Marking 25 years of the Royal Drawing School

 This free exhibition, marking the 25th anniversary of the Royal Drawing School, highlights the central role of drawing across creative disciplines - including fine art, performance, film, architecture, illustration, and design.

The exhibition showcases drawings and quotes by renowned artists and creative figures including Quentin Blake (whose work, 'Uplifted', is pictured above,), Frank Bowling, Tim Burton, Tacita Dean, Es Devlin, Tracey Emin, Denzil Forrester, Norman Foster, Catherine Goodman, Antony Gormley, Thomas Heatherwick, David Hockney, Eileen Hogan, Jony Ive, Chantal Joffe, Rachel Jones, Bharti Kher, Christopher Le Brun, Charlie Mackesy, Ishbel Myerscough, Humphrey Ocean, Alice Oswald, Cornelia Parker, and Rufus Wainwright.

His Majesty the King, Founding Patron of the Royal Drawing School, has also contributed an original drawing, to this special celebratory exhibition, as have the School’s alumni from the past 25 years.

Drawing holds a multiplicity of meanings for these artists: it can be a way of thinking, seeing and understanding. Accompanying curatorial notes describe it is a ‘magic’ like breathing, a ‘cure’, a ‘universal language’, a ‘dialogue’ between a sheet of paper and the self. Together, these drawings and quotes underline the centrality of drawing in creative life and the flexibility and communicative power of mark-making.

This exhibition marks the 25th anniversary of the Royal Drawing School, which was founded as a place where observational drawing could thrive, taught as a language that underpins creative thinking. The Power of Drawing celebrates the discipline, the freedom, and the community the School has nurtured – and the remarkable journeys that drawing continues to make possible.