This book presents a comprehensive overview of Sam Szafran’s oeuvre, focusing on his unique approach to drawing and its relationship to space, perception, and memory.

Szafran’s work is marked by an intense engagement with line, shading, and atmospheric depth, producing images that oscillate between precise observation and imaginative complexity.

Rather than documenting reality in a straightforward photographic manner, Szafran’s drawings transform seen space into spaces of sensory experience. Stairwells, atelier corners, clusters of plant forms, and architectural fragments recur throughout his work as both literal motifs and metaphors for psychological interiority. His command of pastel, graphite, and other drawing media allows him to build dense surfaces that suggest tactile depth and nuanced light effects.

The publication includes a wide selection of reproductions, shedding light on Szafran’s technical mastery and thematic range over his artistic career. Accompanying essays provide context for his working methods and artistic development, situating his work within the broader field of late twentieth-century art and reaffirming drawing as a central medium of contemporary practice.