Jaume Plensa is universally known for his monumental sculptures that reveal a philosophical and spiritual expression of the human body. Sculptures like Julia in Madrid’s Plaza de Colón, Voices at New York City’s Hudson Yards, Crown Fountain in Chicago’s Millennium Park, and St. Helens’ Dream have become iconic symbols for their communities. Alongside a decades-long sculpture practice, Plensa has an equally long relationship to drawing. Plensa’s intimate works portray a private search for expression; they are made alone in the studio, in contrast to the sculptures that require a team effort and are done over long periods of time. In 2007, an exhibition of the artist’s drawings was held at the Musée Picasso, Antibes, France in conjunction with the unveiling of a new sculpture measuring 26 feet high on the museum’s terrace.

Plensa’s drawings are often completed as a series, made with traditional and non-traditional materials using a variety of papers he finds all over the world. STILL, the most recent series of drawings, completed in April 2020, were made on Super Alfa Guarro paper and created in the month of confinement at home. Since Plensa did not have access to his studio, he converted a room in his house to work on the drawings. He subsequently titled the exhibition April is the Cruelest Month, after the poem “The Waste Land” (1922) by T.S. Eliot.