A special feature of the Villa dei Cedri is the work on paper, which is visible both in the exhibitions and in the collection, two complementary areas.
From drawings to prints, works on paper currently make up three quarters of the collection. Not only do they make a real contribution to the modern and contemporary art panorama of the region, but they also open up new horizons, from Rome to Paris, from northern Italy to the north of the Alps, giving the museum an individual and specific character.
The Intimacy series by Félix Vallotton is one of the first purchases made by the friends of the museum. On the one hand, it underlines the historical importance of paper work for the museum's collection; on the other, it opens a movement that favours Francophone artists who were active between the end of the 19th and 20th centuries, with works by André Derain, Charles Dunoyer de Segonzac, Rodolphe-Théophile Bosshard, Ernest Biéler, Charles Clos Olsommer and Théophile Steinlen.
Of particular interest is the dialogue between drawing and sculpture with the works of Fritz Huf, Giovanni Genucchi and Pierino Selmoni, Selim Abdullah, Aldo Ferrario or Marcel Dupertuis, where both works on paper and sculptures exist, or with the precious sheets of Remo Rossi, an artist from Locarno who signed a large part of the monumental sculpture in the Ticino capital.
