In the summer of 1999, the Chazen acquired a collection of 118 drawings by the Russian sculptor Antoine Pevsner (1886-1962). Pevsner was one of the initial protagonists of the Constructivist movement that flourished in Russia before and after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. In Moscow in 1920, Pevsner, together with his brother Naum Gabo, published a Realistic Manifesto that rejected figurative art and all forms of representation in sculpture. Rejecting the utilitarian function demanded of art by the new regime, both brothers left Russia. Pevsner moved to Paris in 1922 and became a French citizen in 1930.

Dating from 1912 to 1956, these drawings span the artist's entire career and effectively reflect his wide range of stylistic experimentation. The drawings are both figurative and nonfigurative, and while many relate to actual sculptures, others reflect ideas that never progressed beyond the conceptual phase. This acquisition significantly enhances the Chazen's evolving focus on drawing by 20th-century sculptors and makes the Chazen the foremost repository of this artist's drawings anywhere in the United States.

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