As rewarding as it can be to see familiar, iconic artworks in museums, discovering a piece or an artist for the first time is thrilling — and even better when it opens windows into new galaxies. I had that sense throughout “Silent Revolutions” at the Menil Drawing Institute, which for me became “silent revelations.”

Italian drawings of the 20th century were not exactly top of mind. Now, 70 works on paper from Milan’s Collezione Ramo have stimulated some mental real estate I didn’t know was idle. (The Institute’s marvelously odd 18th and 19th century drawings by the obscure French architect Jean-Jacques Lequeu last year did that, too.)