Drawing Then and Now The evolution & continued relevance of an ancient medium
Drawing has... deep historical roots a long and varied role in human expression continued importance in contemporary art an enduring and evolving function in the digital age
Drawing: Deep Historical Roots How long have humans been drawing? What were the first drawings? What relationship do they have to drawing today?
Deep Historical Roots: Paleolithic Cave Painting
Deep Historical Roots: Paleolithic Cave Painting Chauvet Cave, Southern France Earliest known cave paintings? 30,000 to 32,000 years ago (c 30,000 BC) Monolithic, immobile, ritualistic purpose few to no human forms
Werner Hertzog s Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Deep Historical Roots: Ancient Egyptian Funerary Texts
Deep Historical Roots: Ancient Egyptian Funerary Texts Collectively known as the Book of the Dead 1550-50 BC (roughly 2000-3500 years ago) Multiple surfaces (papyrus!) Ritualistic purpose Filled with human, animal and hybrid forms
Deep Historical Roots: Chinese Brush Painting
Deep Historical Roots: Chinese Brush Painting One of the longest unbroken artistic traditions Earliest independent art, 220-589 AD Earliest art criticism (Xie He s Six points to consider when looking at a painting ) Long tradition of working from life, enduring ink tradition
Deep Historical Roots: Chinese Brush Painting Scholar by a Waterfall, Southern Song dynasty (1127 1279), Ma Yuan (Chinese, active ca. 1190 1225) Album leaf: ink and color on silk
Drawing: A Long and Varied Role Medieval Period (500-1400) illustrated religious texts, scribal pattern books drawing and writing done by scribes, often monks Renaissance Period (1400-1700) evolution of pattern book into sketch book drawing expands, but still a secondary form Enlightenment: Foundations of the modern age (1700 ) drawing respected as independent art form advent of photography changes role of drawing
Medieval Period A Long and Varied Role: Medieval manuscripts Bible, A.D. 1407, Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, England
Medieval Period A Long and Varied Role: pattern books Scribal pattern book, Gregorios Bock, c. 1510
Early Renaissance A Long and Varied Role: studies from nature Antonio Pisanello, Apes (from the artist s sketchbook), c. 1430
Early Renaissance Antonio Pisanello, The Vision of Saint Eustace.
Early Renaissance Antonio Pisanello
Renaissance A Long and Varied Role: anatomical studies Leonardo da Vinci Anatomical study of the arm, (c. 1510)
Renaissance A Long and Varied Role: preparatory drawings Leonardo da Vinci The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist (c. 1499 1500)
Renaissance A Long and Varied Role: Renaissance perspective Filippo Brunelleschi Perspective drawing for Church of Santo Spirito in Florence (c. 1499 1500)
Renaissance A Long and Varied Role: Renaissance perspective Filippo Brunelleschi Perspective drawing for Church of Santo Spirito in Florence (c. 1499 1500)
Renaissance A Long and Varied Role: The first reproductions Albrecht Durer Coat of Arms with Lion and Rooster, c. 1500 Engraving print on paper
Early Enlightenment A Long and Varied Role: The independent work of art Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Interior of a Prison, 1744-5 Pen and brown ink wash over black chalk
Enlightenment A Long and Varied Role: The era of reason Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867)
Enlightenment A Long and Varied Role: The era of reason "Drawing is not just reproducing contours, it is not just the line; drawing is also the expression, the inner form, the composition, the modeling. See what is left after that. Drawing is seven eighths of what makes up painting." Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867)
Enlightenment A Long and Varied Role: The Age of Reason Francisco de Goya y Lucientes The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters: Plate 43 of Los Caprichos, 1799 Etching, aquatint, drypoint, and burin
Late Enlightenment Modern Age A Long and Varied Role: Rejection of the academy Edgar Degas Ballet Dancer Standing ca. 1886-90
Late Enlightenment -> Modern Age A Long and Varied Role: Rejection of the academy Paul Cézanne, Large Pine, watercolor and pencil, 1905
Late Enlightenment -> Modern Age A Long and Varied Role: Rejection of the academy Pablo Picasso, The Frugal Meal, 1904 etching
Late Enlightenment -> Modern Age A Long and Varied Role: Rejection of the academy Pablo Picasso, Nude, 1910 ink on paper
Modern Age A Long and Varied Role: The Avant-garde (Dada) Hannah Hoch, The Bride, 1933, Photomontage, collage on paper, Lustige Person, 1932, Collage, 19x25,9 cm
Modern Age A Long and Varied Role: The Avant-garde (Surrealism) André Masson Automatic Drawing, 1924 Ink on paper
Drawing: Continued Relevance Since the beginnings of modernism and the avant-garde movements of the early to mid 20th century, drawing continues to evolve as a medium. How do we define it today? Why does it continue to be relevant? Why take drawing when photography captures nature perfectly, and computers can describe a more perfect line than any human could ever draw?
Continued Relevance: Drawing in Contemporary Art Kara Walker, installation view, "no place (like home)," at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1997. Cut paper and adhesive on wall, 12 x 85 feet.
Continued Relevance: Drawing in Contemporary Art William Kentridge, Stereoscope, 2007 split screen animation
Continued Relevance: Drawing in Contemporary Art Vija Celmins, Night Sky, 1994 charcoal on paper
Continued Relevance: Drawing in Contemporary Art Francis Alÿs, The Green Line, 2004 performance
Continued Relevance: Drawing in Contemporary Art Evan Roth, Graffiti Taxonomy Diptych: New York and Paris, 2011 silk screen print
Continued Relevance: Drawing in Popular Culture Evan Roth, visuals for Brooklyn Go Hard, Jay-Z
Continued Relevance: Drawing in Design Frank Gehry architectural design process
Continued Relevance: Drawing in Design
[Drawing addresses] our being in the world. Electronic media tend to distance us from our location. While the far is made near, conversely, the near is made far. Drawing, in contrast, requires time, attention, and focused acknowledgment of a particular place...artists and designers maintain sketchbooks for a reason: drawing demands immersion in a situation, drawing tests our observations; drawing within the confines of a sketchbook nudges us to take more care, to learn from the previous page and improve on the next one. -Marc Treib, Drawing/Thinking: Confronting an Electronic Age
[Drawing addresses] our being in the world. Electronic media tend to distance us from our location. While the far is made near, conversely, the near is made far. Drawing, in contrast, requires time, attention, and focused acknowledgment of a particular place...artists and designers maintain sketchbooks for a reason: drawing demands immersion in a situation, drawing tests our observations; drawing within the confines of a sketchbook nudges us to take more care, to learn from the previous page and improve on the next one. -Marc Treib, Drawing/Thinking: Confronting an Electronic Age