ART CITIES:N.York-A Drawing Show

 

The exhibition “A Drawing show” at the Matthew Marks Gallery in New York is spanning 75 years of drawing history, is an ode to the medium, as stated the most important representative of video-art Bill Viola: ”It is the basis, if you do not know good drawing you cannot make video”.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Matthew Marks Gallery Archive

The exhibition includes thirty-six works on paper by as many artists, from James Castle’s found-paper work incorporating naïve lettering to a meticulously rendered Jasper Johns graphite drawing. Works in the exhibition range in scale from a seven-by-four-foot Martin Puryear to a Gabriel Orozco measuring less than four by three inches. The artists have used a wide range of materials to make these works. Ray Johnson and Anita Steckel embellished found photographs with oil, ink, and collage. Ken Price used a saturated-pink gouache to make his drawing. Gladys Nilsson chose watercolor for hers, and Tabboo! made his with acrylic and glitter. The works by Robert Gober, Willem de Kooning, Ellsworth Kelly, Jim Nutt, and Betty Tompkins are all traditional pencil-on-paper drawings. The exhibition also includes works by: Nayland Blake, Edwin Dickinson, Lucian Freud, Donald Judd, Brice Marden, Sigmar Polke, Deborah Remington, Julian Schnabel, Anne Truitt, and Terry. In spite of this shared medium, each displays a quality of line that is immediately recognizable and unique to the artist.

Info: Matthew Marks Gallery, 523 West 24 Street, New York, Duration: 4/10-29/11/14, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun: 10:00-18:00, www.matthewmarks.com