Twice Drawn, a Drawing Exhibition, Opens Oct. 7
In an age of lightning-fast global technology, drawing might seem to be a painstakingly
slow and intimate art form. But it is perennially popular among the many artists whose
works will appear in Twice Drawn (Oct. 7-Dec. 30, 2006) at the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery.
Twice Drawn is the second of the two-part exhibition of modern and contemporary drawings that
made its debut at the Tang last spring. Taken together, the two independent but related
installations offer viewers the rare pleasure of seeing masterly drawings in two different
contexts, allowing the artworks to be experienced as both familiar and fresh.
The earlier exhibition featured two drawings each from almost 50 artists, both renowned
and newly notable. This time the drawings (some of which also appeared in the initial
exhibition) represent one work from each of 130 artists. Four solo presentations will
highlight six to eight works each from selected artists Lee Lozano, Jim Shaw, Susan
Turcot, and Ed Ruscha.
Other highlights include a massive new Sol LeWitt wall work titled "Wall Drawing
#1220, Scribbles: Tubes." (The piece, which measures 12 feet by 18 feet, will remain
at the Tang for the next two years.) Robert Morris's "Blind Time" (1973) contrasts
hard, clean geometric shapes with the soft, sensual smudge of powdered graphite, and
Dawn Clements's "Shelves" (2003) soars 14 feet high, a sumi-ink-drawn compendium domestic
objects in her home.
The second section of Twice Drawn continues the tradition of the first--"an eccentric survey of the last half-century
of modern and contemporary drawing" whose artworks were chosen primarily to please
the eye of its co-curators, Tang Curator Ian Berry and artist and independent curator
Jack Shear. The works are predominantly graphite on paper, but there are also drawings
in watercolor, artist's crayon, wash, collage, acrylic, charcoal, and ink. "With very
few exceptions, they're all hand-drawn, and they all access some unique energy from
the process of making something by hand," says Berry. "Possibly we are seeing a resurgence
of drawing in some of the young artists in the show because they were born into a
technologically sophisticated world and are in turn attracted to an art that is made
quietly and alone, one piece at a time."
The public events of Twice Drawn include a reception 6-7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14;
a noon curator's tour Tuesday, Oct. 17; a reading from poet and critic Bill Berkson
at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 26, followed by a Dunkerley Dialogue between Berkson and
Terence Diggory of the English Department faculty; and a gallery talk delivered by
Berkson at noon Friday, Oct. 27.
For more information, call 518-580-8080 or go to the Tang web site.
