Vol. 22, No. 6, Sept. 19, 2002
ART
Exhibition of drawings features big names
and emerging artists
Melissa
Mitchell, Arts Editor
(217) 333-5491; melissa@uiuc.edu
9/1/02
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — As an art form, drawing historically has played second fiddle to its jazzier, more colorful cousins – painting, sculpture and installation work – but the medium moves to center stage in a new exhibition opening this month at the Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
"Drawings of Choice
From a New York Collection," on view Sept. 4 through Nov. 3, features 100
contemporary works on paper by more than 40 artists. Big names, such as Jasper
Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, will share space on the gallery walls along with
emerging artists Jill Baroff, Cheryl Goldsleger, Mark Williams and others. The
exhibition reflects all manner of contemporary drawing created from the 1960s
through the present – from casual sketches to more detailed, precisely
rendered pictures, along with drawings intended to function primarily as preliminary
studies.
A major strength of the collection, on loan from Werner Kramarsky and the Museum
of Modern Art, is its works by minimalists such as Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald
Judd, Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold and Fred Sandback. Another strong suit of the
collection is its drawings by conceptual artists; notable among them, Robert
Morris, Bruce Nauman, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson and Lawrence Weiner. The
show also includes drawings by artists better known for their work in areas
outside the visual arts – composer John Cage and choreographer and dancer
Trisha Brown.
"Drawing has a long
history as a practical as well as a theoretical tool in the artistic process,"
museum director Josef Helfenstein wrote in a catalog that accompanies the exhibition.
"Despite its relatively subordinate role over the centuries, drawing has
to a certain degree always been an independent medium." Helfenstein, who
curated the exhibition, said drawings "are still regarded as less important
or sensational than a painting or an installation." But for Helfenstein,
who said he shares Kramarsky’s passion for drawings, it’s the "intimacy
and immediacy" of the medium that draws him to it. "Drawings are closer
to the artist and the creative process," he said.
The exhibition and catalog
are the results of a yearlong graduate seminar, taught by Helfenstein and Illinois
art history professor Jonathan Fineberg. Nine students participated in the seminar
and traveled to New York, where they met Kramarsky and viewed and researched
the collection. Their work is reflected in the catalog text that accompanies
images of the art featured in the exhibition.
Following the show’s debut at Illinois, it will travel to four other art
museums in 2002-03: Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, Nov. 14-Feb. 2; Georgia
Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, Feb. 11-March 23; Bowdoin College
Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, April 10-June 8; and Cincinnati Art Museum,
Aug. 22-Nov. 16.