The first university-level textbook on the power, condition, and expanse of contemporary fine art drawing
A Companion to Contemporary Drawing explores how 20th and 21st century artists have used drawing to understand and comment on the world. Presenting contributions by both theorists and practitioners, this unique textbook considers the place, space, and history of drawing and explores shifts in attitudes towards its practice over the years. Twenty-seven essays discuss how drawing emerges from the mind of the artist to question and reflect upon what they see, feel, and experience.
This book discusses key themes in contemporary drawing practice, addresses the working conditions and context of artists, and considers a wide range of personal, social, and political considerations that influence artistic choices. Topics include the politics of eroticism in South American drawing, anti-capitalist drawing from Eastern Europe, drawing and conceptual art, feminist drawing, and exhibitions that have put drawing practices at the centre of contemporary art. This textbook:
Demonstrates ways contemporary issues and concerns are addressed through drawing Reveals how drawing is used to make powerful social and political statements Situates works by contemporary practitioners within the context of their historical moment Explores how contemporary art practices utilize drawing as both process and finished artifact Shows how concepts of observation, representation, and audience have changed dramatically in the digital era Establishes drawing as a mode of thought
Part of the acclaimed Wiley Blackwell Companions to Art History series, A Companion to Contemporary Drawing is a valuable text for students of fine art, art history, and curating, and for practitioners working within contemporary fine art practice.
List of Illustrations ix Notes on Contributors xvii Acknowledgments xxv Introduction 1 Kelly Chorpening and Rebecca Fortnum Part I The Power of Drawing 11 1 The Black Index 13 Bridget R. Cooks 2 A State of Alert: The Politics of Eroticism in South American Drawing 29 Sofia Gotti 3 Graphic Witness 55 Kate Macfarlane 4 Drawn from Communism: Anti-Capitalist Drawing from Central-Eastern Europe 71 Magdalena Radomska 5 Differencing Drawing: Feminist Perspectives on Line, Surface, and Space 95 Griselda Pollock 6 A Dirty Double Mirror: Drawing, Autobiography, and Feminism 123 Rebecca Fortnum 7 Between the Sky and the Handle: Shilpa Gupta’s Drawings in the Contemporary 147 Parul Dave Mukherji 8 Drawing as Contagion 161 Jade Montserrat 9 Curating Drawing: Exhibitions and the Centering of Drawing in Contemporary Art 167 João Ribas Part II The Condition of Drawing 183 10 Observation and Drawing: From Looking to Seeing 185 Paul Moorhouse 11 “Drawing’s Impropriety” 203 Lucien Massaert 12 Drawing in Atopia: An Exploration of “Drift” as Method 221 Beth Harland 13 Works on/in/with Paper: Approaching Drawing as Responsive Marking 239 Marina Kassianidou 14 Indexical Drawing: On Frottage 257 Margaret Iversen 15 Ground as Critical Limit 271 Laura Lisbon 16 Drawing’s Finish 287 Stephanie Straine 17 Radical Antinomies: Drawing and Conceptual Art 309 Anna Lovatt 18 Drawing Desires 325 Sunil Manghani 19 Drawing from Life and the Twenty-first Century Art School 343 Kelly Chorpening Part III The Expanse of Drawing 367 20 Marking Time, Moving Images: Drawing and Film 369 Ed Krčma 21 Digital Drawing 389 Tamarin Norwood 22 The Dot and the Line: Drawing Amongst Computers 407 Jane de Almeida 23 Installation/Drawing: Spaces of Drawing Between Art and Architecture 431 Sophia Banou 24 Informational Drawing 451 Matthew Ritchie 25 Drawing Towards Sound – Notation, Diagram, Drawing 471 David Ryan 26 Chinese Calligraphy: A Drawing Ecology 493 Eric Wear 27 The Enduring Power of Comic Strips 513 Simon Grennan Index 531
Kelly Chorpening is the Fine Art Programme Director at Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts, London. She has worked extensively in drawing as an artist, writer, curator and educator within fine art and across disciplines, and in a number of national contexts. Rebecca Fortnum is Professor of Fine Art at the Royal College of Art, UK. She is the author of Contemporary British Women Artists: In Their Own Words and On Not Knowing: How Artists Think. She has exhibited widely including solo exhibitions at the Freud Museum and the V&A Museum of Childhood in London.
