Drawing Now: Eight Propositions

by Laura Hoptman

From John Currin's old-master-style Playboy bunnies to Elizabeth Peyton's finde-siecle portraits; from Julie Mehretu's dizzying, multilayered architectural landscapes to Shahzia Sikander's multipatterned miniature ones; from Yoshitomo Nara's angry and enigmatic little girls to Kara Walker's stereotypical negresses; and from Barry McGee's caricatures of urban graffiti to Matthew Ritchie's cosmological diagrams -- drawing is back, if it ever went away. In contrast to the digitized, multimedia direction that much of contemporary art has taken in the past decade, drawing has become a major and arguably parallel mode of expression for many of today's most important young artists. Drawing Now, published to accompany the first major survey of contemporary drawings at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 15 years, contains more than 100 color reproductions of work by 26 international artists, both wellknown and emerging, that demonstrate the fascinating variety of methods and approaches, mediums and scales, apparent in this old-again, new-again art. Accompanying essays by the exhibition's curator, Laura Hoptman, explore eight themes that she perceives in the field -- Drafting & Architecture, Mental Maps & Metaphysics, Popular Culture & National Culture, Fashion, Likeness & Allegory, Envisioning a City, Science & Art, Comics & Other Subcultures, Ornament & Crime -- and provide key impulses behind drawing's recent resurgence.

Genres: Art, Drawing, Art History

192 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 2002

Reviews

[Volha · Rating 3 out of 5]

mentioned artists are great, but well known.
good selection and quality of illustrations.
not enough conceptual, referential, intellectual input.

this book was mentioned in other sources as seminal for contemporary drawing, and my expectations were higher

[Jamil · Rating 3 out of 5]

survey of contemporary drawing by the usual suspects: mehretu, murakami, nara, john currin, elizabeth peyton, kara walker, matthew ritchie, laura owens, barry mcgee. graham little's frederic leighton referencing color drenched "fashion" work was the only new discovery for me here.

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

a good precursor to Vitamin D

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice anthology of contemporary drawing grouped by type. No great intellectual insight or discoveries but some good work.