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In addition to big blockbusters, the Philadelphia Museum of Art
often has small shows, too. "For Your Eyes Only: Looking
Closely at Works of Art on Paper" is one of ten currently
on display in the museum. This exhibition of about 20 drawings,
watercolors and pastels from the museum's permanent collection
offers a great way for museum-goers to study the ABC's of drawing
and the language of various drawing materials. Although drawing
is an art form that can be pursued as an end in and of itself,
it is also an essential preliminary technique that every visual
art form shares. As ideas change into finished works of painting,
sculpture or architecture, they are nearly always developed through
drawings. So if you want to learn more about drawing, here's your
chance.
This exhibition is unique in that it really
is designed for study: There are several heavy-duty magnifying
glasses conveniently located in a small rack near the entrance.
(I can't tell you how often I forget to take my magnifying glass
to the museum.) Viewers can work their way slowly through the
exhibit, looking first at the works with the naked eye and then
examining them carefully with the magnifier. There's also a display
in a low vitrine in the center of the gallery, with artists' tools,
materials and samples of surfaces and lines produced by each material
on paper. The didactic material throughout "For Your Eyes
Only" is extensive, but well suited to the purpose of the
show.
But the drawings themselves are the best reason
to see the show. Beginning with Bowler Hat and Garment (c.1885-1900),
we witness graphite lines making a picture and Paul Cézanne,
as always, stopping when he knows what he needs to know. He made
use of simple materials, paper and graphite pencils, to draw the
mundane objects and landscapes in his rigorous and copious notebooks.
Cézanne's drawings are compelling for the urgent and quivery
lines and confidence (or lack thereof) conveyed in the technique.
By contrast, a drawing by Vija Celmins, Untitled
(Ocean) (1969), is a dense and highly finished drawing in
graphite. On close inspection, it's evident that the surface has
been worked and reworked, with pools of very black to silver to
pure white pigment. While the subject of the drawing is the waves
in the sea, Celmins also pushes the medium to offer the attentive
viewer something more. Stepping back, there is a point where the
viewer is rewarded with a vision through the silver mist of an
abyss.
Georges Seurat is represented with a small drawing,
Trombonist (Study for "Circus Side Show") (1887-88),
using black Conté on textured paper. The relaxed, even
flaccid, pose of the musician is emphasized by the carefully graduated
tone of Seurat's drawing technique. Like a puff of smoke, the
soft fuzziness of this image tenderly records a fleeting moment.
The Loge (c.1879), one of Mary Cassatt's
most exquisite pastel drawings, shows a woman listening to music
in a great hall. Like an ancient plaster wall, the surface is
encrusted with pigments in wonderfully specific colors like pearly
lime green and olive-copper, along with murky blended areas topped
with raw tones. The magnifier really comes in handy here, and
it's tempting to stay immersed in the abstract world of color
and drawing it presents.
In A Destroying Deity (c. 1820-25), the
visionary artist and poet William Blake used ink and watercolor
washes along with a quill pen for delicate outlining. The idealized
figure is almost cartoon-like, but is given an ominous corporeal
form by this medium. Blake often used ink and watercolor washes
to color his drawings and prints, inventing his own techniques
along with a fascinating system of allegories and symbols.
The 19th century writer and architect John Ruskin
is represented by a fastidious little study, Beanstalk,
date unknown. He used translucent brown ink to outline the entire
image of the plant and define details, as well as black ink, graphite,
and opaque white watercolor to strengthen the forms. There is
a creeping angularity to the vine, a lushness to the leaves and
a precision to the curling tendrils that beautifully represents
the vitality of the life force.
Van Gogh was thrilled to (re)discover reed pens
in France and especially enjoyed using them for fast lively drawings
of outdoor scenes, for instance Haystacks (1888). The short
blunt strokes of the reed pen created swirling and staccato textures
and roughly decorative surfaces. In this drawing, it's fascinating
to follow the artist as he plays with losing the subject in the
visual cacophony.
Like most sculptors, Henry Moore used drawings
to develop sculptural ideas and forms. In Study Sheet for Seated
Figures in Terracotta (1945), he used a complicated method
of working backwards and forwards to create three-dimensionality.
He first used a wax resist of crayons, a watercolor wash, and
pen and ink to define the forms; then water colors, pen and ink
and crayons to create depth and replicate the texture of stone
or rough plaster.
Other drawings in the exhibition by artists
such as Fernand Léger, Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee and several
others were all just as absorbing - each in a different way -
and worthy of close study and reflection. Maybe "For Your
Eyes Only" will coax viewers into slowing down and looking
a little closer at the artwork in the museum (and elsewhere);
not a bad habit to develop. At the very least this exhibition
can help us appreciate all that goes into something as seemingly
simple as a drawing.
Reproduced courtesy of the Philadelphia
City Paper
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