| Not so long ago, drawing became the new painting. | | | | the '90s, fused painting with drawing in a myriad of |
| From small-scale and intimate to wall-sized, | | | | complex mark-making, while Canada's Royal Art |
| highly-worked or resolutely low-fi; whatever its format, | | | | Lodge, formed in 1996, produced whimsical drawings, |
| the re-appearance of a once side-lined medium | | | | paintings and objects reminiscent of the Mission |
| marked a dramatic shift in its fortunes and indeed, | | | | School's output. |
| assumptions about art in general. | | | | In Europe, similar trends were also underway. As the |
| But why the change? Was it that, in an art scene | | | | 20th century drew to its close, Sweden's Jockum |
| increasingly driven by fads, drawing became du jour | | | | Nordstrüm was gaining recognition for his beautifully |
| simply because it hadn't been for a very long time? Or | | | | rendered, twisted tableaux of far from ordinary life. |
| were other, less obvious factors at work? | | | | Switzerland's Marc Bauer produced vigorous drawings |
| In fact, the re-emergence of drawing was far from | | | | that exemplified the medium's strength, and in Britain |
| market-driven, and its increase in profile a far slower | | | | the hand-drawn zine was adopted by Olivia Plender, |
| process than any newly voguish status might suggest. | | | | albeit in a highly polished form. |
| To understand something of its current impact, it's | | | | While drawing, obviously, had never disappeared |
| necessary to look back at the closing years of the | | | | entirely from the gallery, these artists represent just a |
| 20th century. A time when, to the eyes of many, the | | | | few of those contributing to its rapidly growing visibility |
| art scene looked very different indeed. | | | | towards the end of the '90s. A resurgence now so |
| Throughout much of the 1990s visual austerity and a | | | | evident that, though prompted by certain definable |
| certain restraint governed the work of a new wave of | | | | factors, it nevertheless seems organic, almost |
| artists; many of them British, many high-profile. | | | | essential; a phenomenon that quite possibly identifies |
| Figures such as Darren Almond, Damien Hirst, Martin | | | | as well as answers very current needs amongst |
| Creed, Rachel Whiteread and a re-discovered Allan | | | | today's young artists. |
| McCollum typified an art scene driven by hands-off, | | | | And what are they? |
| conceptual practice and stringent theoretical undertow. | | | | Well to start with, drawing is cheap. For those |
| Even artists whose work, by contrast, seemed more | | | | struggling with the high costs of studio space and |
| ludic and theatrical - Maurizio Catellan, the Chapman | | | | materials, it's a medium that's financially viable as well |
| brothers, an ever-enduring Jeff Koons - shared a taste | | | | as a manageable means of production. |
| for slick, expensive, mechanized output. And in fact, | | | | What's more, it's hugely inclusive. Everyone, at some |
| looking back, there's a certain synchronistic poetry to | | | | point, has experienced the act of drawing at some |
| the fact that Marc Quinn's 'Self' portrait, a principal icon | | | | level, a participation which affords even the most |
| of the era, quite literally froze the blood. | | | | casual observer a sense of involvement in the |
| Further tendencies underpinned the general sense of | | | | medium; a visceral engagement in its use that |
| pristine, chilly surface. Graphic design in the late 90s | | | | conceptual art forms often lack. |
| exulted in the hard edges of its newly perfect digital | | | | Yet despite this refreshingly egalitarian glow, it also |
| genesis, while on a popular level, serious flirtation with | | | | appears that much of today's output seems directed |
| 'minimalism' induced homeowners to replace comfort | | | | towards highly individual, even arcane expression, a |
| with pristine surface and spacious void. | | | | practice exemplified by intricate, almost obsessive |
| Clearly, any attempt to rapidly define a moment in art | | | | mark-making. |
| history is doomed to over-simplification. A vast array | | | | On the one hand, this wholly supports an ethos by |
| of artists stand in lush counterpoint to Hirst's surgically | | | | which today's artists seem to demand an intimate, |
| steely cabinets or Whiteread's pale, negative spaces. | | | | personal and evident engagement with their art. |
| The work of Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, Daniel | | | | Painstaking detail and labor-intensive mark-making |
| Richter and Jörg Immendorf - to name just a few - | | | | represent artistic endeavor for which the artist alone is |
| all manifest an obvious delight in exuberant | | | | responsible. No third-party construction teams, no |
| mark-making or absorbed, painterly gesture. | | | | assistants on hand to dab a brush as directed. This art |
| Yet it's certainly true that what generally made the | | | | is about making in the purest possible sense. |
| headlines - the dissected sheep, the on/off lights, the | | | | A parallel explosion in use of craft elements - beading, |
| unmade beds - were essentially 'conceptual' works | | | | glittering, collage, embroidery - as well as the growing |
| that side-lined direct artistic intervention. And it's also | | | | popularity of zines and artists' books - mirrors this |
| true that, with the internet truly coming of age in the | | | | quest for hands-on, highly personalized involvement. |
| '90s, such highly publicized aesthetics became instantly | | | | Yet more intriguingly, demands for creative ownership |
| and widely accessible for the first time in any history. In | | | | may well serve needs besides a revision of artistic |
| the mass public eye, art had gained a hard, new edge. | | | | involvement. |
| Yet elsewhere, a wildly contrasting vision was being | | | | Art, of course, has always been about reflecting and |
| far less well documented. On America's West Coast, | | | | interpreting the world, but the early 21st century seems |
| in particular, the long-gestating seeds of a brimming | | | | to have experienced a particularly profound |
| alternative scene were beginning to bear considerable | | | | re-appraisal of exactly what the world involves. The |
| fruit. Its influences were multiple and diverse, yet | | | | outlook is an uneasy one, marked by a growing sense |
| shared the fact that all lay well outside the | | | | of schism and dislocation, and in particular, the notion of |
| contemporary mainstream. | | | | circumstance veering out of control. |
| In LA, for example, the 'underground' drawings of Ray | | | | To return briefly to Pop Surrealism, true to its 'surrealist' |
| Pettibon - linked initially to the rock scene then | | | | label the movement is marked by subversion of |
| distributed through short-run zines - had garnered | | | | apparent reality. Typically, this takes on disturbing, |
| fervent admirers throughout the late '70s & '80s. A | | | | anxiety-ridden form; bio-morphed figures inhabit |
| major exhibition in 1992 succeeded in raising his profile | | | | scenarios laden with threat; an undertow of violence is |
| both throughout the States and abroad. | | | | darkly enhanced by imagery plucked from childhood. |
| Yet Pettibon's work was merely the best-known facet | | | | And importantly, unlike Surrealism, which investigates |
| of a burgeoning counter-culture. One which, since 1986, | | | | the interior spaces of the human psyche, Pop |
| had found a major advocate in the now legendary La | | | | Surrealism obliquely focuses on physical, actual realities. |
| Luz De Jesus gallery in downtown LA. | | | | Those genetic hybrids, ruined landscapes and constant |
| This space, located incongruously above an offbeat | | | | simmer of threat don't merely exist in our nightmares. |
| gift store, focused entirely on artists whose | | | | They're with us now. |
| backgrounds and influences sprang from an array of | | | | The movement itself may have had its day as far as |
| popular cultures such as illustration, folk art, comics and | | | | the art market is concerned, but the zeitgeist it |
| tattooing. And this output, crucially, tended towards an | | | | portrays is clearly here to stay. |
| intricate figurative craftsmanship more closely | | | | Consider, for a moment, Jean Dubuffet's famous |
| associated at the time with illustration than so-called | | | | description of L'Art Brut |
| 'fine' art. | | | | "Those works created from solitude and from pure |
| The gallery and its stable of artists proved a speedy | | | | and authentic creative impulses - where the worries of |
| and influential local success, and in 1994, Juxtapoz, a | | | | competition, acclaim and social promotion do not |
| magazine founded by Robert Williams (himself an artist | | | | interfere - are, because of these very facts, more |
| and friend of famed underground artist Robert Crumb) | | | | precious than the productions of professions. ... we |
| also began to showcase this growing wave of | | | | cannot avoid the feeling that in relation to these works, |
| alternative art. | | | | cultural art in its entirety appears to be the game of a |
| Utterly at odds with the rarefied, theory-led aesthetic | | | | futile society, a fallacious parade." |
| dominating contemporary practice at the time, this new | | | | Though written in the 1950s, the proclamation reads |
| sensibility came to be regarded as a movement. Its | | | | now like a perfect manifesto for the kind of |
| roots and position were defined by not just one label, | | | | anti-establishment art scene we've been discussing. |
| but two: Low-Brow, or Pop Surrealism. | | | | Yet quite apart from epitomizing a 'purer' alternative to |
| Resolutely populist - bordering, even, on kitsch - its | | | | the mainstream, the kind of art Dubuffet describes |
| appropriation of popular style and content within a fine | | | | now carries connotations far beyond those of his |
| art context questioned long-held assumptions regarding | | | | original assessment. |
| the parameters of art itself. Revisiting the earliest | | | | The 'simplicity' of naïve or folk art harks back - in |
| tenets of Pop Art, it nevertheless totally dismissed that | | | | popular nostalgia at least - to carefree, less complex |
| movement's later associations with Warholian mass | | | | times in which a sense of place and purpose were |
| production. | | | | clearly defined. It's little wonder that its revival coincides |
| And in San Francisco, too, similar trends were at work. | | | | with acute apprehension regarding our own, turbulent |
| In the 1990s a group of artists including Chris Johansen, | | | | times. |
| Clare E Rojas and Barry McGee emerged to form a | | | | By contrast, much outsider art is clearly associated |
| distinctive new scene. Their work, though sharing much | | | | with not belonging - a characteristic most evident in its |
| with the Low-Brow phenomenon, differed in several | | | | embrace of art produced by the mentally ill. |
| important respects and became known as the 'Mission | | | | Yet here again there's a definite connection. Such |
| School' in recognition of its essentially San Franciscan | | | | work often originates through its use as a therapeutic |
| flavor. | | | | tool; a fact that throws interesting light on the intricate, |
| Local influences contributed to a more whimsical, | | | | involved delineation of much recent drawing and |
| looser approach to image-making than LA tendencies | | | | painting. Indeed, in its conspicuous efforts to order, |
| at the time. Street art such as graffiti formed an | | | | pattern and negotiate space, such complexity provides |
| intrinsic part of the scene, but was generally refined | | | | almost casebook examples of conflict-solving Gestalt. |
| into a figurative rather than textual medium. The legacy | | | | More interestingly still, a significant proportion of |
| of underground comics pioneered by the likes of | | | | contemporary practice doesn't just seek to interpret |
| Robert Crumb was also evident in cartoon-like | | | | complex realities, but actually sets out to create them |
| characterization and a witty, humorous edge. | | | | through construction of highly personal, alternative |
| More importantly still, while painting lay at the heart of | | | | worlds. |
| the Low-Brow movement, drawing was much more | | | | Paul Noble's well-known drawings of fictional 'Nobson |
| widely adopted by the Mission School artists. | | | | Newtown' are devoid of human figures, yet imbued |
| In a nod to the hand-drawn agitprop and pyschedelia | | | | with visual invention and idiosyncratic textual comment. |
| of '60s Haight-Ashbury, they revived techniques such | | | | A clear intention is to provide a reflection of the mind |
| as detailed patterning, hand-lettering and découpage. | | | | of their maker: as Noble himself puts it, "town planning |
| Materials, too, were frequently unconventional; ball-point | | | | as self-portraiture". |
| pens, markers, recycled paper, wood or metal all found | | | | Other artists' fictional worlds provide similar arenas for |
| a part in the Mission School look. | | | | grappling with issues that echo or parallel our own. |
| This 'regional' distinction was clearly underlined in | | | | Michael Whittle, a recent graduate from the Royal |
| publicity for a 2000 show at LA's New Image Gallery: | | | | College of Art, creates intricate drawings melding |
| SAN FRANCISCO DRAWING SHOW curated by: | | | | religious iconography with motifs garnered from |
| Alicia McCarthy and Chris Johanson. May 19 - June 17, | | | | heraldry, alchemy and science. The resulting images, |
| 2000. | | | | snapshots of impossible states, underpin the artist's |
| Straight out of San Francisco, drawings of over 15 | | | | own desire to "make sense of reality" while also |
| artists will be exhibited .... Currently there are important | | | | investigating "... man's attempts to come to terms with |
| artistic trends developing out of San Francisco. | | | | existence". |
| Drawing is at the root of this development. | | | | Camille Rose Garcia (whose practice, though largely |
| Meanwhile, however, America's East Coast found | | | | identified with painting, includes much drawing) is well |
| itself forced (for once) to gradually acknowledge a | | | | known for deceptively enchanting visions of what |
| nexus of creativity occurring elsewhere. While many | | | | amounts to a near-dystopia. A recurring cast of |
| commentators, curators and gallerists became | | | | characters battle to save or destroy a poisoned, dying |
| increasingly aware that some kind of real cultural shift | | | | world. The baddies, unfortunately, seem to be winning. |
| was taking place, others seemed slow or simply | | | | Art today appears to be grappling with a spiritual, |
| unwilling to recognize its impact or legitimacy. | | | | political and therapeutic function that arguably, it hasn't |
| Yet the growing appeal of Low-Brow and related | | | | reflected quite so clearly for centuries. And the fact |
| work - especially amongst a generation of new and | | | | that drawing, the most immediate and spontaneous of |
| emerging artists - was undeniable. New galleries | | | | mediums, forms a vital aspect of the interpretation of a |
| opened to deal exclusively in the genre, and Juxtapoz, | | | | complex world should come as no surprise. |
| along with many of its featured artists, began to | | | | Postscript: Drawing right now - who we're liking |
| acquire a cult following. Its international distribution and | | | | The energy of the California scene continues apace, |
| the broad reach of the internet helped ensure that this | | | | with San Francisco still arguably the epicentre of new |
| new sensibility filtered beyond the US. | | | | drawing - check out the wonderful work of Sara |
| The 'unofficial' Californian scene gathering pace in the | | | | Thustra, Sacha Eckes, Andrew Schoultz and Simone |
| '90s was intrinsically linked to a rejection of prevailing | | | | Shubuck (a San Francisco native, though now resident |
| artistic practice - the notion, as Fred Tomaselli later put | | | | in New York). |
| it, "...that people are a bit tired of the over-rationalism | | | | LA practice remains particularly diverse, but artists |
| (sic) of the art world, this idea that you can get to | | | | who make exciting use of drawing include Travis |
| everything through the cerebral." | | | | Millard, Adam Janes and Gina Triplett. |
| Yet its ethos was otherwise hugely democratic and | | | | Elsewhere in the States, we enjoy the work of Carter, |
| unifying, a statement of validity for neglected or | | | | Aurel Schmidt and UK-born Dominic McGill (best |
| side-lined art. There can be little doubt that its | | | | known for his epic, 65ft 'Project for a New American |
| emergence provided an impetus behind the current | | | | Century'). |
| interest in drawing. | | | | In Europe, Richard Höglund produces interesting |
| But this interest - and with it, the resurgence of a | | | | drawings informed by semiotics, and in the UK, artists |
| particular kind of artistic engagement - was not, of | | | | of note include Sarah Woodfine and Adam Dant (the |
| course, solely confined to America's West Coast. | | | | latter have both been recipients of the Jerwood |
| Elsewhere in the States, Laylah Ali's first major show | | | | Drawing Prize. |
| of meticulously patterned, faux-naif works took place | | | | Most exciting of all, newcomer Laura Oldfield Ford |
| at Chicago's MOCA in 1999 (she had been featured, | | | | creates large-scale, beautifully rendered drawings with |
| along with Chris Johansen, at New York's Drawing | | | | astute political commentary at their core, as well as the |
| Center in the summer of 1998). | | | | cult zine 'Savage Messiah, an extraordinary foray into |
| Julie Mehretu, likewise emerging towards the end of | | | | the psycho-geographic terrain of London. |