Drawing became fashionable in the 18th century when it left the confines of the artist’s studio to enter a broader field of discourse, culture, politics, and social life. This transformation was most evident in France, where drawing was significantly and influentially repositioned and

reconceptualized. This
exhibition traces the emergence of the modern understanding of works on
paper in multiple senses – as an autonomous form of expression, an index
of the artist’s style, an object of aesthetic contemplation, and an epistemolo
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gical tool. By exploring the artists’ interactions with paper rather than simply
their use of the material as a basis, the exhibition considers works on paper
as a means of conceptualization as well as a visual mode of thinking in and
of itself. Focusing on the power of contemporary works on paper, this selec
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tion of work looks at how artists use drawing to examine themes including
identity, place, and memory, thereby pushing the boundaries of the medium.
The constitutive influence of Pop Art on their work is shared by all the artists
represented in the show. Building on the achievements of Dadaism, the Pop
artists began to parody the society on which their reactions were based. The
Pop Art movement then sought to solidify the idea that art can draw from any
source, that there is no cultural hierarchy to disrupt this. Presented in a fine
art setting, the line between “high culture” and the quotidian becomes blur
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red. To assess the permanent conceptual impact on contemporary drawing,
we must bear in mind some of the characteristics of contemporary art after
Pop Art: Appropriation of cultural icons; the use of vibrant, bright colors, iro
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ny, and satire; as well as innovative techniques like print, mixed media, and
collage that reference its graphic nature.