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The (new) art of drawing

Today's artists re-consider the art of making their mark

By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin
AMERICAN-STATESMAN ARTS WRITER
Wednesday, June 17, 2009

It's about the hand. And the line (curvy or straight). And about an artist making a mark that is distinctive and unique.

Each generation of artists wrestles with its own particular creative concerns. Among the trends of the last half-decade or so has been a re-emergence of the art of drawing and a re-embrace of the sensibilities that drawing demands and projects: directness, intimacy, individuality and an immediate sense of the artist's hand at work.

In art-speak it's called 'mark making' - the essential act of an artist producing the most elemental of artistic identifiers.

Right now, you can make an afternoon of art-going around Austin galleries and museums by following the art of drawing.

At D Berman Gallery, 'Drawn (Not Quartered)' features six Texas artists who pursue the art of drawing in different ways and mediums. Katie Maratta makes black-and-white one-inch-tall Texas panoramic landscapes in miniature detail. Jareid Theis builds delicate, ethereal layers by floating ink drawings that are on transparent vellum on top of sheet music. And the right-handed W. Tucker taps into his inner child by using his left hand to create very rudimentary cartoons on scraps board or discarded book covers. Drawing with his nondominant hand, Tucker says, 'rescues me from over-thinking the work.' Tucker's approach underscores a familiar refrain heard from artists who are delving into the new art of drawing: In our overloaded information age, it's easy to lose track of what's hand-made or what's made viscerally.

Fascinated by the fuzzy intersection between the digital world and reality, Shawn Smith typically makes rather whimsical sculptures from tiny cubes of wood that are tactical, three-dimensional versions of pixelated images - 're-things' is what Smith calls his sculpture.

'I see (the resurgence of an interest in drawing) not as a full rejection, but as the opposite starting point from digital media,' Smith says. 'Drawing has "thingness" to it that's very important. There's a directness and immediacy to its physicality. I can put my hands on it.'

Gallery owner Lora Reynolds has organized a group exhibit at her eponymous downtown art space to open in July that focuses on the ways artists assert their artistic identities through drawing and mark making. And Reynolds offers it as a respite from multimedia art.

'Drawing, as a medium, has always been one of my major interests in contemporary art and it feels like a welcomed contrast to the multimedia direction of much of the art made now,' Reynolds says. 'The immediacy and intimacy of drawing is interesting to me as is the way drawing slows down your looking.'

Slowness, yes, and there's a certain honesty to drawing. too. It is, after all, something created by the fundamental act of an artist's hand and thus the antithesis of the digital smoke-and-mirrors of multimedia art. Then again, a part of today's resurgence in the art of drawing can be attributed to today's younger artists who were brought up consuming animated video of all sorts, particularly video games.

So perhaps the path to understanding today's resurgence of drawing isn't a straight line. More likely it's an expressive one.

jvanryzin@statesman.com; 445-3699

'Drawn (Not Quartered)'

When: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays through July 18

Where: D Berman Gallery, 1701 Guadalupe St.

Cost: Free

Information: www.dbermangallery.com; 477-8877

Drawn from the past

Prints are traditionally made by artists making their marks directly on a lithograph stone or metal plate. Hence, prints percolate with the immediate sense of the artist's hand. The Blanton Museum of Art's permanent collection of 13,500 prints and 1,500 drawings - one of the most comprehensive of any university art museum in the country - spans more than half a millennium of art history as well as several continents. Three times a year, the museum presents a new set of focused, mini-exhibits. Here's a critic's picks of what's on view through July 5:

'Surrealist Prints: From Europe to the Americas.' Perhaps no other art movement felt so shockingly free-form when it arrived on the scene than surrealism did in the early 20th century. Irreverent, emotive, playful, visceral - surrealism had an immediate appeal both for artists looking to unleash their creative subconscious in bold new ways and for a public eager to break free. On view are small works by, among others, Man Ray, Joan Miro, Wassily Kandinsky and Pablo Picasso.

'1890s: A Decade of Desire.' Consumerism raged in the 1890s, spurred on by the industrial revolution and rapid urbanization. It was an age of going out on the town like no other. Artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec captured the decadent nighttime revelers in an appropriately fluid, sensual style and also created promotional posters for many a show or nightclub.

Blanton Museum of Art

Where: Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Brazos Street.

Museum hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays, 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays (third Thursdays until 8 p.m.).

Tickets: $3-$7 (free on Thursdays)

Info: www.blantonmuseum.org, 471-7324

Toeing the line

Indie East Austin galleries Art Palace and Okay Mountain share a similar aesthetic - an aesthetic that evolves from today's younger artists who, consciously or not, create art that conveys an immediate sense of the artist's hand. Whether in actual drawings or in paintings or even in sculpture, a style and sensibility rooted in the act of drawing informs much of the art at Art Palace and Okay Mountain.

'Goodnight Moon: Nathan Green' through Saturday

Vivid, expressive paintings and drawings exude the very personal mark of this Austin artist.

Art Palace Gallery

2109 E. Cesar Chavez St.

Hours: Noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays, 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays

www.artpalacegallery.com

'The Hot Slump,' through July 1

Film, illustration and animation inform the work of the emerging California artists in this exhibit.

Okay Mountain

1312 E. Cesar Chavez St.

Hours: Noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays, 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays

www.okaymountain.com

Upcoming: The latest in lines

Opening July 11, 'Mark-Making: Dots, Lines, and Curves' takes a look at how a handful of international artists assert their creative independence through the very fundamental gestures they make, whether in painstakingly detailed drawings or large linear string sculpture.

'Mark-Making: Dots, Lines, and Curves,' July 11-Sept. 5

Lora Reynolds Gallery

360 Nueces St.

Hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays

Info: www.lorareynolds.com, 215-4965

Nonstop mark making

Celebrating its 20th anniversary, Flatbed Press collaborates with artists from across the country to produce limited editions of original etchings, lithographs, woodcuts and monoprints - works of art that all start with an artist making a basic hand-created mark. Currently on display is a retrospective of midcentury Texas modernist artist Cynthia Brants.

'Off the Edge: Cynthia Brants' through June 27

Flatbed Press and Gallery

2860 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard

Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays

Info: www.flatbedpress.com, 477-9328