Featuring an essay by Molly Nesbit, this book is published on the occasion of the exhibition Drawing 2020 at Gladstone, New York.

 

In the summer of 2000, Barbara Gladstone Gallery organized an exhibition entitled 00, a survey of drawings at the turn of the millennium. On the 20^th anniversary of this expansive presentation, Drawing 2020 revisits this idea of drawing—how it remains vital, how it constantly mounts a quiet revolution, and how it transforms in the care of different artists—as a lens into how artists live and make work at this important moment in history.

 

Over the last two decades and throughout the last few months, drawing as an artistic practice has developed and evolved in response to physical, political, and technological elements that impact everyday life, namely the expanding purchase of the digital in our daily lives and the rise of social media. More recently, quarantine in the face of a global pandemic and a widespread reckoning on race have changed many perspectives: these multifaceted concepts have irreparably transformed how we see the world, look at ourselves and each other, and view art. Yet, the act of drawing—the haptic connection of an artist’s vision and the visualization of the world—has continued to surge forward, remaining just as important and fecund as it has for decades. Employing both traditional and unconventional materials and methods, the works in this exhibition present the inherent complexities and intrinsic qualities of what constitutes a drawing in the expanded field.

 

Published by Gladstone Gallery and Walther König, 2020

ISBN 978-3960989271