Miss Sophie Kingham

Fine Art

Level 5

Art context 3

Dissertation

Sophie Kingham

BA Hons Fine Art

30/12/13

Abstract drawing

Contents page –

Illustrations ………………………………………………………………………..p1 - 9

Synopsis …………………………………………………………………………...p10

Question and Introduction ………...………………………………………………p11-13

Anna Barriball ……………………………………………………………….…….p13 -14

Cameron Jamie ………………………………………………………………....….p15 - 16

Christine Hiebert ……………………………………………………………..……p16 - 18

Richard Tuttle ……………………………………………………………………..p18 - 20

Automatism ……………………………………………………………………......p20

Automatism – (Laura Potter) ……………………………………………………...p20 - 21

Conclusion – (in comparison to Beth Brown) ……….....………………………....p21

Conclusion – (Ian Kaier)…………………………………………………….….…p21 - 22

Refrences ………………………………………………………………………….p23 - 24

Bibliography …………………………………………………………..…………..p25 - 26

Illustrations page –

(Illustration 1 Appearing on page…)

Agnes Martin (1912-2004) Untitled signed and dated 'a. martin 1963' (on the backing board) ink on paper 12 x 9½ in. (30.5 x 24.1 cm.)

(Illustration 2 appearing on page…)

Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #260, white crayon and black pencil on black wall, first installed at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in June 1975.

(Illustration 3 appearing on page…)

Andy Warhol

(Illustration 4 appearing on page…)

Anna Barriball

Door

2004Pencil on paper

208.5 x 88 x 6 cm

(Illustration 5 appearing on page…)

Anna Barriball, 

Draw (fireplace) 

2005 (detail).

Video projection.

Duration 10 min, 30 sec. Edition of three.

(Illustration 6 appearing on page…)

Cameron Jamie Roughshod Creeper, 2010Ink on paper mounted to wood47 1/4 x 31 1/2 inches (120 x 80 cm)86 1/2 x 38 inches (219.7 x 96.5 cm) overall installed

(Illustration 7 appearing on page…)

Cameron Jamie

‘Unknown’

(Illustration 8 appearing on page…)

Christine Hiebert

Space for the mark installation view

Joe gallery

Philadelphia

2013

(Illustration 9 appearing on page…)

Christine Hiebert, "Untitled (rdl.10.2)"

(Illustration 10 appearing on page…)Richard Tuttle, Light and Color, 2011. Acrylic, mahogany luan, nails, graphite line, installed dimensions: 23 x 203 x 0.5 cm,

(Illustration 11 appearing on page…)

Richard Tuttle

Blue Balloon with Horizontal 1964

Watercolour and graphite on paper,

14x 11 inch

The Art of Richard Tuttle

Edited by Madeleine Grynszyejn

San Francisco Museum of modern art

D.A.P / Distributed Art Publishers, inc., New York p175

(Illustration 12 appearing on page…)

Richard Tuttle,

44th Wire Piece (out of 48),

1972Wire and template for pencil line

47 x 22 x 11 1/4 in.

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los AngelesGift of Lannan Foundation

(Illustration 13 appearing on page…)

Richard Tuttle and Macia Tucker installing ‘Shadow’ 1965, in preparation for the 1975 exhibition Richard Tuttle at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

The Art of Richard Tuttle

Edited by Madeleine Grynszyejn

San Francisco Museum of modern art

D.A.P / Distributed Art Publishers, inc., New York p177.

(Illustration 14 appearing on page…)

André Masson

(French, 1896–1987)

1924. Ink on paper, 9 1/4 x 8 1/8" (23.5 x 20.6 cm)

(Illustration 15 appearing on page…)

Salvador Dali

1944

Oil on canvas

51cm x 40.5cm

‘’Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening’’.

Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid.

(Illustration 16 Appearing on page…)

Beth Brown

Constrauction no.1

2013

Pen on paper

(Illustration 17, appearing on page…)

Noma Resturant food.

(Illustration 18, appearing on page…)

Ian Kiaer

Large white offset

2010

Installation

Linen, acrylic on cotton, polystyrene, plastic, rubber, paper cup.

Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

Throughout this essay I will explore the journey of drawing and how it has developed from simple

documentation and representation to have its own status in the art world and not a secondary to other

mediums, as sometimes seen, through the examples of artists whose works use both these points for

final and development stages in their practices. Within this I am going to examine ways in which

artist don’t necessarily theme their work around the idea but intact some concepts around artist

presence, particularly in abstract drawing underpinning ideas of traditional uses and qualities of

drawing and contemporary expressionism from physicality of materials, process, techniques.

Along the way questions have arisen about the politics of drawing itself, what makes a drawing a

drawing, when does it stop becoming a drawing and becomes sculpture or painting and how

substantial a drawing has to be before it can be as statured as sculpture or painting.

This in-depth research will inform my practice as I am currently exploring drawing in all the aspects

in this essay, from quality of line to presentation.

Question – The construction of identity within the work of artists through the physicality of materials

and process specifically in abstract drawing.

Due to the nature of my practice developments, questions that have arisen within the subject of

drawing and its nature- it’s most basic forms and contemporary art. It is important for this research to

inform my practice from all aspects, from quality of line to presentation. The artists I have chosen

reflect my own ideas in the process and action of making work, the physicality and formal elements

as well as concepts. It has also brought questions along the way I did not initially intend and pushed

my opinions and values on drawing, something I thought I knew very well, allowing me to then

systematically explore these in my practice.

My practice has developed a long way from the original idea of ’little worries’, based on a series of

doodles made from experimenting with different types and techniques of lines and layers of simple

collage. The short stressful period between my mum announcing she was moving to Peru and the

emotional time she left I had to put my primarily high quality material based work aside, therefore

resulting in low quality yet charming little drawings. Considering these doodle like drawings to

created in dream-like state, a daydream or stare, the process being very important. In my practice I

wish to develop these drawings under several ideas and qualities I have found along the way so far,

quality of line which leads to long time based work, aesthetic, materiality and this idea of automatic

drawing, primarily the idea losing your self in drawing.

It is important to me to now research further into artists that have influenced me so far informing

these shells of ideas and hopefully develop a strong concept to my work. I know what role drawing

has played for me so far and expect a more detailed understanding of expressionist abstract drawing,

a direction I have only began to take, to feed my future work with leads I have not explored and

begin to inform my practice and help me to develop my own style and subject, and possibly new

directions of creativity.

Due to the nature of my drawings I feel it is essential to also explore drawings history in relevance.

Drawing being one of the most versatile and accessible forms of expression, from babies early

experimentation, scribbling on walls to teenagers using it as a public statement, ‘tags’ on street walls,

to adults unique signatures, each act of mark making is a form of drawing. Nearly all artists draw, for

a private mode of expression, planning or making work. It is important to talk about these points and

how the boundaries of drawing have grown.1

Abstract expressionist came about and believed it was unnecessary to draw anymore yet

hypocritically incorporated characteristics and formal elements of drawing in their paintings and

sculpture, which most interestingly for me changed the nature, importance, and status of simple

pencil on paper drawing. However in the 1960s, artist such as Agnes Martin and Sol Lewitt

emphasised this with concentrating on the simplicity and purity of line as an expression alone.

(Illustration 1 and 2) Representational drawing was also in the focus with pop artist like Andy

Warhol, resulting in some directions attracting artist again to representative, object based drawing

and its directness to creativity. (Illustration 3) Drawing then developed into every space, even

performance whereby line could be drawn by cutting through a house or field, or a collection of

object arranged in a box. 2

Another, sculpture, Richard Serra whom changed the aspects of drawing to the three dimensional,

where finding the process to be everything, ‘’anything you can project as expressive in terms of

drawing, ideas, metaphors, emotions, language structures – results from the act of doing.’’3 Which

asserted drawing as a verb.

Even though, today it is apparent that some artist exploit the idea by drawing or ‘not’, where by the

artist is not doing the physical labour (gets assistance), creating moral and ethical relations to the

work that is suppose to be about this ‘act of doing’, or literally evidence of the hand of the artist. This

is where I’d like to explore in more detail, this presence of the artist in the work.4

P12

The more traditional role of drawing in art is to sketch and plan, due to its spontaneity, creative

speculation, experimentation, simplicity, directness and immediacy making it a ‘secondary’ to

painting in some ways, even though drawing can hold much stronger elements for creativity,

1 Kate Macfarlane and Katherine Stout, The drawing book, Tiana Kovats, Investigating the status of drawing, 2005, p14.22 Kate Macfarlane and Katherine Stout, The drawing book, Tiana Kovats, Investigating the status of drawing, 2005, p14.33 Serra, Richard, Writings, Interviews, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 199444 Kate Macfarlane and Katherine Stout, The drawing book, Tiana Kovats, Investigating the status of drawing, 2005, p16.

specifically in these example artist’s work I have been drawn to, and those I reflect into my own

work, such as modesty, rawness, discontinuity, fragmentation, infiniteness and open-endedness,

instead of a work being a stop, a finished piece which points the audience to a certain directed point,

drawing can show process, it is the presence that is on going keeping it in flux.5

Stephen Farthing describes this as, ‘’the best drawings create a sense of limbo, a conceptual space

where ideas can be stored in an untraceable state… the information just sits there, it doesn’t go

away.’’ 6

The first artist I would like to introduce in my research to hopefully understand what else drawing

can be, is Anna Barriball, born 1972, Plymouth, studied at Chelsea collage of art and design.

Although she did not study drawing she states in her interview with Fiona Bradly at the Fruit Market

Gallery, Edinburgh- last year, she was always interested in the physicality of it from school, to look

at something and respond. She describes, her later paths through education are owed to drawing and

ideas developed into experimenting with the act of drawing. By pulling together the object and the

drawing as close to each other as possible she is exploring the gap between the real and the

representative, literally making a drawing with something rather than of something.

The sheets of paper pressed insistently by her pencil on windows, walls and doors forcing it to then

transform into a heavily material object, now to be understood as sculpture, in doing so her process

creates these parallel languages between sculpture and drawing. In example of this, ‘Door’

(Illustration 4). Using paper, pencil, graphite, pen etc she stays very true to the materials of drawing,

letting materials lead, yes she uses objects to create a reaction and allows her work to cross over into

sculpture, this emphasising the point about what drawing can be now in contemporary art.7

It is also important to point out in the politics of drawing, and perhaps sculpture in this instance, the

nature of sculpture is what you can view from all angles, what you can walk around, her work mostly

hung or shown in the corners of the gallery or covering entire walls? Is this what pulls them back,

55 Kate Macfarlane and Katherine Stout, The drawing book, Tiana Kovats, Investigating the status of drawing, 2005, p15.66 Stephen farthing, The Drawing Book, Tiana Kovats, Black Dog Publishing, 2005, p 15.77 Anna Barriball, The Fruit Market Gallery, Artist talk, Director Fiona Bradly, 2012.

keeping them as drawings? Or are they in fact paintings? Walter Benjamin suggests in the

investigation of drawing into painting; ‘’When a drawing entirely uses or covers its supporting

ground it can no longer be called a drawing.’’8

It is clear she uses large gestures in her work to achieve this idea, by entirely covering the paper in

graphite, the labour of the drawing is also there, a part I feel is very important in a work where I

sense to be impersonal, yet stated by the interviewer at the Fruit Market Gallery: she often hears

people talking about Barriball’s work as ‘slight work’.9 Perhaps due to this detect that the place of

the artist in the work is just a manual hand, a middle man? This brings up questions of the politics of

drawing, what is drawing for? How much does a drawing have to intact before it can be considered

as a work?

Drawing for her is very primal, and is obvious as she goes on to talk about how before moving out of

her apartment where she had always loved the tiles on the fireplace, she thought to take a rubbing of

them, for a personal documentation, before she even thought to take a picture? From this a work did

develop, ‘Fire Place’, (Illustration 5) but not for the initial reason of her instinctual feeling, of a more

valuable way of recording something; through a rubbing or drawing, this point being what is really

interesting. This idea when out the window as soon as, she describes, as the paper was pushed onto

the fireplace, all on its own responded by itself, by breathing; working by the suction of the paper

covering the opening of the fireplace and drawing the paper in and out as the wind blew. Ironically

she made this work into a video, the more modern way of documenting something and never made

the rubbing she intended.1010 14

Cameron Jamie, born 1969 Los Angelis, now working In Paris, is an artist who is better known for

sculpture but like most artists have drawings in his body of work. I wanted to discuss his drawing

process and presentation, which also crosses over into sculpture and his sculpture into drawing.

88 Walter Benjamin, Kate Macfarlane and Katherine Stout, The drawing book, Tiana Kovats, Investigating the status of drawing, 2005, p18.99 Anna Barriball, The Fruit Market Gallery, Artist talk, Director Fiona Bradly, 2012. 1010 Anna Barriball, The Fruit Market Gallery, Artist talk, Director Fiona Bradly, 2012.

Even though he uses hand made paper his approach to drawing is aggressive and physical; using dip

pens to make precise lines at first, then when they break creating a knife like tip, is still carried on

through the drawings with larger broader lines, which are less controlled, suggesting a feeling of

control and release. The rough edges are then used to create pools of ink where the tool has literally

dug out and carved the paper. Sticks and brushes, actual knifes, rope and combs are then used to add

even more layers and inky qualities to the papers surface. Although he sometimes uses a coffee wash

to create tones, his drawings are often black and white, ‘’black is the embodiment of all colours.’’ 11

which would explain the nature of most of his works having a dark heavy feel to them.12

When his drawings are exhibited they are often mounted onto wooden boards, propped up at an

angle, showing the work this way suggests the window in a door, the audience being allowed to peek

through a closed portal while this and his drawing process, creating a sense of immediacy and

physicality that suggest his own presence, while making the transition from studio to gallery more

seamless and less precious than paper behind glass, but also redefining drawing in a kind of

sculptural form. (Illustration 6) this approach seems important for his work to create a sense of

presence, so that all the works process of carving and sculpting the drawing is at its most visible for

the audience through the window.13

In vitamin d2 his work is discussed as a richly dense personal athletic experience while his process

shows something larger than immediate asthetic gratification, which appeals to me in consideration

of my work. Jamie in fact like Barribal, also approaches drawing as something primal: ‘’gestures that

do not necessarily convey meaning but rather record being.’’1414 Most of the work feature black

lines and drips arrayed around an axis, suggesting a surrealist manner of automatic drawing. This is

an interesting point in my research into the role of drawing and the presence of the artist.

In Jamie’s Statement for the exhibition in the Netherlands 3003, Drawings: Maps and Composite

Actions, themed zombies, he described his drawings as self-portraits. “Inside had died and what had

been buried come out as zombies.”15 In analysis, his drawings since 2005 have taken on more and

more the concept of a stream of consciousness, doodles and sketches of continuous lines with no

1111 Cameron Jamie, Vitamin D2, Phaidon Press Limited, London, 2013, p 142. 1212 Elizabeth Janus, Cameron Jamie, Vitamin D2, Phaidon Press Limited, London, 2013, p 142. 1313 Art In America, Cameron Jamie, Gladstone Gallery, Review, Alex Gartenfeld, 2010. 1414Elizabeth Janus, Cameron Jamie, Vitamin D2, Phaidon Press Limited, London, 2013, p 142. 1515 Cameron Jamie, Contempoary21, Special Issue on Drawing, 2006, no. 83.

beginning or end, for the creative mind to be open, yet in a slightly more controlling and emotional

way.16

Although in discussion of his drawings alone, the strength and richness of them seem to fit the status

of drawing as expression alone, in research into his other works Jamie could be seen to follow the

rule of using drawing as a secondary to his sculpture, in this example, as his practice predominately

focuses in sculpture, and the drawings accompany the more predominant pieces. (Illustration 7) In

more detail, the drawings act as an immediate, way of expressing an idea where as the process for

sculpture is longer, perhaps suggesting Jamie’s drawings to be a first response developing into a kind

of blueprint for his other work, but his attitude and intention for drawing and sculpture are the same,

forms and lines coming from artist touch, an expression, so can sculpture be a way of drawing?

An example that would illustrate purely this idea of expressionist drawing and a romantic

relationship with materials through process alone, which is primarily what I am searching for, is

work of Christine Heibert. Focusing on drawing since 1989 and teaches drawing now, her practice

revolves around the nature and language of line and her personal psychology of space.17

‘’The blank wall is a gift. I try to start my work at the site empty of ideas, in order to be open to what

thoughts may arise there.’’ 18 (Illustration 8) Beginning with a mark on the page or wall, looking at it

as if it’s in its own world, each gesture is fluid to the next determined by what has just come before

it. Even though she is making lots of decisions she tries to let the materials lead, ‘’so that the drawing

is an active participant in a conversation.’’ 19

Hiebert like Barriball, uses traditional drawing materials, pencil, graphite charcoal and ink, although

her recent works do include blue tape. This creating a wide range of textures and tones, particularly

relevant to my practice at the moment, against different shades and kinds of paper, these lines are

also responding and working with this first physical layer as well as the surrounding space.

1616 FEUILLETON, Cameron Jamie’s Drawing, Cameron Jamie: Suburban Apocalypse as TheaterJina, 2013. 1717 Lilly Wei, Christine Hiebert, Bio, 2010. 1818 Christine Hiebert, Vitamin D2, Phaidon Press Limited, London, 2013, p130.1919Christine Hiebert, Space for the Mark, Christine Hiebert Gallery, 2013, p4.

She talks in her interview with Rachel Nackman about how she attempted to be a painter at one point

and still attempts to continue with very small pieces but she found that she could not be as direct and

spontaneous with oil paint;

‘’I’d pick up the brush, wanting to do something in particular, and I’d put the brush to the

paper—but then the brush would give. In the moment that the brush would give, I would lose

my connection. I would lose the impulse. I found that very frustrating. A rigid tool, like a

stick of charcoal, was much more gratifying. It responded immediately, and I could run with

it.’’2020(Illustration 9)

Always working with graphite or charcoal at the same time as her investigation into paint she found

directness is the key to making her work, even though she is the one in control she allows as much of

the ridged tool to be as much of itself as possible, a brush was too forgiving, her drawings intact a

greater sense of intimacy when the drawing material was able to pick up the movements of the hand

in this sensitive way.21

Always looking to discover new ways to invent marks and responses she often looks to the

architecture, this helps her marks to become more apparent and produce more conversation. The act

is then immediate, raw and experimental. She incorporates anything that will difference or develop

her image, the worn barn floor, incorporation patterns and new textures, she has even been know to

drive a car over her drawings to imprint them with the life of the earth and grass, also reversing them

by rubbing and sanding away all in exploration for a more utter presence. “Keep the drawing alive,

so it doesn’t settle down, doesn’t become inert.” 22

Her unhurried way of working and allowance to be open to time is what initially attracted me to this

artist, as drawing for her is a way of slowing down time, her absolute trust in materials to create their

own existence and quality of line in the work, in turn reflecting human existence. Drawing in this

2020 Christine Hiebert, Contemporary Drawing as Idea and Process, Rachel Nackman, 2012.2121 Christine Hiebert, Contemporary Drawing as Idea and Process, Rachel Nackman, 2012.2222 Christine Hiebert, Space for the Mark, Christine Hiebert Gallery, 2013, p5.

instance, has its own status through the artist’s expression and recognition and shows the artist

presence through material identity.23

A perfect example of this idea of material identity, Richard Tuttle, from new jersey, studied at

Trinity collage 1963, is a minimalist, what is so important about his work to discuss for me at this

time in my research is his extremely diverse body of work. It is not sculpture, painting or drawing,

alone it is never one of these elements I have been comparing to one another up till now, nor two or

three dimensional, it is always a cross over of two or more. This refusal of direct categorisation

leaving him in the ‘in-between’ I feel is the real quality to Tuttle’s practice and gives the work and

process a sense of freedom in itself. This often leading to no specific reference points in his work, it

leaves the focus of his works coming from a kind of spiritually informed curiosity into the language

of forms, line, colour and texture with scale and aesthetic consiousness.24

‘’I put this enormous pressure on what drawing is, but I know it’s not the conventional way

of thinking about drawing. Everything in life is drawing; drawing is such an enormous thing

in itself. When I see a child pick up a pencil and piece of paper, my heart just leaps with

expectation and excitement. Little kids are capable of making a drawing...25

This quote from an interview with Art21 could be read to explain why Tuttle uses his playful nature

in terms of scale and colour schemes in his drawings, red yellow and his obsession with baby blue.

Up until now colour hasn’t been a topic as most of the artists discussed have used tones of black and

white, this brings up questions of the politics of drawing when a drawing becomes a painting.

(Illustration 10)

In The Drawing Book in discussion of drawing to paint, it describes the dictionary definition of

drawing as… ‘’without colour or with one single colour.’’ However this can be realised also in

paint.26

2323 John Yau, Christine Hiebert, Vitamin D2, Phaidon Press Limited, London, 2013, p 130. 2424 The Art of Richard Tuttle, Madeleine Grynsztejn, A Universe of Small Truths, 2005, p18.2525Richard Tuttle, Richard Tuttle: Drawing and the Exhibitions, Interview with Art21, 2011.2626 The Drawing Book, Tania Kovats, Black Book Publishing, London, 2005 p18.

Tuttles common assemblages of wood, ply, styrofoam, fabric, rope and wire that may appear

improvisional are in fact are delicately planned, manipulated and carefully considered drawings all

with the idea of showing off their material identity.

Tittle has said ‘’art is discipline…and discipline is drawing,’’27 here again also like Barriball and

Jamie, suggesting his relationship with the act of drawing, even with sculptural materials, being key

to his process, a kind of drawing in space. Many series, such as ‘finding the centre point’ consisted of

small humble, delicate pencil and water colour drawings on sheets of sketchbook paper also showing

this same idea of spatial awareness, through his ideas of horizon lines and infixed finished-ness.28

(Illustration 11)

He tries to take himself out of the controlled, planned drawings though in his works of wire.

(Illustration 12)‘’I’m not leading, I’m following. I’m following something that is happening.’’ 29

From this it is clear Tuttle, like Hiebert and Barriball, also uses himself as the middleman in a dance-

like process using his body activity, which is the most direct way from translating intimate states to

exterior expression, directly.3030 One of the most interesting ways I have found in research of his

presence was the way he incorporates his body into the works, in early photos of him installing his

delicate octagonal work, along with some other artists’ such as Micheael Heizer and Gordon Matta-

Clark, he appears topless and bare foot. (Illustration 13) Unfolding an involvement I have not

predicted, even when the hand is removed physical active participant in the work, as some of it is

made on site, the body is still present. He does this by a way of drawing, standing with his bare feet

planted in front of the wall moving his arms around constructing shapes and plans in a meditative

state,3131 in a way mirroring the theory of ‘Automatisum’, making the first marks.

2727 Richard Tuttle, (1941) USA, Annemarie Verna Gallery, Gallery note 2/2012.2828 The Art of Richard Tuttle, Cornelia H. Butler, Kinesthetic Drawing, 2005, p 175.2929 Richard Tuttle, The Art of Richard Tuttle, Edited by Madeleine Grynsztejn, D.A.P Publishing, New York 2005, p254.3030 The Art of Richard Tuttle, Marcia Tucker, Richard Tuttle (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1975, 15 -16. 3131 The Art of Richard Tuttle, Marcia Tucker, Richard Tuttle (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1975, 15 -16.

Automatism is a system used by artist and writers as an automatic tool developed by surrealists’

whereby the artist have entered a deeper dreamlike state of consciousness, and used this way of

producing a drawing or painting by making marks, gestures, suggestions and expressions, creating a

labyrinth of doodling and then responding to the initial marks to create a aesthetic. (Illustration 14)

This process used by surrealists’ going back to World War I, when Andre Masson first introduced

this technique of drawing, the idea of surrealism however has developed into a detailed

understanding of symbolism and the representation, perfectly exampled in works by Dali (Illustration

15) which has never appealed to me, but in research of Andre Masson’s manifesto ‘du surrealisme’

1924, automatism is, in its pure state.3232 Meaning his concept of an altered consciousness and an

idea of endless creative energy mirrors the characteristics of the artist presence and techniques in my

examples.

Although not a contemporary artist, I want to discuss another direction automatism can be

perceptible, which came up in a Gravity lecture recently. The artist, or contemporary Jeweller, Laura

Potter was presenting her ‘pleasure’ of her practice, as the theme this year is ‘pleasure’. She

discussed at first what people often think is the most pleasurable things of her job, working from

home, flexible hours etc and the nature of craft, which she strongly argued her work to be more fine

art based than craft, leading to a huge debate that comes with the type of work she does as she sits

between craft and fine art, and the arguments that come with it; when does art become craft, or in

some instance, design. Her point however is the same, the idea of losing your self in making, usually

done by unconsciously becoming unaware in a repetitive action, dream-like state, and apparently she

states most pleasurable in craft, perhaps down to the simplicity of the task or the repetition, any kinds

of craft as one of my peers in the audience stated from the experience they had during their

placement in a metalwork shop, this merging of action and awareness, losing yourself in making, and

in my interest, automatic drawing.

My initial curiosity beginning this research was where is the artist presence, how have they or can

even identify themselves within an abstract drawing? And how can it be constructed through the

physicality of materials and perhaps the process of the artist.

3232 Automatism, Jenifer Gibson, MoMa, Art Terms, Grove Art Online 2009.

Beth brown, a recent graduate from Maryland Institute College of Art, United States, was the

primary inspiration for my repetitive, intricate, fine line quality drawings, first suggesting this

process of Automatism or losing yourself in a automatic drawing, as her works are high detail, very

large and impressive, infinite drawing and satisfaction was the feeling I got from looking at her large

collection. (Illustration 16) This though, has only given me an example of how much I have learned

from my research, as my views have developed and changed. I now look at the massively obsessive

drawings and feel like none of it is present, it is too uniform. 21

The brief questions that arose about the politics of drawing; drawing is a secondary to painting for

example or how significant a drawing has to be for it to be seen as the same stature as a painting or

sculpture. Beth Brown, like Christine Hiebert, has no care for time, obvious from looking at her artist

bio where it states ‘’influenced by her parent’s creative pursuits and ample time alone…’’3131 but

this and the romantic connection with drawing seems to be obsessive and self-indulgent. The point

explained: maybe more isn’t always better? This also spoils the materiality qualities I have

discovered I enjoy, also in Hiebers work especially, letting materials lead, show off their material

identity which in turn mirrors human existence, and the artist presence.

Explained by Richard Tuttle, “To make something which looks like itself is, therefore, the problem,

the solution.’’ 3333

As described in discussion of Cameron Jamie, what works for him, is his control and release; Beth

Brown seems to be all about the control, which is the opposite of the process and in turn aesthetics I

am looking for in the end result. I have discovered the most successful abstract drawings are those,

which work in a light, experimental, informal, fragmented, and open way, these points that are only

owned by drawing and no other mediums and should be the forefront of the work.

Anna Barriball has shown that drawing is the most diverse mediums, to be able to make a drawing

with something rather than of something, and allow it to cross over into painting or sculpture. She

shows drawings’ importance for documentation. Making Drawings a physical object rather than just

3132 Beth Brown, Drawing, Installation and Sound, Artist Bio, 2012, p1.3333 Richard Tuttle, Work is Justification for the Excuse, Germany, 1972, Doc 5, section 17, page 77.

a 2D idea, and its ok to do it in a representative way, while still being makeshift. Her ideas and

concepts of the act of drawing, have shown me drawing is a mental sanctuary for simplicity. To

render a drawing into an object, transforming its identity, a drawing doesn’t have to stop once it

becomes a drawing.

Cameron Jamie has also allowed drawing to play both roles; an emotional tool of expression, a way

to publish a flow of creative energy but also then using them as sketches or plans for sculpture which

without the immediate direct response drawing allows, wouldn’t carry through the same qualities and

even formal textures to his 3d work.

This for me has opened doors and allowed ideas of my own sculptural work to flourish while still

studying drawing and the idea and automatism. The drawing doesn’t have to end at the edge of the

paper, Christine Hiebert allows all surrounding architecture and other works to be introduced into the

tone of presentation in a very refined and experimental way, opening up endless possibilities and

directions I can take my drawings.

Richard Tuttle’s confidence with materiality inspires me. Making drawing, collage, painting and

sculpture cross over with the introduction of colour. He experiments with taking the control out of

drawing, with his wire pieces while still being engaged with the meditative state, make work about

the work.

I questioned drawing but research into these artist have broadened my experience teaching me that

drawing can now be anything, a plate of food for example Noma, (Illustration 17) to a material that

holds similar qualities such as wax; delicate and fragile, render with layers in the process and fluid

yet set. An arrangement of a room, like Ian Kiaers work (Illustration 18) starting off with an abstract

drawing, he uses a collection of things, paper, material, objects, models of architecture, windows

doors corners of rooms, all to create the effect of an idea he calls the model. The nature of it follows

thus of drawing, representative, experimental, makeshift, light, informal, fragmented, refined,

rendered and flexible but precise. He describes the nature of it hard to talk about and when you do it

becomes too precise. 3434

3434 Ian Kiaer, Ian Kiaer Interview, Youtube, 2011.

I intend to use this new and absolute infinitive outlook of drawing to view new works this way, not

to be dismissive of artist and even movements that initially don’t stand out to me, as I’ve found in

surrealism, they do hold interesting factors that stem or underpin contemporary work today.

(4509w)

References –

Anna Barriball –

Websites-

Bradley, F. (2012). Artist Talk with Anna Barriball. Available: http://fruitmarket.co.uk/index.php?s=anna+barribal&searchbutton=search. Last accessed 11th Dec 2013.

Unknown. (2011). Anna Barriball artist talk. Available: http://www.mkgallery.org/exhibitions/anna_barriball/. Last accessed 11th Dec 2013.

Cameron Jamie –

Book-

Janus, E (2013). Vitamin D2, New Perspectives in Drawing. London: Phaidon Press Limited . p142.

Websites –

Unknown. (2013). Artist Bio. Available: http://gladstonegallery.com/artist/cameron-jamie/biography. Last accessed 11th Dec 2013.

Unknown. (2010). Cameron Jamie, Gladstone Gallery. Available: http://contemporaryartlinks.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/cameron-jamie-gladstone-gallery-new.html. Last accessed 11th Dec 2013.

Park, J. (2013). Cameron Jamie: Suburban Apocalypse as Theater. Available: http://jinapark.net/?p=169. Last accessed 11th Dec 2013.

Gartenfeld, A. (2010). Cameron Jamie at Gladstone. Available: http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/reviews/cameron-jamie/. Last accessed 11th Dec 2013.

Wolfson, R. (2003). Cameron Jamie Drawing: Maps and Composite Actions. Available: http://vleeshal.nl/en/tentoonstellingen/cameron-jamie-drawings-maps-and-composite-actions. Last accessed 11th Dec 2013.

Christine Hiebert –

Book –

Yau, J (2013). Vitamin D2, New Perspectives in Drawing. London: Phaidon Press Limited . p130.

Websites –

Wei, L. (2010). Bio. Available: http://www.christinehiebert.com/bio.html. Last accessed 11th Dec 2013.

Nackman, R. (2012). In conversation with Christine Hiebert. Available: http://www.aboutdrawing.org/notations/christine-hiebert/. Last accessed 11th Dec 2013.

Richard Tuttle –

Book –

Grynsztejn, M (2005). The Art of Richard Tuttle. New York: D.A.P. p254.

Websites –

Unknown. (2010). Richard Tuttle. Available: http://www.pacegallery.com/artists/474/richard-tuttle. Last accessed 28th Dec 2013.

Marie, A. (2012). Gallerynote. Available: http://www.annemarie-verna.ch/gallery/gallerynote/Gallerynote_2_2012/. Last accessed 28th Dec 2013.

Tuttle, R. (1972). Work is Justtification for the Excuse. Available: http://www.mariangoodman.com/exhibitions/2013-09-21_richard-tuttle/. Last accessed 28th Dec 2013

Automatism –

Book –

Stephen Polcari (1993). Abstract Expressionism and the Modern Experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p23 - 24.

Websites –

Gibson, A. (2009). Automatism. Available: http://www.moma.org/collection/theme.php?theme_id=10947. Last accessed 28th Dec 2013.

Unknown. (2010). Automatic Drawing. Available: http://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/andre-masson-automatic-drawing. Last accessed 28th Dec 2013.

Beth Brown –

Brown, B. (2012). Artist Bio. Available: http://www.bethbrownart.com/?page_id=9. Last accessed 28th Dec 2013.

Brown, B. (2013). Construction no.1 2013. Available: http://www.bethbrownart.com/?page_id=558. Last accessed 28th Dec 2013.

Bibliography –

Books-

The drawing book – Tania Kovats (Black Book Publishing) 2005 London.

Tania Kovats – LH (Lund Humphries) 2010 Oxford.

Vitamin D – Phaidon 2005

Vitamin D2 – Phaidon 2013

Websites-

Andy Warhol: Visited Dec. 13 http://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/sep/11/velvet-underground-copyright-andy-warhol

Anna barriball: Visited: Dec. 13 URL:http://fruitmarket.co.uk/index.php?s=anna+barribal&searchbutton=search

Anna Barriball: Visisted: Dec. 13 http://www.mkgallery.org/exhibitions/anna_barriball/

Anna Barriball: Visisted: Dec. 13 http://www.frithstreetgallery.com/artists/bio/anna_barriball

Anna Barriball: Visisted: Dec. 13 http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/anna_barriball.htm?section_name=new_britannia

Anna Barriball: Visisted: Dec. 13 http://www.situations.org.uk/projects/anna-barriball-snowflakes-2013/

Anna Barriball: Visisted: Dec. 13 http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/anna_barriball/

Agnes Martin: Vistited Dec. 13 http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/drawings-watercolors/agnes-martin-untitled-5147498-details.aspx

Automatism: Visited Dec. 13 http://www.moma.org/collection/theme.php?theme_id=10947

Automatism: Visited Dec. 13 http://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/andre-masson-automatic-drawing

Beth Brown: Visited Dec. 13 http://www.bethbrownart.com/?page_id=9

Beth Brown: Visited Dec. 13 http://www.bethbrownart.com/?page_id=558

Cameron Jamie: Visited Dec. 13 http://gladstonegallery.com/artist/cameron-jamie/biography

Cameron Jamie: Visited Dec. 13 http://contemporaryartlinks.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/cameron-jamie-gladstone-gallery-new.html

Cameron Jamie: Visited Dec. 13 http://www.myartguides.com/art-basel-2013/zurich/exhibitions/item/427-cameron-jamie

Cameron Jamie: Visited Dec. 13 http://www.artnet.com/artwork/426227505/445/cameron-jamie-smiling-disease-drawing-v.html

Cameron Jamie: Visited Dec. 13 http://www.blouinartinfo.com/galleryguide/285712/307938/event/890728

Cameron Jamie: Visited Dec. 13 http://file-magazine.com/whats-on/cameron-jamie-new-ink-works

Cameron Jamie: Visited Dec. 13 http://vleeshal.nl/en/tentoonstellingen/cameron-jamie-drawings-maps-and-composite-actions

Cameron Jamie: Visited Dec. 13 http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/reviews/cameron-jamie/

Cameron Jamie: Visited Dec. 13 http://jinapark.net/?p=169

Christine Hiebert: Visited Dec. 13 http://www.christinehiebert.com/hiebert_galleryjoe_catalog2013.pdf

Christine Hiebert: Visited Dec. 13 http://www.christinehiebert.com/bio.html

Christine Hiebert: Visited Dec. 13 http://www.aboutdrawing.org/notations/christine-hiebert/

Christine Hiebert: Visited Dec. 13 http://www.galleryjoe.com/exhibitions/previous/2013/03/16/space-for-the-mark

Christine Hiebert: Visited Dec. 13 http://syzygy-nyc.org/?page_id=2

Ian Kiaer: Visited Dec. 13 http://www.artnet.com/artwork/426054081/173885/ian-kiaer-dumas-project-large-white-offset.html

Ian Kiaer: Visited Dec. 13 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15rRaQHI_14

Ian Kiaer: Visited Dec. 13 http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/ian_kiaer.htm

Ian Kiaer: Visited Dec. 13 http://www.alisonjacquesgallery.com/artists/25-Ian-Kiaer/overview/

Ian Kiaer: Visited Dec. 13 http://www.marcellealix.com/artistes/oeuvres/1126/ian-kiaer

Noma Resturant: Visited Dec. 13 http://si-wey.com/store/inspirational-food-plattings/

Richard Tuttle: Visited Dec. 13 http://bombsite.com/issues/41/articles/1580

Richard Tuttle: Visited Dec. 13 https://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/tuttle/clip2.html

Richard Tuttle: Visited Dec. 13 http://www.annemarie-verna.ch/gallery/gallerynote/Gallerynote_2_2012/

Richard Tuttle: Visited Dec. 13 http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=richard+tuttle+colour&safe=off&client=safari&rls=en&biw=1206&bih=668&tbm=isch&tbnid=PA8lGKbcRtn4EM:&imgrefurl=http://artnews.org/modernartinc/%3Fexi%3D30099&docid=__S9Ow1MJcRrRM&imgurl=http://artnews.org/files/0000066000/0000065167.jpg/Richard_Tuttle.jpg&w=800&h=661&ei=IvO-UrWuGeLB7Aa144GAAw&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:2,s:0,i:87&iact=rc&page=1&tbnh=204&tbnw=247&start=0&ndsp=15&tx=168&ty=131

Richard Tuttle: Visited Dec. 13 http://www.moca.org/pc/viewArtWork.php?id=100

Richard Tuttle: Visited Dec. 13 http://www.mariangoodman.com/exhibitions/2013-09-21_richard-tuttle/

Sol Lewitt: Visited Dec. 13 http://bombsite.com/issues/85/articles/2583