Line
Saturday, March 19, 2011 - Sunday, June 26, 2011
Whether sharp and staccato or sinuous and serpentine, every line has a personality and tells its own story. In this exhibition of works on paper and sculpture culled from The Blanton's holdings, artists Leon Ferrari, GEGO, Arturo Herrera, Alan Saret, Mira Schendel and Richard Serra explore this fundamental element of art making.
Gallery TextSinuous, serpentine, languid, looping, sharp, staccato, goopy...
Organic, rigid, whimsical, schematic, busy, nervous, obsessive, restrained...
Every line has a character of its own. Together with texture, form, shape, color, and line constitutes one of the most basic elements of art. An artist determines the weight of a line through the pressure placed upon the drawing implement as it moves across the page; its degree of fluidity is the product of grace and control. This exhibition takes as its focus fifty years of work by eight North and South American artists who use line as the primary vehicle for making both drawings and sculptures.
Some artists in the exhibition use line to evoke color and space, while others explore the relationship between the drawn line and the written word. Turning away from familiar forms toward anonymity, still another group operates by distorting source material beyond recognition, or by defining their own languages through the simple action of making repeated marks. Despite differences in intention, each artist featured here reveals the potency of the drawn or molded line.
Organic, rigid, whimsical, schematic, busy, nervous, obsessive, restrained...
Every line has a character of its own. Together with texture, form, shape, color, and line constitutes one of the most basic elements of art. An artist determines the weight of a line through the pressure placed upon the drawing implement as it moves across the page; its degree of fluidity is the product of grace and control. This exhibition takes as its focus fifty years of work by eight North and South American artists who use line as the primary vehicle for making both drawings and sculptures.
Some artists in the exhibition use line to evoke color and space, while others explore the relationship between the drawn line and the written word. Turning away from familiar forms toward anonymity, still another group operates by distorting source material beyond recognition, or by defining their own languages through the simple action of making repeated marks. Despite differences in intention, each artist featured here reveals the potency of the drawn or molded line.