: Two new acquisitions of drawings by Jasper Johns and Ellsworth
Kelly join other recent acquisitions and key historical works
from MoMA's collection in the exhibition "Pencil: Drawings from
the Collection," on view at MoMA QNS through March 8.
"Wild Grape," 1960, by Kelly and "Nothing at All Richard Dadd,"
1992, by Johns are shown alongside 26 highlights from the
hundreds of pencil drawings in MoMA's collection. In addition to
the works by Johns and Kelly, other recently acquired
contemporary drawings by Jim Nutt, Chris Ofili and Gerhard
Richter are shown, as are historic works by such artists as Henri
Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Gustav Klimt, Paul Cézanne, Joseph Beuys
and Claes Oldenburg.
One such drawing is "Anna Peter," 1926-27, a portrait by George
Grosz that was acquired in 1929 - one of the first works to enter
the museum's collection. This exhibition examines the tradition
of pencil drawing through a full range of styles and subjects -
figuration and abstraction, portraiture and landscape, and
naturalism and cartoonlike renderings. The capability of pencil
to achieve a range of effects from fine to muscular line,
stippled point to expansive field, and outline to shaded plane is
also explored.
The exhibition is organized by Gary Garrels, chief curator,
department of drawings, and curator, department of painting and
sculpture. "Pencil is the simplest and most basic of materials
for art, yet artists achieved some of their most evocative and
haunting, beautiful and powerful works using only pencil. The
achievements of artists over the last 100 years are immediate and
fresh through this most modest of mediums," stated Garrels.
MoMA QNS is at 33 Street at Queens Boulevard, Long Island
City, Queens. For information, 212-708-9400 or www.moma.org.
