“Obsessive Drawing,” currently on view at the American Folk Art Museum through March 19, explores the medium of drawing through the lines and markings made by five self-taught living artists. This is the first museum exhibition in New York to showcase these international emerging artists working outside of the academy.

The artists selected include Eugene Andolsek and Charles Benefiel from the United States; Hiroyuki Doi, Japan; Chris Hipkiss, France and England; and Martin Thompson, New Zealand. Organized by Brooke Davis Anderson, director and curator of the museum’s Contemporary Center, the exhibition of approximately 40 works on paper highlights the infatuation with line by contemporary artists and charts a fresh approach to this most intimate of mediums.

The language of drawing with pencil, pen and paper has captivated self-taught artists in their artmaking endeavors for several centuries.

Martin Thompson (born 1956), untitled #7, circa 2002-2005, Wellington, New Zealand, pen on graph paper, 153/4 by 22 inches, diptych. Courtesy of the artist.

Adolf Wölfli, Madge Gill and Edmund Monseil, well-establishedartists in the canon of art brut, exploit line in their highlymysterious and compulsively detailed compositions. A selection oftheir drawings, as well as an early Nineteenth Century fraktur, midNineteenth Century drawings, and expressive works by DwightMackintosh, Martin Ramirez, A.G. Rizzoli and others are installedat the beginning of the exhibition to set the stage for the fiveemerging artists. The historical work embodies a repetitive,accumulative quality, know as “horror vacuii” (the need to fill thepage).

Contemporary interpretations of line in the exhibition tend to be more reductive, even quite minimal. “The artworks in ‘Obsessive Drawing’ are all labor-intensive and painstakingly precise, mirroring the methodologies of some of the best examples of art brut. This minimal appearance does not equate less lust for line but points to a more cautious, almost spiritual approach to the process of placing marks on a page,” commented Anderson.

In conjunction with the exhibition, several public programs have been scheduled. Among them are a panel discussion “Drawing on Obsession: A Conversation about Creativity and Mark-Making” on Wednesday, October 19, at 7 pm, and Artists Talk with Benefiel, Doi Hipkiss and Anderson on Wednesday, November 9, at 7 pm.

The American Folk Art Museum is at 45 West 53 Street. For information, 212-265-1040 or www.folkartmuseum.org.