Drawing, Reconsidered

In the exhibition Drawing, Reconsidered, at the Kunstmuseum Basel six artists demonstrate how drawing in the 21st century can express an artistic stance toward the world. Central to this is the choice of materials and drawing processes. Most of the around 90 works on view come from the Department of Prints and Drawings (Kupferstichkabinett) collection; some were created specifically for the exhibition.

Historically, drawing served as a sketch of ideas, a preliminary study, or even a detailed plan for something beyond itself, and was thus fundamental to painting, sculpture, and architecture. As a supporting medium, it remained in the shadow of the other arts. This changed radically in the second half of the 20th century: Beginning in the 1960s, the boundaries between mediums began to dissolve, and the potential of drawing—particularly for conceptual art—was increasingly recognized.

Today, drawing is no longer primarily confined to paper at all. The gesture of the hand leaving a mark on a surface with a pencil is just one of many possibilities: drawing can extend into space and incorporate a wide variety of materials such as threads, tape, or textiles. It can require intense physical effort, meditative concentration, and an understanding of the properties of materials, and it can move between figuration and abstraction.

As this exhibition makes clear, drawing can involve engaging with memory and history, as well as with the current social and political situation—and one’s own role as an artist within it. So, too, is it importantly a form of reflection anchored in a social context. Ultimately, drawing also requires a particular devotion to a fragile material and immersion in an often labor-intensive process that demands sensitivity to time, space, and relationships.

The exhibition Drawing, Reconsidered presents current works by British artist Anna Barriball (b. 1972), German artist Nadine Fecht (b. 1976), the Swiss artist Franziska Furter (b. 1972), the Polish-German artist Monika Grzymala (b. 1970), the Indian artist Vishwa Shroff (b. 1980), and the Belgian artist Catharina van Eetvelde (b. 1967).