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Indepth Arts News:
"Contemporary Erotic Drawing"
2005-05-01 until 2005-08-07
Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art
Ridgefield, CT,
USA
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and DiverseWorks of Houston have co-organized Contemporary Erotic Drawing, an exhibition by thirty-four artists which encompasses the subject of sexuality and erotica. Exploring and defining what is erotic and titillating on their own terms, these artists display a diversity of sensibilities and approaches that range from the humorous, raunchy, and abstract, to fetishes, the personal, and intimate. The exhibition will tour nationally and be on view at The Aldrich from May 1 through August 7, 2005.
The personally-charged process of drawing, combined with the subject of sex, follows ancient traditions in both Western and Eastern art. Expanding and commenting on these traditions, artists in the exhibition offer works that are personal, political, beautiful, startling, reflective, and biographical. The artists, who work on paper, animate hand-drawn images, and utilize other nontraditional materials, are Stephen Andrews, Alice Attie, Joseph Biel, Ion Birch, Cecily Brown, Scott Burns, Jacqueline Cooper, R. Crumb, Simon English, Heyd Fontenot, Leon Golub, Juan Gomez, Tom Knechtel, Joan Linder, Cristina Lucas, Gina Magid, Georgia Marsh, Ruth Marten, Kim McCarty, Jean-Francois Moriceau + Petra Mrzyk, Tracy Nakayama, Chris Ofili, Danica Phelps, Chloe Piene, Paul Henry Ramirez, Huston Ripley, Anita Steckel, Scott Teplin, Lynne Woods Turner, Mark Dean Veca, Ruth Waldman, Su-en Wong, and Gang Zhao.
The immediacy and delicacy of drawing allows these artists to express preliminary and often raw ideas, allowing spontaneous imagery or thoughts to emerge. When combined with the subject of eroticism and human sexuality, this makes drawing the perfect site of investigation, as we continue to produce, display, and enjoy images of desire, whether openly or sequestered. For both artists and viewers, Contemporary Erotic Drawing will provide a respectful, nonexploitative environment for the exploration of work that might otherwise be marginalized.
Contemporary Erotic Drawing has been organized by Harry Philbrick, director of The Aldrich; Sara Kellner, executive director of DiverseWorks; and independent curator Stuart Horodner. A fully-illustrated hard-cover catalogue, distributed by Distributed Art Publishers, will accompany the exhibition. It will feature essays by noted author Wayne Koestenbaum (author of The Queen’s Throat; Cleavage: Essays on Sex, Stars, and Aesthetics; and the Penguin Lives’ Andy Warhol) and Art in America writer and Hans Bellmer scholar Sue Taylor. The curators will contribute brief texts on each artist as well as an introduction.
Exhibition support is provided, in part, by:The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
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