From Figure To Object: A Century of Sculptor's Drawings

From Figure to Object: A Century of Sculptors’ Drawings is one of the most extensive exhibitions of sculptors’ drawings ever mounted, presenting the work of over a hundred international artists from the 1890s to the present day.

Looking at sculptors’ drawings is often the best way to understand how they think and work. Although the drawings do not always relate to the sculptures directly, they give an insight into the sculptor’s thought processes – in the same way as writers’ diaries or composers’ improvisations. Making sculpture is rarely a solitary activity; sculptors often have to employ several assistants and some contemporary sculptures can appear anonymous. In drawings, we clearly see the ‘signature’ of the artist.

One of the major changes in sculpture in this century has been a movement away from traditional materials, such as marble or bronze, to less immutable materials that might be subject to change and decay: Joseph Beuys made works with felt and fat; Eva Hesse pioneered the use of latex; Damien Hirst’s Natural History works employ animal corpses preserved in formaldehyde.

This use of materials is approximated in the artists’ drawings; Beuys used braunkreuz, a brown oil solution made from rust preventive and hare’s blood; Antony Gormley sometimes draws with blood or semen; Kounellis draws with fire; Anish Kapoor spreads out viscous materials to surround his shapes like amniotic fluid.

By charting a course from the turn of the century to the late 1990s, the exhibition bears witness to the changing face of sculpture in this century. It brings together the great pioneers of modern sculpture, such as Rodin, Picasso, Brancusi, Giacometti; Constructivists and Vorticists such as Naum Gabo, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Jacob Epstein and the drawings of Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. British and American Pop artists of the ’60s are included as well as a generation of artists from Europe and the USA whose work proved to be seminal for successive generations: Joseph Beuys, Walter de Maria, Eva Hesse, Giuseppe Penone, Gordon Matta Clark, Robert Morris. Also, represented are a group of British sculptors who came to prominence in the ’80s – Richard Deacon, Tony Cragg, Bill Woodrow, Anish Kapoor. The historical perspective is brought up to date with drawings by ’90s artists working with new materials and techniques: Damien Hirst, Rachel Whiteread, Dinos and Jake Chapman, Sarah Lucas to name but a few.