richard serra's drawings

Richard Serra, "Drawings After Circuit"(1972), charcoal on paper

In thinking about how to integrate elements of drawing into my own practice (which hasn't come naturally for me), I've been drawn to artists, such as Richard Serra, who have taken more contemporary approaches to an age-old medium. Some go for a more conceptual approach, while others might rely on a more active physicality, but in the recent years, drawing has proven to be a quite limitless media that's most certainly worthy of our attention.

When I think of Drawing (with a capitol D) in this way, as an ever-growing, all-encompassing means of creating, I'm reminded of what Rosalind Krauss had to say about Sculpture in her famous 1979 essay "Sculpture in the Expanded Field." I won't go into details, but basically, what I mean to suggest by this is  perhaps that Drawing has entered an 'expanded field' of its own. Perhaps the line culture has "drawn" between drawing and sculpture isn't quite as clear as we may think. The same could be said for drawing and performance (in which the drawing is a record of performance - see Tony Orrico), as well as many other overlapping categories of art-making. John Dewey, in Art as Experience, makes a clear argument for this idea, suggesting that the various media "form a continuum, a spectrum, and that while we may distinguish the seven so-called primary colors, there is no attempt to tell exactly where one begins and another one ends."

My intention in this post was originally to highlight Richard Serra's accomplishments in drawing, but it seems I've gotten off topic. I'm on the verge of delving into a lengthy discussion of categorical classifications in art-making - its effect on art education - and many relevant opinions on the subject (this topic is discussed at length in Art School: Propositions for the 21st-Century)... but perhaps I'll save that for another day.

a site-specific drawing by Richard Serra

Instead, I'll leave you with this video about Richard Serra's drawings, made in conjunction with his recent retrospective organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the NY Times review of the show here.