On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century

"On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century", on view at MoMA from November 21, 2010, through February 7, 2011, will explore the radical transformation of the medium of drawing throughout the last century, a period when numerous artists critically examined the traditional concepts of drawing and expanded the medium's definition in relation to gesture and form.

The exhibition will bring together approximately 300 works that connect drawing to selections of painting, sculpture, photography, film, and dance (represented by films and documentation). Making the case for a discursive history of mark making, On Line maps an alternative project of drawing, with works by a wide range of artists, both familiar and relatively unknown, from different eras of the past century and from many nations. The exhibition is organized by Connie Butler, The Robert Lehman Foundation Chief Curator of Drawings, The Museum of Modern Art, and guest curator Catherine de Zegher, former director, The Drawing Center, New York.

With almost half of the 300 works drawn from MoMA’s collection, On Line will also present a wide, international scope of art practices, including artists from over 20 nations, such as Aleksandr Rodchenko (Russian, 1891–1956), Lygia Clark (Brazilian, 1920–1988), Edward Krasinski (Polish, 1925–2004), and Ranjani Shettar (Indian, b. 1977). Additionally, major site- specific projects by contemporary artists will be on display, including pieces by Luis Camnitzer, Monika Grzymala, and Giuseppe Penone.

The exhibition will also explore the relationship between line-making and dance. Within the galleries works by prominent dancers will be on view, including a large-scale drawing by Trisha Brown, Untitled (2007), along with films of William Forsythe and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker. These will be joined by a range of works which specifically address the medium of dance, including Gino Severini’s Dancer (1912), Vaslaw Nijinsky’s Tänzerin (1917–18), and Françoise Sullivan’s Danse de la Neige, #1–17 (1948).

In conjunction with On Line, five choreographers and performers will stage works within the Museum’s Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium in January 2011. As installments of MoMA’s ongoing Performance Exhibition Series, these performances address the idea of line as a trajectory of the human body through space. The featured choreographers and performers include Trisha Brown, Ralph Lemon, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, and Marie Cool and Fabio Balducci.

Photos from above: Françoise Sullivan; Alexander Calder; Julie Mehretu; Cildo Meireles; Georges Vantongerloo