On Big Drawings

Abstract

On Big Drawings brings together 19 artists whose work celebrates the medium of drawing

as a contemporary form of expression. Drawings are often thought of as intimate,

representative works that are preparation for a finished piece,

but here drawings are presented in the expanded field of current art practice,

and as art in their own right. Each featured artist has made an outstanding

contribution to an expanded notion of drawing, creating work that engenders

a dialogue about drawing across media boundaries, while often engaging

with large-scale works created for specific spaces or projects.

Many of the artists also bring other kinds of innovative approaches to drawing,

working small scale, in series, non-traditionally, through projection,

mapping or tracing, or three-dimensionally, and also through performance,

video, and animation. Although some of the works chosen and discussed

are predominantly large-scale, site specific, and immersive, the main emphasis

of the project is on the challenging of traditional notions of what 'drawings' are,

or could possibly be, in the contemporary context.

Drawing here is defined as an expanded form of contemporary art, rather than the mere,

and more mechanical craft of masterful representation, observation, and rendering.

On Big Drawings in the year 2020 has a special focus on the radical and

emerging change brought about by the ‘Year of the Pandemic’, and the period

preceding this pivotal moment. The project seeks a deeper engagement with

the –– sometimes fast changing –– concerns driving artists at this moment to make art,

and their unique and creative responses to life under conditions of lockdown,

constraint, stress, and uncertainty during a global crisis.

We are very grateful to all 19 artists who made this unique publication possible.

The quality and inventiveness of their work speaks for itself.