Franz Kline 1910-1962
Born and worked USA
Study for Black & White #1 c.1952
Gouache and ink on paper mounted on board
The UBS Art Collection
Alighiero Boetti 1940-1994
Born and worked Italy
Aerei
1978
Ballpoint pen on paper mounted on canvas
The UBS Art Collection
Willem de Kooning 1904-1997
Born Netherlands, worked USA
Untitled
c1950
Pastel and charcoal on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Joel Fisher 1947
Born and works USA
Untitled (Drawing No 1)
1988-9
Graphite and coloured pencil on handmade paper
The UBS Art Collection
Helen Frankenthaler 1928
Born and works USA
Untitled
1961
Oil and coloured crayons on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Part of a three-room display of drawings from The UBS Art Collection, this room emphasises the function of drawing for notation or narrative.
The display is the second to be selected by Tate curators from The UBS Art Collection, and explores the immense diversity of drawing as an artistic practice. While this room focuses on drawing as a representational or narrative medium, the other two rooms also look at the process of mark-making.
Drawing serves as a primary means for observation or imagination. Since ancient times it has been used to represent imagined stories. In the western tradition it is seen as a way of recording impressions of the outside world, often with an emphasis on a scrutinising realism that was only partly displaced with the invention of photography. R B Kitaj’s The Poet Writing, for example, captures its subject absorbed in vivid movement, while Lucien Freud’s searching examination of himself achieves a striking intensity. At the same time, drawing allows the artist to explore and sometimes imaginatively embellish that reality. Philip Guston’s self-portrait under a Ku Klux Klan hood seems closer to the fanciful wit of a newspaper cartoonist than to traditional ideas of realism. In its own way, however, it is as thoughtful and questioning as any self-portrait. This imaginative freedom is even more evident in the gleefully satirical drawings of Rosemarie Trockel, which deliberately embrace distortion.
Vija Celmins 1938
Born Latvia, works USA
Galaxy #1 (Coma Berenices)
1973
Graphite and acrylic on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Chuck Close 1940
Born and works USA
Self Portrait
1995
Pencil, marker and india ink on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Bruce Conner 1933
Born and works USA
Untitled Drawing, May 1972
1972
Pen and ink on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Robert Gober 1954
Born and works USA
Untitled #5 (Double Sink)
1984
Graphite on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Jenny Holzer 1950
Born and works USA
From the Living Series, Bench #16
1980-2
Graphite on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Roni Horn 1955
Born and works USA
Distant Double 2.26x & 2.26y
1989
Powdered pigment, varnish on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Martin Kippenberger 1953-1997
Born and worked Germany
Untitled 1989
Untitled 1989
Acrylic, graphite, ink and watercolour on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Maria Kontis 1969
Born and works Australia
Spread Out Across the World
2006
Pastel on velvet paper
The UBS Art Collection
Edward Ruscha 1937
Born and works USA
Coiled Paper
1973
Gunpowder on paper
Accordian Fold with Vaseline Stains
1973
Gunpowder and vaseline on paper
The UBS Art Collection
William Wegman 1943
Born and works USA
Art Medal 1983
Ink and watercolour on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Cy Twombly 1928
Born USA, works Italy
Untitled
1971-2
Cementito, wax crayon, graphite
The UBS Art Collection
Robin Winters 1950
Born and works USA
Ghent Historical Drawings
1986
Graphite on tea and coffee-stained paper
The UBS Art Collection
Troy Brauntuch 1954
Born and works USA
Untitled
1981
Chalk on black paper
The UBS Art Collection
Walter Dahn 1954
Born and works Germany
Untitled
1985
Acrylic on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Richard Phillips 1962
Born and works USA
My Sweet Lord (George Harrison)
1999
Charcoal and chalk
The UBS Art Collection
Charles Avery 1973
Born and works Britain
Hunter’s Cabin
2004
Pencil on paper
The UBS Art Collection
John Currin 1962
Born and works USA
New Suit
1995
Ink on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Bonnie Camplin 1970
Born and works Britain
High Acedia
2005
Pencil on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Rosemarie Trockel 1952
Born and works Germany
Untitled
1983
Gouache on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Sandra Vásquez de la Horra 1967
Born Chile, works Germany
Forever
2006
Ghost/Chair
2006
Pencil on paper dipped in wax
Toro
2006
Pencil on paper dipped in wax
The UBS Art Collection
John Currin 1962
Born and works USA
Rachel Reclining
2001
Charcoal on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Jim Shaw 1952
Born and works USA
Study for 'Sin of Pride'
1988
Graphite on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Markus Lüpertz 1941
Born Czechoslovakia, works Germany
Untitled (Mann In Anzug)
1976
Charcoal, gouache, pastel crayon and pencil on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Robert Rauschenberg 1925
Born and works USA
Untitled
1958
Solvent transfer, watercolour, gouache,
coloured pencils and graphite on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Georg Baselitz 1938
Born and works Germany
Whip Woman 1964
Peitschenfrau
Pen and brush and ink on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Giuseppe Penone 1947
Born and works Italy
Unknown
1992
Ink/pencil on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Richard Diebenkorn 1922-1993
Born and worked USA
Two Nudes Standing
1965
Graphite and brush and black ink on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Stephan Balkenhol 1957
Born and works Germany
Untitled
2006
Untitled
2006
Charcoal on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Keith Edmier 1967
Born and works USA
Fireweed
1999
Coloured pencil on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Part of a three-room display of drawings from The UBS Art Collection, this central room brings together contrasting examples of work to show the rich possibilities of drawing as an artistic practice.
The two side rooms focused on each of two fundamental aspects of drawing: the act of mark-making, and the narrative or representational quality of the medium. Here they are brought together, with abstract and gestural works set against drawings that rely on various levels of realism in order to convey ideas.
While most of the works here were conceived for public display, drawing, perhaps more than any other medium, has a private function for many artists. It can be the place in which ideas and techniques are developed, perfected, questioned and reconceived. This experimental and multifarious medium encompasses as many practices as there are artists. For many, the act of making marks on paper remains an essential expression of personal experience. It can take on new possibilities with the adoption of a surprising variety of materials and surfaces such as Ed Ruscha’s use of gunpowder, or Martin Kippenberger’s works on hotel notepaper. At the same time, realism continues to challenge perceptions. This may take the form of perfecting visual illusions that deceive the viewer or, quite differently, in placing recognisable situations or people under scrutiny.
The artistic territory between abstraction and realism is populated by possibilities, many of which are exemplified in works on display here. Ultimately, however, the practice of drawing remains vibrant, individual, complex and, above all, subject to continual re-invention. Drawing challenges the eye and fires the imagination.
Philip Guston 1913-1980
Born Canada, worked USA
Artist in His Studio
1969
Charcoal on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Lucian Freud 1922
Born Germany, works Britain
Self Portrait
1974
Watercolour and graphite on paper
The UBS Art Collection
David Hockney 1937
Born Britain, works USA
To Queens, New York
1961
Graphite, coloured crayons, rubber stamp and oil on paper
The UBS Art Collection
R.B. Kitaj 1932
Born and works USA
The Poet Writing
1982
Charcoal on green paper
The UBS Art Collection
Michele Zalopany 1955
Born and works USA
City of the Gods
1986
Charcoal and pastel on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Rosemarie Trockel 1952
Born and works Germany
Untitled 1986
1986
Ink and watercolour on paper
The UBS Art Collection
Part of a three-room display of drawings from The UBS Art Collection, this room emphasises the act of mark-making.
The display is the second to be selected by Tate curators from The UBS Art Collection, and explores the immense diversity of drawing as an artistic practice. While this room focuses on the process of mark-making, the other two rooms also look at the role of drawing as a representational or narrative medium.
Drawing is one of the most basic and ancient of artistic activities. The marking of rock faces served as an expression of shared cultural experience from earliest times. The study of such ritualistic and primeval gestures was one of the many impulses that encouraged mid-twentieth century artists to explore the expressive qualities of mark-making. For admirers of Abstract Expressionism, such marks came to be seen as a real-time record of the artist’s presence, carrying associations of individuality and spontaneous action. The drawings shown here by Franz Kline and Helen Frankenthaler capture a sense of energy and movement with an apparent ease that disguises their fine resolution and balance.
The Italian artist Alighiero e Boetti was associated with the Arte Povera movement, who were known for using ‘poor’ everyday or ephemeral materials. The large drawing Aerei belongs to a series known as the ‘biro works’, which he made using ballpoint pens, often inviting assistants and others to handle the pens themselves. A densely-worked surface of biro ink becomes an intense blue sky in this exultant, even visionary image.
Curated by Emma Dexter
Texts by Matthew Gale and Ann Coxon