Lines of Thought : Drawing from Michelangelo to Now

The exhibition examines the many ways artists have used drawing as a means of recording and provoking thought from the fifteenth century to today. The internationally recognized line-up of artists is a ‘who’s who’ of artists through the centuries. 

The exhibition includes 70 works by artists as diverse as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Albrecht Dürer, Piet Mondrian, Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Bridget Riley, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Franz Kline and Rachel Whiteread. Combining work from master artists of the past with artists working today, clearly demonstrates the common thread of drawing as the basis for creation.  What unites all of these artists, from the Renaissance through to contemporary practitioners and all those in-between, is the use of drawing as a means of thinking on paper.

Drawing is one of the most effective mediums for the immediate expression and representation of an artist’s ideas. Drawing often serves as the starting point for other creative arts including painting, sculpture, even basic engineering design and architecture. The exhibition will help visitors to explore the range inherent in the medium of drawing and may even inspire them to draw as well.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.

This Editor has seen Lines Of Thought and thinks it is an extraordinary exhibition, providing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study meaningful drawings and to gain a greatly enriched understanding of the importance of drawing as a part of the artistic process. It is highly recommended that you try to see it either in Santa Fe NM or Rhode Island, before the works are returned into storage at the British Museum. 

Whether or not you go, the exhibition catalog, Lines of Thought: Drawing from Michelangelo to now, examines the process and practice of drawing, showcasing more than 500 years of work from Michelangelo to the present day.  From Dürer to Degas, Michelangelo to Matisse, Rembrandt to Riley, this publication studies the types of thinking that produced their drawings―brainstorming, inquiry, experiment, association, development and decision―giving us fresh insight into the creative impulse of some of the world’s greatest artists.The book is illustrated by a selection of 120 works, featuring highlights of the British Museum’s outstanding Prints and Drawings Collection.

Click Lines of Thought: Drawing from Michelangelo to now to place this superb book in your Amazon shopping cart.