‘Drawing as an Area of Academic Enquiry’

Slide 1

‘Drawing as an Area of Academic Enquiry’ – 10 Minutes

Intro

Slide 2 – Chauvet example of Cave Art / Gibson Quote

The art in the caves of Chauvet and Lascaux show us that drawing has been around as long as human kind, and that drawing was the very first method of recording information and constructing knowledge. Through the drawing, knowledge can be passed on from one person (the artist) to another (the viewer). Drawing is the most direct form of communication (Gibson 1979: 274, Berger 1972: 2-3).

The psychologist J.J. Gibson expanded on this when he said:

Cro-Magnon [people] drew pictures of what interested [them] on the walls of caves, and people of all cultures have been drawing pictures ever since…A picture is also a record. It enables the invariants that have been extracted by an observer … to be stored, saved,… or exchanged… They allow the original observer to communicate in a fashion with unborn generations of other observers.

(1979: 274-275)

Slide 3 – Primacy of Drawing / Rembrandt

Emeritus Professor in Drawing, Deanna Petherbridge says, “Drawing is the primal means of symbolic communication, which predates and embraces writing and functions as a tool of conceptualisation parallel with language” (1991: 7).

Slide 4 – Della Francesca / da Vinci / Brunelleschi

During the 1400’s, drawing was the common factor that combined the fields of art, science, mathematics and architecture to bring about the Italian Renaissance and the invention of linear perspective (Panofsky 1924-25: 27, Edgerton 1975: 4-6, Kemp 1990: 7, Dunning 1991: 38, Gayford 2011: 58, Campbell & Cole, 2012: 112-120). By objectifying space through drawing in linear perspective, it has been said, engineers were able to visualise the machines that have led to the technology we use today (Edgerton, 1975: 165, Romanyshyn 1989, Weschler, 2008: 70).

Slide 5 – Hockney / Guston

While preparing for his latest exhibition, British artist David Hockney used drawing to gain a deeper understanding of the landscapes he was making artwork about. While in conversation with art critic Martin Gayford, Hockney explained:

“You have to look and [question]…what you are seeing all the time. Drawing makes you see things clearer, and clearer, and clearer still. The image is passing through you in a physiological way, into your brain, into your memory – where it stays – it’s transmitted by your hands.”  

(Gayford, 2011: 84-85)

Gayford later goes on to say, “Drawing, then, has a lot to do with making decisions as well as making marks…there is also a mental process going on. It’s a way of thinking, as well as a way of seeing and a method of working”

                                (Gayford, 2011: 190)

While some artists use drawing in times of crisis to overcome creative difficulties GUSTON PIC (Coolidge (Ed) 2011: 200-202), others use drawing as an end in itself. The Former Senior Curator of Drawing at Moma, NY, Bernice Rose says, “Drawing has moved from one context, that of a “minor” support medium… to that of a major and independent medium with distinctive expressive possibilities altogether its own” (1976: 9). Contemporary artists such as (Slide 6-7)Tracey Emin, Paul Westcoombe and Paul Noble  Use drawing to make finished artworks.

Slide 8 – Covers of books/web pages

Though technology has offered new ways of drawing, it essentially remains unchanged as a way for artists to express their ideas through making a mark on a surface, and is a hotbed for contemporary scholarly attention. Publications and websites such as; TRACEY: Drawing and Visualisation Research, The Drawing Research Network, and The Big Draw offer great resources for contemporary research into drawing practice.

Slide 9 – Francis Well / As Seen

Examples of current research into drawing, or that uses drawing as a methodology are the work of Dr. Francis Wells, and the As Seen research group.

Dr. Wells is one of the country’s leading heart surgeons and is also an artist. He has used the drawings of da Vinci to develop a new heart surgery technique, and explains to his student’s difficult techniques by drawing directly after each operation with the patient’s blood.

Gemma Anderson, a personal friend and fellow RCA graduate, is currently completing her Phd into Isomorpholgy at University College Falmouth. Gemma says “Isomorphology is a drawing based method of enquiry into the shared forms of animal, mineral and vegetables”.

The As Seen research group, headed by Prof. Pepperell, studies existng artworks, many of which are drawings, to see how certain British artists have depicted vision. These studies then inspire and inform original artworks by members of the research group.

Slide 10 - 14 – Hockney Dining Room Drawing / Other drawings…

My own research asks whether the visual experience of close-up double vision can be depicted. Due to the subjective nature of this question, I have had to use observational drawing as a research methodology.

Drawing with pencil on paper provides me with the quickest, most efficient way of recording what and how I see. That said, my drawing practice incorporates multiple disciplines and mediums including; photography, collage, printmaking, sculpture, iPad and programmes such as Photoshop.

Slide 15 - 19 – Class photographs

The methods and practical outcomes of my research have impacted positively on the teaching material I write and deliver. This offers students new ways of drawing through a diverse range of mediums, from both imagination and observation, and as a way of honing their ideas and practical skills within their studio practice.

Slide 20 – Guston Paw

I finish with a quote from Philip Guston, an artist who drew throughout his entire life:

 “It is the bareness of drawing that I like. The act of drawing is what locates, suggests, discovers. At times it seems enough to draw…” (Coolidge (Ed) 2011: 231).