The Potentiality of Drawing
Exhibition Summary
This exhibition endeavors to re-examine drawing’s potential in a number of different contexts through expression, varied in kind, that employs line as a core medium of exploration. Featured are works that demonstrate contemporary approaches to drawing.
Hand drawing, contrary to expectation, has gained in significance today, when digital technology is all around us; not as a study for the preparation of a finished piece but as a raw expression of the continual process of change that people and society are in. This exhibition views handwritten words as well as visual images as drawing and explores the relationship between them.
Drawing on paper is an act that clearly records the drawer’s developing thoughts as they waver and sometimes break off or else take flight. This exhibition, however, looks at drawing not only as a composition of lines on a flat surface but also with a view to lines that cut into their support and lines composed in three-dimensional space. The exhibition, then, furthermore looks at “visions” of flowing water, seen in the imagination, as a subject for drawing—a motif that holds a powerful attraction for artists.
In our increasingly complex contemporary society, drawing—the simplest and most fundamental expression of art—remains a source of endless possibilities.
Handout(PDF)
Kyuyo Ishikawa, After the 9.11 Incident I, 2004 Collection of the artist
Highlights
1 Words and Visual Image ・・・・・ Henri Matisse, Kyuyo Ishikawa
The interplay of words and visual images is among the most essential topics of visual art today. Under the keyword of drawing, this exhibition will reconsider the relationship between words and images in visual expression, and what lies between them.
Kyuyo Ishikawa, September 11, 2001, Clear Sky—A Tale of Vertical Line and Horizon I, 2002
Kyuyo Ishikawa, The poet who wrote if I die please bring peace to the world has died - Rest in peace: Takaaki Yoshimoto, 2012 Collection of the artist
2 Looking at Space ・・・・・ Shigeo Toya, Keita Mori, Yayoi Kusama, Saburo Aso
The work of painters and sculptors begins with an eye to the space around them. What the eye sees finds development in a drawing and, eventually, in a finished work capturing the space. This section considers the meaning of drawing as a core element of the production process and a work’s composition.
Shigeo Toya, Exposing ‘Sculpture’ Ⅳ, 1976/1991 Collection of the artist photo: Tetsuo Ito
Shigeo Toya, Body of the Gaze, 2019 Collection of the artist photo: Shigeo Muto copyright the artist courtesy of ShugoArts
Keita Mori, Bug report, 2019 photo: Keizo Kioku ［reference image］
Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Nets, 1953 Collection: MOT
Yayoi Kusama, Go & Stop, 1952 Collection: MOT
Yayoi Kusama, Untitled, 1952 Collection: MOT
3 Visions of Water ・・・・・ Yukihisa Isobe, Yasushi Yamabe
Drawing, a means of instantly rendering the imagination visible, has been integral to many artists’ production process. Visions of ceaselessly moving, changing water, seen in the imagination, particularly fascinate artists as a subject of line-based expression.
Yukihisa Isobe, ANCIENT ILLUSION, 1959 Collection of the artist
Yukihisa Isobe, The Shinano River once flowed 25 meters above where it presently flows, 2002 Collection of the artist
Yukihisa Isobe, Sea, Beach Wind and Field, 2006 Collection of the artist
Yasushi Yamabe, Working Water across the Landscape, 2014 Collection of the artist
* All information provided here is subject to change without notice.
Information
- Period
Sat.
14 March2 June– Sun.14 June21 June, 2020- Closed
Mondays (except 4 May), 7 May
- Opening
10:00-18:00(Tickets available until 30 minutes before closing)
- Admission
Adults － 1,200yen
(960yen)
University & College Students, Over 65 － 800yen(640yen)
High School & Junior High School Students － 600yen(480yen)
Elementary School Students & Younger － Free* Ticket includes admission to the MOT Collection exhibition.
* Children younger than elementary school age need to be accompanied by a guardian.
* Persons with a Physical Disability Certificate, Intellectual Disability Certificate, Intellectual Disability Welfare Certificate, or Atomic Bomb Survivor Welfare Certificate as well as up to two attendants are admitted free of charge.Services that are suspended until further notice:
* Amounts in parentheses indicate the price for a group of over 20 people.
* Persons 65 or over are admitted free of charge on the third Wednesday of every month (Senior Day). Proof of age is required.
* Tokyo resident guardians accompanying children under 18 are admitted at half-price on the third Saturday of every month as well as the following day (Family Day). Identification is required.- Venue
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Exhibition Gallery 3F- Organized by
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo operated by Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture
- Supported by
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN FOUNDATION
Installation view
Saburo Aso, White Birches in Fresh Verdure, c.1967 (left), Riverbed, Stones, and Grass, 1967 (right)
1 Words and Visual Image
Kyuyo Ishikawa, September 11, 2001, Clear Sky —A Tale of Vertical Line and Horizon I (Part 2), 2002 etc (from the left)
Kyuyo Ishikawa, September 11, 2001, Clear Sky —A Tale of Vertical Line and Horizon I (Part 2), 2002 (left edge), On Turning Seventy, Seventy Years after Japan’s Defeat Part One, 2015 (right edge)
Henri Matisse © Succession H. Matisse
Henri Matisse © Succession H. Matisse
2 Looking at space
Shigeo Toya, Exposing 'Sculpture' Ⅴ, 1977/1991 (right)
Shigeo Toya, Body of the Gaze – Scatter, 2019
Shigeo Toya, Exposing 'Sculpture' Ⅳ, 1976/1991 (left three), Exposing 'Sculpture' Ⅴ, 1977/1991-2020 (right)
Shigeo Toya, Exposing 'Sculpture' Ⅴ, 1977/1991-2020
Keita Mori, Bug report, 2020
Keita Mori, Bug report, 2020
Yayoi Kusama, Pacific Ocean, 1960
3 Visions of Water
Yasushi Yamabe, Working Water across the Landscape, 2014
Yasushi Yamabe, Working aqua after flow, 2015 (left), 3000 flow hills, 2015 (right)
Yukihisa Isobe, Drawing for "Shinano River once flowed 25 meters above where it presently flows" (Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2003), c.2001-2003
Yukihisa Isobe
Installation views from “The Potentiality of Drawing”, 2020
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Photo: Eiji Ina
Exhibition teaser
The official catalogue
The official catalogue accompanying “The Potentiality of Drawing” presents complete installation views including the new works for the exhibition. It also features essays by Kyuyo Ishikawa and Shigeo Toya.
Available at Museum Shop
The Potentiality of Drawing
Published by Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Publication Date: June 2, 2020.
B5 Size |Hardcover, clothbound |212 pages
Price：3,500 yen（tax included）