Line and Image: The Northern Sensibility in Recent European Drawing
in Publications
It is in the drawings of northern European artists that one sees these characteristics manifested most clearly. It makes perfect sense: the mode emphasizes – is in fact defined by – line and quasi-figurative imagery (that is, imagery derived from the real world but not faithful to it) directly born of line. Line is evoked as a result of, and invoked as a vehicle for, formal virtuosity and intense personal vision.
Strong, almost doodle-like lines abound in the works depicted in the exhibition Line and Image. Strange, beautiful drawings residing somewhere between reality and fantasy, form and non-form create a vibrant show, rich in complexity and thought. There is a definite distinction in the styles of the Germanic artists shown in Line and Image compared to artists of other nationalities, but can this be attributed to their Germanic ancestry? Is their artwork Germanic in nature? How does one account for the similarities in artists of certain nationalities without pigeonholing them to a specific “type” of artist?
Peter Frank addresses these difficult questions and others while displaying the unique artworks of Northern European artists such as Christian Ludwig Attersee, Joseph Beuys, Klaus Böhmler, and Gunther Brus among others. This book is indispensable for any global-art library.
Frank, Peter, Line and Image: The Northern Sensibility in Recent European Drawing, Independent Curators International (ICI), New York 1987. 48 Pages, 10 x 7 inches, softcover. $15.00