Apparition (detail), Odilon Redon, 1889. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Black Drawings in 19th-Century France: The Modernist Trajectory
GETTY CENTER
The Getty Center
Lee Hendrix, senior curator of drawings at the J. Paul Getty Museum, investigates the explosion of black drawing materials (such as charcoals and chalks) in France during the 19th century. These new media contributed to a growing awareness of the material qualities of the drawing as an object, with respect to various drawing tools as well as the integral textures and weights of different papers. Foregrounding the material properties of artistic media is a well-known tenet of 20th-century modernism and this talk investigates some of its overlooked roots found in 19th-century works on paper.
Complements the exhibition Noir: The Romance of Black in 19th-Century French Drawings and Prints.
