EXHIBITIONS

On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century

On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century

On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century

On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century aims to radically challenge the accepted definition of a drawing as simply a work on paper. This lecture will trace the key themes of the exhibition—from the emergence of the line from the picture plane early in the century to the political and digital implications of the line in present time—through the work of selected artists, making an argument for a reconsideration of the idea of drawing, and its fundamental position at the heart of twentieth century art.

Esther Adler (MA, University of Maryland) is a curatorial assistant in the Department of Drawings at The Museum of Modern Art.

On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century

On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century

On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century

Performance 11: On Line/Trisha Brown Dance Company

Choreographer Trisha Brown (American, b. 1936) experiments with space, gravity, and the orientation of the body. She was an essential contributor to the development of postmodern dance in the early 1960s, an innovation associated with New York’s Judson Dance Theater. At MoMA the Trisha Brown Dance Company, which celebrated its fortieth anniversary in 2010, will perform the early works Sticks (1973), Scallops (1973), and Locus Solo (1975) and premiere Roof Piece Re-Layed (2011), based on Roof Piece (1971). Approximate running time is 60 minutes.

Crossing the Line: Drawing and Its Extension

This half-day symposium, held in conjunction with the exhibition On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century, explores the extended field of drawing by analyzing the development of line throughout the century in two panel discussions. "From On Line to Online,” moderated by Catherine de Zegher, co-curator of the exhibition, features artists Anna Maria Maiolino, Julie Mehretu, Jean Fisher, Professor of Fine Art and Transcultural Studies, Middlesex University and writer on contemporary art, and Luis Camnitzer, Professor Emeritus at University of the State of New York. "The Performative Line,” moderated by Connie Butler, MoMA's Robert Lehman Foundation Chief Curator of Drawings and co-curator of the exhibition, includes Benjamin Buchloh, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Modern Art, Harvard University; Ralph Lemon, artist and choreographer; Nick Kaye, Dean, College of Humanities & Chair in Performance Studies, College of Humanities, University of Exeter, England; and Janet Kraynak, Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art, New School University.

Performance 13: On Line/Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

Violin Phase from Fase: Four movements to the Music of Steve Reich (1982)

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (Belgian, born 1960) is one of the most prominent choreographers in contemporary dance. Throughout her career she has focused on the relationship between music and dance and also repeatedly ventured into the realms of text and visual art. The minimalist music of composer Steve Reich (American, b. 1936) inspired De Keersmaeker’s seminal work Fase: Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich (1982). She will perform Violin Phase (an excerpt from Fase), dancing on sand, her movements creating a large circular drawing on the floor of the Marron Atrium. Approximate running time is 16 minutes.

Performance 14: On Line/Ralph Lemon

Untitled (2008), featuring Ralph Lemon and Okwui Okpokwasili

New York–based artist Ralph Lemon (American, born 1952) works across the disciplines of dance, film, and visual arts. In Untitled (2008), which Lemon created for himself and long-time collaborator Okwui Okpokwasili (American, b. 1972), he explores the body’s ability to push beyond technique and training, exhaustion and exhilaration, to movements unfettered by control, rationality, and reflex. The result is a quiet, harrowing duet that investigates connection and division between two bodies. Program is approximately 40 minutes.

Performance 15: On Line/Xavier Le Roy

Self Unfinished (1998), a collaboration with Laurent Golding with music by Diana Ross

Over the last decade, choreographer Xavier Le Roy (French, b. 1963) has opened up new perspectives in the world of dance. Trained as a molecular biologist, he approaches his work scientifically, starting with a single idea or question. He will present his groundbreaking work Self Unfinished (1998), conceived in collaboration with Laurent Golding, which is concerned with the representation of the body; in it he morphs through bodily configurations, deviating as far as possible from an identifiable human figure. Program is approximately 55 minutes.

The performance contains nudity.

Modern Poets: The Political Line

Artists throughout the last century have pushed line across the plane and into real space, thus questioning the relation between the art object and the world. The exhibition On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century addresses the transformation of drawing, mark making, and gesture, as well as the role of the political line in art and everyday life. On this special evening, Cecilia Vicuña selects international poets to read their own works about the political line, a theme explored in On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century. In addition to Vicuña, participants include poets Will Alexander, Luljeta Lleshanaku, and Dunya Mikhail, and translator Henry Israeli.

On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century