Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
Coventry University
‘Drawing Breath/Respirar Arte': curation of exhibition and author of catalogue essay, and one of 15 exhibitors.
The principal research question interrogated by this exhibition was whether the idea of drawing as mastery was an unfashionable concept. Subsidiary questions included whether mimetic skill continued to be important, where drawing fits within educational contexts, and what sorts of items might be considered as drawings. An underpinning question that stimulated the curatorial approach was about the usefulness of drawing in relation to carrying the content of an art idea. Devane conceived the research orientation of the exhibition, selected the works, authored the catalogue essay and was an exhibitor.
Within the discourse of contemporary Western European art practice it is common to find pejorative attitudes to the idea of skill and inference that it may be tainted by the shackles of academicism. The precursors for this stance could be influenced by the early modernist position of celebrating the ‘untutored’ or the ‘naive’, which has presented a challenge to those aspects of art practice which might be reliant on transmitted skills and competencies. This exhibition initiated a challenge to such assumptions and an articulation of ideas about drawing which are contrary to prevailing orthodoxies.
This exhibition provided an opportunity to test these questions about drawing with colleagues and audiences beyond the UK. The exhibition was the result of four years of planning, negotiation and exhibition proposal review with the directorate of the Lugar do Desenho in Porto.
Each of the fifteen artists had a number of works included in the show, ranging in scale and ambition – some of which posed difficult installation challenges. The catalogue essay by Devane established the context for the research and practice of the artists by locating the premise of the exhibition in relation to the dual role of each exhibitor as artist and educator and how the evidence addressed the core research agenda of the exhibition.
