Drawing Connections: Baselitz, Kelly, Penone, Rockburne, and the Old Masters

October 12, 2007, through January 6, 2008

Drawing Connections explores the correspondences between contemporary and old master drawings. Georg Baselitz, Ellsworth Kelly, Giuseppe Penone, and Dorothea Rockburne have been invited to select drawings from the Morgan's old master collection to be displayed next to their own drawings. The juxtaposition emphasizes the conceptual, visual, or technical relationships between them, showing not only what contemporary drawings owe to the art of the past but also how our interpretation of old master drawings is indebted to contemporary practices.

These four contemporary artists represent radically different approaches to drawing today, from Kelly's pure and deceptively simple line drawings to Baselitz's painterly and expressive style. Penone's conception of drawing as a trace is one of the most original contributions to the medium of the last forty years. Rockburne, whose work is inspired by mathematics, astronomy, and the art of the quattrocento, questions the definition of drawing though a practice that closely relates the structure of a work to the physical materiality of its support.

Major support for Drawing Connections: Baselitz, Kelly, Penone, Rockburne, and the Old Masters is provided by the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Inc. Additional support for the accompanying publication and related programs is provided by Jan Abrams Fine Arts; the Herman Goldman Foundation; Marian Goodman Gallery, New York; Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York; Matthew Marks Gallery; Kathleen O'Grady; Michael and Juliet Rubenstein; and Teresa Liszka and Martin Weinstein.