Drawing Center
Museum in Manhattan, New York
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Drawing Center is a museum and a nonprofit exhibition space in Manhattan, New York City, that focuses on the exhibition of drawings, both historical and contemporary.
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The Drawing Center at 40 Wooster Street | |
 | |
| Established | 1977 |
|---|---|
| Location | 35 Wooster Street, New York, NY 10013 |
| Coordinates | 40°43′21″N 74°00′10″W |
| Type | Art, Special Interest[1] |
| Director | Laura Hoptman[2] |
| Website | www |
History
The Drawing Center was founded by former assistant curator of drawings at the Museum of Modern Art Martha Beck[3] in 1977, with the mandate of seeking to "express the quality and diversity of drawing -- unique works on paper -- as a major art form".[4] It was originally housed in $900-a-month ground-floor space in a warehouse at 137 Greene Street in SoHo[3] before it moved to its present location, on the ground floor of a 19th-century cast-iron-fronted building at 35 Wooster Street, in the late 1980s.[5] In its first year, the Drawing Center attracted 125,000 visitors.[3]
After a $10 million renovation in 2012, designed by Claire Weisz of WXY Architecture & Urban Design, the museum today occupies two and a half floors, 50 percent more exhibition space.[6]
Activities
Each year, the center presents "Selections" exhibitions featuring the work of emerging artists as well as exhibitions of historical and contemporary drawing-based work. In conjunction with its interior expansion in 2012, the Drawing Center announced the start of a long-term initiative to exhibit Latin American drawing.[7] The Drawing Room, located across the street from the Main Gallery, features dynamic, drawing-based installations and exhibitions by emerging and under-recognized artists. The center offers a range of public programs for both adults and children, including film screenings, literary readings, artist talks, symposia, performances, and The Big Draw, a day-long event or series of events featuring artist-led drawing activities for all ages.
List of shows
Before 2010
- Leon Golub: Live & Die Like a Lion?
- Selections Spring 2010: Sea Marks
- Sun Xun: Shock of Time
- Apparently Invisible: Selections Spring 2009
- Matt Mullican: A Drawing Translates the Way of Thinking
- M/M (Paris): Just Like an Ant Walking on the Edge of the Visible
- Greta Magnusson Grossman: Furniture and Lighting
- Rirkrit Tiravanija: Demonstration Drawings
- Kathleen Henderson: What If I Could Draw a Bird That Could Change the World?
- Drawing on Film
- Frederick Kiesler: Co-Realities
- Yüksel Arslan: Visual Interpretations
- Drawing Out: Student Artwork from Drawing Connections
- Selections Spring 2008
- Sterling Ruby: CHRON
- Alan Saret Gang Drawings, 2007
2010
- "Day Job" group show
- Gerhard Richter, Lines which do not exist
- Claudia Wieserm, Poems of the Right Angle
- Dorothea Tanning: Early Designs for the Stage
- Eva Hesse Drawing
- Leon Golub: Live & Die Like a Lion?
- Drawing Out: Student Artwork from the Drawing Connections Program
- Iannis Xenakis: Composer, Architect, Visionary
- Ree Morton: At the Still Point of the Turning World
- Unica Zürn: Dark Spring
2011
- Pathways Drawing In, On, and Through the Landscapegroup show:artists: Ann Carlson i Mary Ellen Strom, Mark Harris, Jessica Mein, Terry Nauheim, Candida Richardson, Gosia Wlodarczak
- Drawing and its Double, Selections from the Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, group show:artists: Giorgio Ghisi, Lafrery Du Perac, Salvator Rosa, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Antonio Canova, Giorgio Morandi, Piero Dorazio, Achille Perilli
- Paolo Canevari, Decalogo
- Drawn from Photography group show:artists: L Alvarez, Andrea Bowers, Fernando Bryce, Sam Durant, Ewan Gibbs, Karl Haendel, Richard Forster, Serkan Ozkaya, Emily Prince, Frank Selby, Paul Sietsema, Mary Temple, Christian Tomaszewski (C.T. Jasper)
2012
- Guillermo Kuitca, Diarios
- José Antonio Suárez Londoño The Yearbooks
- Sean Scully, Change and Horizontals
2013
- Drawing Time, Reading Time- group show: artists: Carl Andre, Pavel Büchler, Guy de Cointet, Mirtha Dermisache, Sean Landers, Allen Ruppersberg, Nina Papaconstantinou, Deb Sokolow, Molly Springfield.
- William Engelen, Falten
- Susan Hefuna and Luca Veggetti, NOTATIONOTATIONS
- Terry Smith, Document
- Giosetta Fioroni L’Argento
- Alexandre Singh, The Pledge
- Ignacio Uriarte, Line of Work
- Ishmael Randall, Weeks, Cuts, Burns, Punctures
2014
- Sari Dienes, Sari Dienes
- Xanti Schawinsky, Head Drawings and Faces of War
- Thread Lines group show
- Small, group show: artists: Firelei Báez, Emmanouil Bitsakis, Paul Chiappe, Claire Harvey, Tom Molloy, Rita Ponce de León, Peggy Preheim, James Sheehan and Tinus Vermeersch
- Lebbeus Woods, Architect
- Len Lye, Motion Sketch
- Open Sessions, group show: artists: Eleanor Aldrich, Derek Dunlop, Heather Hart, Yara Pina, Andrew Ross, Lauren Seiden, Barbara Weissberger.
- Andrea Bowers i Suzanne LacyDrawing Lessons
- Rashaad Newsome, FIVE
- Deborah Grant, Christ You Know it Ain't Easy!!
- Dickinson/Walser Pencil Sketches
Management and funding
The Drawing Center named Laura Hoptman, a former curator at The Museum of Modern Art, Executive Director in 2018.[2]
In August 2005, the Drawing Center was considered one of the groups to occupy the World Trade Center. The plan was scrapped, and then the center's leadership spent a couple of years exploring a move to the South Street Seaport, where it planned to build a $60 million museum.[5] By 2010 the museum decided to stay put and expand its Wooster Street home.[6]
Also in 2005, it was among 406 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.[8][9] For the 2012 renovation, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation gave a $3 million grant, one of its largest contributions toward a single construction project.[6]
As of 2011, attendance was at 35,000 visitors a year.[5] As of 2018, the center attracted 55,000 visitors a year.[2]
