From John Currin's old-master-style Playboy bunnies to Elizabeth Peyton's fin-de-siecle portraits; from Julie Mehretu's dizzying, multilayered architectural landscapes to Shahzia Sikander's multipatterned miniature ones; from Yoshitomo Nara's angry and enigmatic little girls to Kara Walker's stereotypical negresses; and from Barry McGee's caricatures of urban graffiti to Matthew Ritchie's cosmological diagrams--drawing is back, if it ever went away. In contrast to the digitized, multimedia direction that much of contemporary art has taken in the past decade, drawing has become the major mode of expression for many of today's most important young artists. Drawing Now, published to accompany the first major survey of contemporary drawings at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 15 years, contains more than 100 color reproductions of work by 26 international artists, both well-known and emerging, that demonstrate the fascinating variety of methods and approaches, mediums and scales, apparent in this old-again, new-again art. Accompanying essays by the exhibition's curator, Laura Hoptman, explore eight themes that she perceives in the field--Drafting &amp; Architecture, Mental Maps &amp; Metaphysics, Popular Culture &amp; National Culture, Fashion, Likeness &amp; Allegory, Envisioning a City, Science &amp; Art, Comics &amp; Other Subcultures, Ornament &amp; Crime--and provide key impulses behind drawing's recent resurgence.

Drawing Now: Eight Propositions

Laura Hoptman

Reference

The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Painter and sculptor George Condo (born 1957) has inhabited a broad swath of cultural contexts over his three-decade career, from the early-1980s East Village scene to a collaboration with William Burroughs to making album cover art for Phish and, most recently, Kanye West. Early in his career, Condo was friendly with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring and briefly worked at Andy Warhol's Factory. Having been included in the Whitney Biennial in 1987, by 2010 he was once again judged so original that a bronze sculpture of his was placed in that year's Biennial. Condo's loose, imaginative approach to portraiture has distinguished him throughout the decades: "There was a time when I realized that the central focal point of portraiture did not have to be representational in any way," he said in 1992. "You don't need to paint the body to show the truth about a character. All you need is the head and the hands." George Condo: Mental States surveys the artist's career from 1982 to the present day, focusing on his portrait paintings but also including a selection of sculptural busts made in materials such as gold and bronze. Organized by theme, and including 100 images of artworks in addition to writings by Will Self, David Means, Ralph Rugoff and Laura Hoptman, this volume explores Condo's relationship to art history, popular culture and contemporary society.

George Condo: Mental States

Arts & Photography

George Condo

Ralph Rugoff

WILL SELF

David Means

History & Criticism

Hayward Gallery Publishing

The simplicity of collage, together with its strong graphic presence, lent the medium a sense of revolutionary possibility when it was first adopted by avant-garde artists almost 100 years ago. During the twentieth century collage gradually became identified with such artistic practices as Cubism, Dada and Surrealism, and today it has gained new momentum as an energetic art form with a strong political dimension. This stunning book explores the role of collage in contemporary visual culture. Featuring the work of both established talents and a new generation of artists, it examines how collage is used to confront and comment on a world that is dominated by the mass media and obsessed with conspicuous consumerism. Includes the work of Thomas Hirschhorn, Kim Jones, Wangechi Mutu, Martha Rosler, Nancy Spero and John Stezaker.

Collage: The Unmonumental Picture

Richard Flood

Massimilliano Gioni

Other Media

Merrell Pub Ltd

During his lifetime Brion Gysin (19161986) inspired an array of artists, writers, poets and musicians, notably the Beat Generation. Since his death Gysin's own work has only increased in popularity, yet his radical approach to art defies categorization. Dream Machine is the first detailed study of Gysin's œuvre in both art-historical and contemporary contexts. A devotee of invention, Gysin created paintings, drawings, photo-collages, installations, poetry and sound experiments. He produced the cut-up collage novel The Third Mind (1965) with William Burroughs, and with Ian Sommerville developed the Dreamachine (1961), a kinetic sculpture designed to induce visions by playing flickering light on the closed eyes of the viewer. This exciting new book, featuring incisive texts, a photo essay, and appreciations by contemporary artists, captures the remarkable daring of an artistic visionary.

Brion Gysin: Dream Machine

Merrell Publishers

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Books by Laura Hoptman