by Drawing, Hockney and Eyre
David Hockney has talked to BBC News Online about drawing:
Drawing should be regarded as a major art form, artist David Hockney said as he launched the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition in London…Drawing has been neglected for the last 30 years in art education…. Despite long being seen as ‘almost irrelevant’, drawing is a vital part of every creative process…..drawings help us become critical of other images.
Read more on BBC.
My own firm belief is that drawing is a relevant and powerful medium in its own right. I also think that art education should include lots of drawing, especially from life, as it is also a strong foundation for all other art media. I feel sorry for young artists who are not taught much drawing in art schools today like it was when I went – too long ago – to the University of Manitoba School of Art. I drew as a child, grew up loving to draw and it was my favourite studio course, plus I had the pleasure and benefit of having a master draughtsman and a great Canadian artist for a teacher: Ivan Eyre. I later became attracted to printmaking because it was close to drawing; the greater part of my art work is in the printmaking media.
Here is what Ivan Eyre says about his drawings. View his paintings, drawings and prints at the National Gallery of Canada and the Mackenzie Art Gallery.
Thanks to MAeX Art Blog for the Hockney link.
June 6, 2004 in Being an Artist, Other artists by Marja-Leena
I couldn’t agree with you more about the value and relevance of drawing. It’s a basic human instict to draw. Sadly, most of us grow up no longer feeling able to do it, because we “can’t get it right.”
Apart from some life drawing in my first year at University, there was no encouragement to continue with it in the later years. Luckily, i’ve always drawn and kept on doing so, despite the coercion to move into video and photography instead.
Video and photography certainly are major “artforms” in contemporary exhibitions. I remember visiting one major contemporary art museum in Europe where almost the entire museum was devoted to this. I’m sure they are valid ways of expression, but I am disappointed when other media is excluded because it is old-fashioned.