Spatial Awareness: Drawings from the Permanent Collection
Oct 29, 2021 – Mar 13, 2022
Menil Drawing Institute
Dorothea Rockburne, Rectangle, Square, from the series Vellum Curve, 1978. Vellum paper, varnish, and glue, 33 × 43 in. (83.8 × 109.4 cm). The Menil Collection, Houston, Bequest of William F. Stern. © Dorothea Rockburne / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Sam Gilliam, Untitled, 2019. Watercolor and acrylic on washi paper, 73 × 38 ½ in. (185.4 × 97.8 cm). The Menil Collection, Houston, Purchased in part with funds provided by The Brown Foundation, Inc. / Nancy Abendshein, and Caroline Huber. © Sam Gilliam / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Barry Le Va, Drawing Interruptions Blocked Structures #4, 1981. Mixed media on paper, 48 × 72 1/8 in. (122.1 × 183.4 cm). The Menil Collection, Houston, Bequest of William F. Stern. © Barry Le Va
Mel Kendrick, Gasket Drawing (bb), 2015. Carbon black pigment on cast paper, 14 × 10 ½ in. (35.6 × 26.7 cm). The Menil Collection, Houston, Purchased with funds provided by the William F. Stern Acquisitions Fund. © Mel Kendrick
Rick Lowe, Untitled, 2017. Ink and acrylic paint on printed paper, 35 ¾ × 24 in. (90.8 × 61 cm). The Menil Collection, Houston, Purchased with funds provided by the John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation. © Rick Lowe
Amy Sillman, Rome #1, 2014. Pastel and gouache on paper, 36 ¾ × 21 ½ in. (93.3 × 54.6 cm). The Menil Collection, Houston, Purchased with funds provided by the John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation. © Amy Sillman
This exhibition features drawings from the mid-20th century to the present that realize the age-old ambition of rendering space, often in unexpected ways. Works by Trisha Brown, Sol LeWitt, and Dorothea Rockburne, among others, present a range of approaches, including three-dimensional drawings that create physical space rather than represent it, works that foreground the body in motion through its physical traces, and drawings that render space through the clever use of line, illusion, voids, and transparency.
Spatial Awareness is curated by Saskia Verlaan, inaugural Menil Drawing Institute Pre-Doctoral Fellow.
This exhibition is generously supported by Clare Casademont and Michael Metz; John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation; Linda and George Kelly; Susanne and William E. Pritchard III; Leslie and Shannon Sasser; and the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.
