Motion on Paper

This exhibition is the first of its kind at Ben Brown Fine Arts on Cork Street. It assembles works on paper by a wide range of modern and contemporary artists. Drawings by famous and well-established figures such as Lucio Fontana, Lucian Freud and Andy Warhol are hung with sheets by younger and upcoming draftsmen like Aleksandra Mir, Peter Macdonald and Margarita Gluzberg. The title Motion on Paper reflects the show's focus on the handling of media and its varying effects in drawings.

The theme dates back to the Renaissance when a new freedom of expression arose from the increasing availability of paper and the replacement of the stylus (a drawing instrument with a metal point) with more flexible mediums, such as pen and ink or chalk. Compositions became more instinctive and less formulaic, and paper was regarded as a surface for invention, experimentation, and improvisation. The pivotal figure in this transition was Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), whose writings and drawings evidence his intense involvement with the creative act and his primary role in the invention of the sketch. Drawing was a spontaneous act for Leonardo, one which traced the movements of his mind on paper and set a precedent for draftsmen to come. In the words of the master, "the sketching out of the narratives should be rapid, and the arrangement of the limbs not too defined but merely confined to suggesting their disposition." [Treatise on Painting, about 1492]. After the sketch united drawing with the art of thinking on paper, artists increasingly exploited the tantalizing spatiality of the page.