On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century (The Museum of Modern Art, 2010) sets forth new critical ideas about a medium that has earned increasing interest in recent years. In the same sense that drawing crosses the boundaries between diverse artistic disciplines, Catherine de Zegher argues for its new status as an independent and interdependent medium. Though an analysis of “line” is a guiding and connecting principle, the book defines drawing as a philosophical model of relation and resistance, an open space of subjectivity formation in contemporary society. A balancing act between what can be considered the canonical definition of drawing as a unique work on paper and what is seen as the expanded field of drawing, de Zegher’s study will present the medium from multiple perspectives.
Catherine de Zegher was the Executive Director and Chief Curator of The Drawing Center in New York until last year and also served as Executive Editor of October Books. Her recent writing includes “Julie Mehretu’s Eruptive Lines of Flight as Ethos of Revolution,” published by Rizzoli’s in 2007, “Gego’s Traces of Traces,” published by the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston in 2006, and “Drawn to You,” published in the catalogue of the 2004 Whitney Biennial. She edited “Eva Hesse Drawing,” published by the Yale University Press/The Drawing Center in 2006, and Persistent Vestiges: Drawing from the American-Vietnam War, published by The Drawing Center in 2005. In 2006, she curated “Joelle Tuerlinckx: Drawing Inventory” at The Drawing Center, “Freeing the Line” at the Marian Goodman Gallery in New York, and “Eva Hesse Drawing” at the Menil Collection in Houston, The Drawing Center in New York, LAMoCA in Los Angeles, and The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. For the “Eva Hesse Drawing” exhibition she received the 2006 Award for Excellence from the Association of Art Museum Curators.