Defining the Body: Contemporary Figuration on Paper August 1–November 1, 2015
Jonathan Borofsky, 2740152 [3], from the portfolio 2740475, 1982, screenprint on gray wove paper, edition 38/50, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Peter Blum Edition Archive, 1980–1994, Museum purchase funded by the Alice Pratt Brown Museum Fund. © Jonathan Borofsky
Eric Fischl, Year of the Drowned Dog, 1983, sugar-lift aquatint and soft-ground etching with scraping, drypoint, and roulette in colors on wove paper, edition III/X, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Peter Blum Edition Archive, 1980–1994, Museum purchase funded by the Alice Pratt Brown Museum Fund. © Eric Fischl
Louise Bourgeois, Ste Sebastienne, 1992, drypoint on wove paper, edition III/X, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Peter Blum Edition Archive, 1980–1994, Museum purchase funded by the Alice Pratt Brown Museum Fund. © Louise Bourgeois Trust
Alex Katz, 3 PM, 1988, woodcut on wove paper, edition VII/X, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Peter Blum Edition Archive, 1980–1994, Museum purchase funded by the Alice Pratt Brown Museum Fund. © Alex Katz
A. R. Penck (Ralph Winkler), Untitled, from the portfolio 8 Erfahrungen (8 Experiences), 1981, woodcut on wove paper, edition 7/50, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Peter Blum Edition Archive, 1980–1994, Museum purchase funded by the Alice Pratt Brown Museum Fund. © A. R. Penck
Lesley Dill, Black Thread Figure, 1995, scraping, collage, acrylic paint, charcoal, ink, and black-and-white thread on gelatin silver (D.O.P.) print, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Peter Blum Edition Archive, 1980–1994, Museum purchase funded by the Alice Pratt Brown Museum Fund. © Lesley Dill
Defining the Body: Contemporary Figuration on Paper reflects on the evolution, over the past 50 years, of the human form as a long-standing art-historical subject.
When artists need subjects for drawing the human form—nude or clothed, the entire body or certain parts—they look to their family members, friends, and self, as well as to models.
This exhibition comprises drawings and prints from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Examples of Realism by figurative artists of the 1960s and 1970s include the work of George Segal and Philip Pearlstein. Moving on to the Neo-Expressionist artists of the 1980s, Defining the Body features Francesco Clemente, Eric Fischl, and A. R. Penck. The installation concludes with later representations of identity by artists of the 1990s and beyond, such as Louise Bourgeois, Lorna Simpson, and Kiki Smith.
This exhibition is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.